. >>> let's hear what james bayes thinks. the u.s.audi relationship has detier rated to such an extent, can president obama repair it in such a short visit. >> let me answer that by taking you back almost 70 years to the current king of saudi's father when he met president roosevelt on a warship. that's when the basic deal was done. the u.s. were going to provide security guarantees for saudi arabia, in return they were going to provide barrels of oil and energy. that relationship has now begun to start to fray. the reason for that, well, the u.s. doesn't need saudi oil as much as it did in part because of the frac-ing in the u.s. and the saudis are not very happy about what the u.s. is doing particularly the talks going on with the p5 plus one, but also what is happening in syria. they wanted to see a much tougher approach to syria. >> saudi arabia still needs washington as far as security is concerned, however, it has issued a threat to begin to draw away from washington. does president obama actually care what the saudis think of u

. >>> live now to kuwait city, and james bayes who is there. e arab league's record for getting things done is hardly exemplary. what honestly can we expect from this summit? >> well, there's a lot of talk of unity here adrian, but i don't see this -- this unprecedented dispute that you have got between the gulf nations being solved at this particular summit. this is a dispute that relates to egypt, the muslim brotherhood, saudi arabia wants the muslim brotherhood banned, that escalated, and we saw saudi and others pull out their diplomats. mohammed morsi is of course now in a prison cell. we here the premier of qatar call for dialogue, but the egyptian go does not look like they are prepared to talk to the muslim brotherhood. we saw those death sentences, 528 of them, handed down. >> about what the issues not on the official agenda. the things that the arab leaders don't want to air in public? what will be happening on the sidelines of that summit? >> i think that's where the real business gets done. and there will be hard talk about that split

james bayes reports from the u.n. >> reporter: there have been repeated security council meetings on the central african republic over the last year. but the situation on the ground has just got worse and worse. now, for the first time, it seems there is a broad agreement on sending u.n. peace keepers, almost 12,000 troops and police. >> there will be no quick fix in the central african republic. sponding to the vases wi--spondg to the crisis will require resources. the scale of the needs is daunting. >> central african republic's foreign min sister made this plea: >> please. we need your help. if ywe delay it, it will be too late. we may lose the country. >> african peace keepers encourage in the country will form part of the u.n. force. a vote on a resolution to authorize the next won't take place for a matter of weeks and the new force won't assume control for about six months. >>reporter: >> one senior u.n. official who was there says what happens on the ground now is critical. >> many of the terrible scenes that people talk about, the cleansing of the muslim community being comp

james bayes, al jazeera with the united nations. >>> more from paris >> reporter: this is the first face-to-face meeting between top american and russian officials since things in ukraine and crimea took a dramatic turn for the worse over the weekend. there seems to be an enormous gulf in perception between washington and mock on you as to what is happening in crimea and the nature of events in kiev over the past few days, moscow saying that an illegal rebellion led by facists. americans with european leaders stressing its legitimacy. there is that huge gulf between them. on the other hand, as you heard sergei lavrov saying russia does not want bloodshed, the west saying they will treat russia as a partner on this issue. so there is scope for common ground and i guess events in paris over the next few hours will give us a pretty good sign as to whether the diplomatic tension is going to drag on or worsen within the or if there are the first chinks of light at the end of the tunnel. there's a way through with dye log? we don't know yet. >> the trial of three al jazeera journalists was resumed in