President Obama Obama and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates met Monday in the Oval Office and discussed U.S. and other world leaders’ negotiations with Iran to wind back its nuclear program, but the White House offered few details about the exchange.
Obama made no statements when reporters and photographers joined him in the Oval Office to record the meeting, and afterward the White House offered a vague statement about the topics that were discussed.
The president and the crown prince, the statement said, discussed “a range of regional and bilateral issues, and consulted on how best to deepen our cooperation in areas of shared interest.”
“The president and the crown prince also discussed a range of regional challenges, including the ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Syria; and efforts to reach a long-term, comprehensive deal between the P5+1 and Iran to ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon,” the White House statement said, noting that the two leaders also talked about the upcoming meetings at the White House and Camp David with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders. (“P5+1” refers to the five United Nations Security Council countries — the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China — and Germany, which are negotiating as a group with Iran.)
Last week, the Saudi ambassador to Bahrain said in an interview that GCC leaders plan to tell Obama at the May summit that if they don’t like the Iran deal they will actively oppose it. Members of the GCC include Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
A campaign by the Saudis, UAE and other GCC countries could seriously undermine the credibility of a prospective nuclear deal with Iran, and the White House is making sure to let the UAE and other U.S. allies know how much the administration values the relationship ahead of the final negotiations.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Monday said Obama planned to tell the crown prince that he continues to believe that ongoing diplomacy is the best way “by far” of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
He also said the discussion, which was taking place during Earnest’s briefing with reporters, would include a “pretty robust discussion of our ongoing cooperation when it comes to our security efforts.”
“The UAE has been a stalwart partner in this coalition to take the fight to ISIL,” Earnest said. “And they’ve made important contributions in a variety of areas.”
