President Obama’s meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah tomorrow is expected to largely focus on Iran, but other topics are likely to include Egypt, Syria and of course the US-Saudi strategic partnership. US-Saudi relations have been tumultuous of late – making this meeting especially important – due to disagreements over US-Iranian negotiations, the lack of US military intervention in Syria and Washington’s Egyptian foreign policy.

Washington’s Saudi relationship is undergoing the deepest changes in decades as US domestic oil production increases and imports from Opec nations decrease.

“The global picture for Saudi Arabia has changed fundamentally as a result of the growth of unconventional oil in the U.S.,” said Valerie Marcel, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a think-tank in London. “Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf exporters are turning their attention eastward and that has an impact on how they see the West.” – As reported in Bloomberg Businessweek