SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good morning,
everyone. It is, as always, a pleasure to receive the prime minister
here at the State Department in Washington. Qatar has been an exceptional partner
for the United States, and today we’ll be having our strategic dialogue, going through
the many issues that we’re working on together, both on a bilateral basis, a regional basis, and
a global basis. And Qatar has been critical in the last few years in helping to get Americans
who are being arbitrarily detain
ed back home to their families in a whole variety of places. And
of course, they’ve been critical in helping to relocate so many of our Afghan partners who
stood with us for 20 years in Afghanistan, and now we’re trying to do right by them.
And our own strategic relationship has only grown stronger over the last few
years. We’ll be talking about that. But of course, most immediate and most urgent
on our minds and in our focus is the situation in Gaza. And here we have an opportunity for an
immediate ceasefire that can bring hostages home, that can dramatically increase the amount
of humanitarian assistance getting into Palestinians who so desperately need it, and
can also set the conditions for an enduring resolution. And it is on Hamas to make decisions
about whether it is prepared to engage in that ceasefire. But throughout – including the original
ceasefire that we were able to achieve last year that brought hostages home and created a week’s
quiet, humanitarian assistanc
e doubling during that time – Qatar played, along with Egypt, a
critical role in getting us to that point. And it continues to do so now, and I’m grateful
for that on behalf of the United States. It’s also urgent irrespective of a ceasefire to
dramatically increase the humanitarian assistance that’s getting to people inside of Gaza. The
situation for children, for women, for men who are caught in this crossfire of Hamas’s making
inside of Gaza is unacceptable and unsustainable. Israel has t
o maximize every possible means, every
possible method of getting assistance to people who need it. The United States will continue to
strongly support those efforts, along with many other countries around the world. But it requires
more crossings, it requires more aid getting in, and once that aid is in, it requires making sure
it can get to the people who need it. So we will continue to press that every single day, because
the situation as it stands is simply unacceptable. We have a lot t
o talk about, but again, I just
want to emphasize that for the United States, Qatar has been an exceptional partner.
We’re grateful for that partnership, and for the vital work that we’re
doing together every single day. My friend. PRIME MINISTER AL THANI: Well,
thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, for hosting me today in the sixth round of
our strategic dialogue. We’ve seen year after year the evolution in this relationship
and how it’s solidified our partnership. And Qatar always consider
U.S. as our
strongest ally and partner and friend. Thank you very much for all the work that
you put and invested in this relationship. And also, as you mentioned, our relationship
is ranging between – in a lot of fronts, whether it’s on the regional security,
on defense, on economic ties, and of course beyond that in all sectors. I’m glad
that our strategic dialogue this year will have also another added topics about emerging
technologies, about strategic policy planning, which is – in t
oday’s world it’s key to make
sure that our policies are aligned strategically and serving the greater good for our countries
and for the international peace and security. As you highlighted, Mr. Secretary, that the
situation that we are going through in the region right now, it’s unprecedented
with the turmoil happening everywhere, starting from the war in Gaza or the Red
Sea, Syria, (inaudible). And we’ve seen that just growing, and it’s becoming
very, very concerning for all of us. We t
hank you for all your support and partnership
throughout the process of the negotiations of bringing the hostages back and reaching a
ceasefire and alleviating the humanitarian situation in Gaza. I just wanted to reiterate in
front of you, Mr. Secretary, Qatar, the United States, and our partners will be always
persistent to make sure that this deal happens, despite whoever is trying to undermine the efforts
of bringing peace. We want to bring peace. We want to see an end of the humanitaria
n suffering; we
want to see the hostages back with their families. And hopefully today will present us an
opportunity to discuss further in details about the development on that front, on the bigger
picture, and of course ultimately hoping to reach a just solution for the Palestinian people also
to get their own state at the end of the day. I thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. Thank you for
being a great partner and a great friend as well. SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, thank you, my
friend. If
you’ll allow me one final thing that I wanted to share – we’ve also
seen, again, virtually every single day, attacks by the Houthis on shipping in
the Red Sea. A ship that they attacked has now sunk to the bottom and the result
of that is there’s a huge fuel slick from that ship. So that’s creating a
potential environmental disaster. At the same time, we’ve seen the Houthis
attack ships that are bringing food, grains to the people of Yemen, the very
people that the Houthis purport to in s
ome fashion represent. And of course,
it’s had a dramatic impact on shipping around the world. That’s going to have an
impact for a lot of people in higher food prices and energy prices. But in Yemen itself,
in the region itself, environmental disaster and a huge impact on the ability to get food to
people who so desperately need it in Yemen. So if the Houthis care at all about their
own standing, their own reputation, the way in which they’re seen by the world, they will
stop these attack
s and stop the terrible damage that it’s doing to people in the region, people
in Yemen, people around the world. Thank you.
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