Call with US President and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince
The Prime Minister has spoken to President Obama and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayad Al Nahyan today.
A Number 10 spokesperson said:
Call with President Obama:
“President Obama called the Prime Minister to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine and Russia’s response. Both leaders welcomed the efforts taken by President Poroshenko to establish a ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine. They noted that while President Putin had called on the separatists to accept the ceasefire, we had yet to see concrete action from Russia to halt the flow of weapons across the Ukrainian border and to stop Russian training of separatist groups. This is what the G7 had called on Russia to do and they reaffirmed their commitment to implementing further sanctions on Russia if these things don’t happen. The Prime Minister noted that he would discuss this issue with other European leaders at the European Council and would press for preparatory work on such sanctions to continue.
“They also discussed the situation in Iraq and the grave threat posed by ISIL to the national security of both the United Kingdom and the United States. They both agreed that the Iraqi government needs to pursue a more inclusive approach that engages Sunni, Shi’a and Kurdish communities. They also agreed on the need for the Iraqi security forces to prevent further ISIL advances and the PM welcomed the President’s decision to send up to an additional 300 US military advisors to assess how the US can best support the efforts of Iraqi forces. In the longer term, they agreed that we would need to work with partners in the region to tackle the threat from ISIL in the region.”
Call with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi:
“The Prime Minister called the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayad Al Nahyan to welcome today’s Emirati investment into housing in Manchester. The PM said that he hoped that the UAE would make more substantial investments in Britain in the near future, given all the opportunities on offer. Both leaders agreed that their respective Ministers should take this work forward.
“They also discussed the political and security situation in the Middle East region. Both leaders agreed that the ISIL onslaught in Iraq was of huge concern and that the Iraqi government needs to adopt a more inclusive approach. On Syria, they reaffirmed their support for the moderate opposition. The PM also raised the need for countries to work together to counter radicalisation and to deal with the growing terror threat posed by Islamic extremism.
“They touched on the situation in Egypt and the PM made clear his concern over the sentencing of Al Jazeera journalists and wider crackdown on freedom of expression. On Libya, both leaders agreed on the urgent need to find a political solution and the PM updated the Crown Prince on the work that the UK was doing to train Libyan troops and to broker a political solution through UK envoy, Jonathan Powell and his US counterpart David Satterfield.”