President Obama is in Saudi Arabia today at the start of a Middle East tour. Obama will meet with Saudi King Abdullah before going on to Egypt for a much-anticipated speech in Cairo on Thursday. Ahead of his departure, Obama played down expectations for the trip.

President Obama: “I think it’s very important to understand that one speech is not going to solve all the problems of the Middle East. And so, I think expectations should be somewhat modest. What I want to do is to create a better dialog so that the Muslim world understands more effectively how the United States, but also how the West, thinks about many of these difficult issues, like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for what’s happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

Obama will reportedly ask King Abdullah to push for further overtures toward normalizing relations with Israel. The Saudi government spearheaded the 2002 Arab League peace initiative that offers Israel full peace in return for its complete withdrawal from the Occupied Territories and the creation of a Palestinian state there. Meanwhile, Obama has said he will limit criticism of the Saudi and Egyptian governments’ human rights records, calling Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a “force for stability and good” in the Middle East.