WASHINGTON - The United States hasn’t yet persuaded Saudi Arabia, the Sunni power broker in the Middle East and a close U.S. ally, that it should support Iraq’s Shiite-led government, a senior State Department official said Friday.

It’s an uphill fight.

“We believe the Saudis would best advance their and our interests … were they to be constructively engaged” in helping the elected Iraqi government succeed, said David Satterfield, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s top adviser for Iraq.

Asked whether the administration has succeeded in that lobbying effort, Satterfield gave a half smile and said, “We continue to make the point to them, for their own sake.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Satterfield also said the United States is certain that radical Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is still living next door in Iran. That contradicts aides to the anti-American religious and political leader.

“We know he’s out of the country, we don’t (merely) think” so, Satterfield said. “He’s in Iran, which is where he has been since mid-January.”

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