The President: Well, I want
to welcome His Highness,
the Amir of Qatar, for his first
visit to the Oval Office
in his current position.
The United States and Qatar
have a very strong
security relationship.
They are hosts to our
men and women in uniform.
They are partners with us
on a whole range
of security initiatives.
And we also have an
extraordinary set of ties that
are commercial, educational,
scientific, technological.
And those benefit Qatar, they
benefit the United States.
They create jobs
in both countries.
And Qatar is a major investor
here in the United States,
as well.
We've had a wide-ranging
conversation
on a host of regional issues.
Qatar is a strong partner in
our coalition to degrade
and ultimately defeat ISIL.
And I expressed my appreciation
to His Highness for the work
that they've done in
coordinating with other members
of this coalition.
We are both committed to making
sure that ISIL is defeated.
We're both committed to making
sure that in Iraq there
is an opportunity for all people
in that country --
Sunni, Shia and Kurd -- to
live together in peace.
We both are deeply concerned
about the situation in Syria.
We'll continue to support the
moderate opposition there, and
continue to believe that it
will not be possible to fully
stabilize that country until
Mr. Assad, who has lost
legitimacy in the country,
is transitioned out.
How we get there obviously
is a source of extraordinary
challenge, and we shared ideas
in terms of how that
can be accomplished.
We also had an opportunity to
discuss a wide range of other
areas where there's significant
turmoil -- Libya, Yemen.
And I think had a significant
meeting of the minds in our
shared belief that the more
that we can work with all the
countries in the region to try
to find political solutions
to problems, the more that we
can reduce sectarian tensions
in the regions and isolate violent extremists,
the more effective we can be.
And we also had a very useful
discussion around Iran and the
negotiations that are currently
taking place to try to reduce
the possibility of Iran
obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Those negotiations are ongoing.
I gave the Amir an update and
assured him that our goal here
is to be able to verify that
Iran does not have a nuclear
weapon, and that we will
continue to press Iran on some
of its other actions in the
region that often have
a destabilizing effect,
recognizing, however,
that we would greatly prefer
to be able resolve many
of these issues diplomatically.
And I know that Doha
shares the same view.
So, overall, I want to say
that this was an excellent
conversation, and I think
His Highness has a deeper
understanding of the United
States' concerns around these
issues and our interests.
I emphasized to him that
ultimately what the United
States wants to see for all of
the Middle East and all of North
Africa is circumstances in which
peace and security prevail,
and that people --
particularly young people --
have the opportunity to
learn, to get educated,
and to succeed in this
modern economy.
Qatar is an extraordinary
example of that, partly because
it's been blessed by natural
resources, but also because it's
made good decisions about
how to develop its economy.
And hopefully that kind of
prosperity can be spread more
widely in the years to come,
and I look forward
to being a partner with
Qatar in making that happen.
So, Your Highness,
thank you very much.
Welcome. 
Hold on a sec.
Amir Tamim: In
Arabic or English?
The President:
Whatever you prefer.
Amir Tamim: Mr. President,
thank you very much for having
me at the White House. I'm very
happy to be here.
I'm not going to repeat what you
said, Mr. President, but things
that I really want to say is
how important the relationship
between Qatar and the
United States of America,
and how to develop the strategic
relations that we have.
You mentioned that we have a
strong relation in military
and security, and also we
have an excellent relation
in education, as well, and other
things as well.
As we mentioned before, we
are investing in this country.
We believe in the
economy of this country
and the future of this country.
So this is something very
important, as well, for us.
We are all concerned on
what's going on in our region.
You mentioned the countries
that we spoke about.
Yes, we are concerned about it
-- we are concerned, as well,
about the terrorist
groups in our region.
I think we all share the same
view, the reason why those
terrorist groups are
growing in our region.
And we have to make sure that
to solve this problem we are all
fighting terrorism -- and it's a
must -- is to make sure that
the reason why this happened
doesn't happen again,
because it happened years ago
and it's happening again now.
We mentioned about the situation
in Palestine, and about the
peace process and what is
the best for Palestine.
And it is the important subject
in the Middle East, and we have
to find a solution
for Palestine.
And I'm happy to learn and to
hear from you, President, that
you are committed to find this
peace process in Palestine.
I don't want to take --
you mentioned everything,
Mr. President, so
thank you very much.
I'm very happy to be here, sir.
The President:
Thank you so much.
Thank you everybody. 
