FOREIGN MINISTER BIN ZAYED AL NAHYAN: It’s a great honor for myself to have Secretary
of State of the United States, my friend, John Kerry, to the UAE, and it was wonderful
to join him on a tour in Sheikh Zayed Mosque. But this morning we had a very fruitful meeting
with Sheikh Mohammed, and we very much rely on the Secretary’s friendship and the strong
relationship between the UAE and the United States. So welcome.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. First of all, let me just – I want to thank Sheikh Mohammed
bin Zayed, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed for a very warm welcome
here today. I want to thank them for the privilege of visiting this remarkable mosque, the bin
Zayed Mosque, the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, which is one of the great mosques of the world,
and for my money one of the truly most beautiful mosques that I’ve had the privilege of visiting.
It’s an extraordinary architecture and a great tribute to Islam and to this country.
And I congratulate them on this remarkable accomplishment, built in nine years starting
in 1995, and it really is quite amazing.
I’m very grateful to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed for his welcome today and for the time
we spent on some very serious conversations about the situation throughout the Middle
East. We respect what United Arab Emirates has been able to do to be able to accomplish
significant progress in Yemen. We understand completely and support the reasons that Saudi
Arabia and the UAE felt compelled to take acts of self-defense and to protect the security
of this region. And I know that the UAE has made sacrifices in that effort. We understand
those sacrifices in the United States, and we respect what has been achieved, and we
respect the values that the UAE is standing up for.
We also talked very seriously today about Libya, and we are committed to taking steps
in the next weeks, months to try to address that situation. And I thank the UAE for their
commitment to trying to make sure that radical religious extremism is pushed back in favor
of a broad-based, tolerant, secular governance which allows the people of Libya to be able
to choose their future – not at the barrel of a gun, but through a peaceful process.
And finally, we obviously talked very seriously about Syria. We are deeply committed to trying
to achieve a ceasefire and a political process. We want the violence to stop, and there again
we want a secular Syria in which the people of Syria choose their future.
So we agreed today on a number of things that we will work on specifically to try to accelerate
the defeat of Daesh and to bring about the peace and stability that the region wants.
So again, a profound thank you to my friend and my colleague Sheikh Abdullah, who works
very closely on all of these issues. We’re very, very grateful for the support of the
UAE and all of its leadership. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER BIN ZAYED AL NAHYAN: We are honored. Thank you.