CAMP DAVID — US President Barack Obama on Thursday hailed the deep-rooted partnership with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and expressed his thanks to the GCC leaders and heads of delegations for their participation in the Camp David summit meetings, describing the talks as fruitful. In an improvised speech at the conclusion of Camp David summit meetings, he said 'GCC Arab States are our closest allies, and they live in a region experiencing changes and facing major challenges.' He added, 'But fortunately because of the depth of the relations, cooperation and partnership that we have concluded between us, we were able to strengthen each other to counter terrorism, and to deal with some issues such as the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to address problems related to the conflicts that cause a lot of misery and suffering to many peoples.' Obama further said 'Our discussions were frank and lengthy, and they addressed the negotiations between the Group 5 +1 and Iran and the opportunities and possibilities that may confirm to us that Iran won't have a nuclear weapon, and the region won't have a nuclear arms race. We also expressed our concerns about what Iran is doing to destabilize, and we talked about our cooperation to address these problems in a spirit of cooperation so that we can reach the peace that can be enjoyed by GCC Arab States with its neighbor Iran and this is what we aspire to, as we discussed the crisis in Syria, the situation in Yemen, the extremism and violence, and what can we do in countering Daesh organization.' 'I was frank in reading the final communique and said that the United States will stand with the GCC Arab States and will work on ways to strengthen the existing cooperation between us in the context of facing many challenges in the region.' President Obama said: There is a hard work ahead of us in the wake of this summit, as shown in the final statement.” He said: “We would like to emphasize that this summit is a series of practical and studied steps that would make our people safer, and I would like to thank all GCC leaders here as well as the GCC secretary general, and I thank the leaders for their friendship and commitment to work with the United States.” For his part, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad, Emir of Qatar thanked the US president, saying that the Camp David summit meeting was fruitful and there was transparency in asking questions. — SPA
