RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA, AND WASHINGTON — Just as President Obama arrived in the Middle East on Wednesday to deliver his long-planned appeal for mutual understanding, the Arab world heard from a competing voice: Osama bin Laden, accusing the American president via audiotape of sowing hatred.
The attempt by Al Qaeda's leader to undercut Obama's speech to Muslims today served as a reminder of the hurdles still confronting the United States in the region and of the size of the task facing the president as he works to "reset" U.S. ties with Muslim countries.
But the bid for attention also suggested that leaders of the terrorist organization, who have grappled with recent criticism from former followers and from Muslims disaffected by their tactics, may fear an erosion of support for their positions as Obama's popularity grows in Arab countries.
Separate audiotapes of words purportedly spoken by Bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, were aired by the Arabic-language Al Jazeera satellite television channel as Obama was arriving in Saudi Arabia a day before his scheduled speech in Cairo.
The White House saw the tapes as a likely attempt by Al Qaeda's leaders to undercut Obama's mission and to disrupt the message of conciliation and trust he wants to convey.
"I don't think it's surprising that Al Qaeda would want to shift attention away from the president's historic efforts . . . to reach out and have an open dialogue with the Muslim world," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's press secretary, as the president was meeting privately with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
U.S. officials said they could not verify the tapes' authenticity. They said that they were "assuming" the speakers actually were Bin Laden and Zawahiri, and that the militant leaders had intended their statements to coincide with Obama's arrival.
"I don't think the timing is a coincidence," said Philip J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman.
Bin Laden, part of a Saudi family that built royal palaces and gained enormous wealth in construction, became involved in the militant movement during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. After returning to Saudi Arabia, he was confined to house arrest, and left the country in the early 1990s, his Saudi citizenship publicly revoked in 1994.
Bin Laden last surfaced via audiotape in March and, before that, in January.
