President Barack Obama and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan are talking about Middle Eastern security issues, especially how to reach a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear weapons development, Bloomberg agency reported on Monday.
"This is obviously an issue of significant concern to a country like the United Arab Emirates," Earnest told reporters Monday as Obama and Al Nahyan were talking over lunch at the White House.
The leaders' agenda also includes defense cooperation, climate change, Islamic State, and the conflicts in Yemen, Libya and Syria, according to the White House announcement of the meeting. The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is part of the U.S.- led coalition fighting Islamic State extremists in Syria and hosts U.S. military forces at the Al Dhafra air base. The U.A.E. has carried out airstrikes. Abu Dhabi is one of the seven emirates that make up the U.A.E.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was forced to call Al Nahyan in October after he suggested in comments at Harvard University that the U.A.E. was among the countries that had helped spread Islamic extremism in Syria.
The U.S. and the Middle Eastern coalition members have had an uneasy partnership in waging battle against Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for its first bombing in Afghanistan on Saturday. The explosion killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100 outside a bank in Jalalabad.
The discussion will also include ways to restore stability in Yemen and Libya, where hundreds of migrants drowned off the coast on Saturday and violence threatens to disrupt the oil supply. Obama said in a press conference on Friday that he wants to keep Libya from becoming a "safe haven for terrorists" and called on Middle Eastern countries to help with that goal.
Obama met with Al Nahyan ahead of a meeting next month with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Six Arab countries, including the U.A.E., belong to the council. Obama will meet with GCC leaders on May 14 at Camp David.