Washington (CNN) Saudi
Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will no longer be in
attendance at President Barack Obama’s meetings with Arab leaders from
the Gulf Cooperation Council this week.
The late change of plans, could be seen as
a snub to Obama, coming just four days before the start of two days of
sessions beginning Wednesday and culminating in a Camp David summit on
Thursday.
“We first learned of the King’s possible
change of plans from the Saudis on Friday night,” said a senior
administration official. “This was confirmed by the Saudis on Saturday.
We coordinated closely with our Saudi partners on the alternate
arrangement and timing of the announcement, and look forward to
welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman.”
The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in a
statement acknowledged the King’s absence was “due to the timing of the
summit, the scheduled humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen and the opening of
the King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid.”
Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition
launching air strikes against the Houthi rebels which have gained
control of much of Yemen.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayed will now
lead the Saudi delegation in his place, which will also include Deputy
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The shuffle comes after the White House
announced on Friday that the King would not only be in attendance but
would also have a one-on-one meeting with Obama.
On Friday, White House deputy press
secretary Eric Schultz told reporters King Salman was to meet with the
President on Wednesday at the White House, ahead of an expanded dinner
with the other leaders of the Gulf states.
The White House is downplaying the significance of the change.
A senior administration official told CNN
the White House was aware of the King’s change of plans in advance and
doesn’t think it’s because of any substantive disagreement.
“We look forward to the attendance of
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, with whom the President has met on
several occasions, including in the Oval Office in December 2014 and
January 2013, as well as Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who
the President met when he traveled to Riyadh in January,” the senior
administration official said.
In April, Obama revealed his intention to
invite the Gulf Cooperation Council states to a summit the day the
framework nuclear deal with Iran was announced as the administration
tries to ease the concerns of those countries over the agreement with
Tehran.
“When it comes to external aggression, I
think we’re going to be there for our (Arab) friends — and I want to see
how we can formalize that a little bit more than we currently have, and
also help build their capacity so that they feel more confident about
their ability to protect themselves from external aggression,” the
President told The New York Times in an interview last month.
Building up that common defense
infrastructure and architecture for the Gulf region will be a key part
of this week’s summit, an administration official told CNN.
The summit is set to work towards a
proposal for a common ballistic missile defense system that could act as
a deterrent to a potentially nuclear armed Iran, a U.S. official
confirmed to CNN.
The official said the goal would be for
the Gulf states to operate the missile defense system themselves, with
the U.S. providing advisory and technical support.
A ballistic missile defense system for the
Gulf Cooperation Council is something the Obama administration has
recommended for some time, the official noted, and also cautioned that
missile defense is only one component of a range of security measures
that will be discussed.
Just last Thursday, Secretary of State
John Kerry met with King Salman in the Saudi capital Riyadh to prepare
for the GCC Summit and to discuss a ceasefire in Yemen. The next day in
Paris the Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister, Adel Al Jubeir, announced a
five-day ceasefire beginning Tuesday in Yemen so humanitarian aid could
be distributed.
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