"Your Royal Highness. Assalamu alaikum. I am very honored to be here and very, very grateful for His Royal Highness, Prince Saud Al-Faisal’s very generous welcome here. We had a superb dinner and meeting last night, and a meeting before that for some period of time with His Royal Highness the Foreign Minister, where we discussed all of the broad issues of the region and of importance to our countries.
This morning I had the privilege of having another meeting with the Crown Prince, with Minister of Defense Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud and we discussed again the extraordinary cooperation that takes place. And I said to both the Foreign Minister and to the Defense Minister that on almost every key issue of security and of mutual importance in the region, from Syria to the peace process, to the concerns we share about transitioning the economy of Egypt, to Yemen, to this region, we are working cooperatively in important ways. And the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is critical to both of our countries.
So we’re working side by side to combat violent extremism, to promote more robust trade, and to strengthen the ties between the American and the Saudi people. And His Royal Highness just mentioned the 70,000 students who are studying in America. I come here today to affirm the strength of this relationship and the importance of it going forward. We are committed to maintaining our strong economic relationship and to creating more jobs. On the drive over here, His Royal Highness talked to me about the numbers of young people and the need to provide jobs for them and the work that His Majesty the King and others are all doing in order to provide for a more diverse economy here in the region. We need to do this in both of our countries. We are also working to do that in America.
During this time of great political transition and uncertainty, we’re working together to promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Middle East and around the world. Across the Arab world, men and women have spoken out demanding their universal rights and greater opportunity. Some governments have responded with willingness to reform. Others, as in Syria, have responded with violence. So I want to recognize the Saudi Government for appointing 30 women to the Shura Council and promoting greater economic opportunity for women. Again, we talked about the number of women entering the workforce and the transition that is taking place in the Kingdom. We encourage further inclusive reforms to ensure that all citizens of the Kingdom ultimately enjoy their basic rights and their freedoms.
We discussed, as His Royal Highness has said, the importance of peace in the Middle East, and I pointed out that President Obama will be traveling shortly to Israel, to the region, and listening, opening up the opportunity and working to try to determine the way forward. We agree on the importance of that progress.
The Foreign Minister and I also discussed our shared determination to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And we both prefer – and this is important for Iranians to hear and to understand – we both prefer diplomacy as the first choice, as the preferred choice. But the window for a diplomatic solution simply cannot, by definition, remain open indefinitely. There is time to resolve this issue, providing that Iranians are prepared to engage seriously on the P-5+1’s most recent proposal.
We also discussed the urgent need to bring an end to the bloody civil war in Syria and to promote peaceful, inclusive transition, and provide the Syrian people with the safety, security, justice, and freedom that they deserve. The Foreign Minister could not have been more clear about the importance of this issue, the importance of this opportunity, and I make clear today that the United States will continue to work with our friends as we did in Rome to empower the Syrian opposition to be able to hopefully bring about a peaceful resolution, but if not, to continue to put pressure on Bashar Assad.
Finally, the Foreign Minister and I talked about our collaboration to support successful democratic transitions in Yemen, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, and to curb violent extremism and to discredit the false and dangerous message that al-Qaida is spreading. So I look forward to continuing to work with His Royal Highness. I can look forward, as President Obama does, to a continued strong relationship with the Kingdom, and we look forward and are grateful to the Kingdom for its important contribution to this relationship now."
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