The Kuwaiti emir will visit Donald Trump next month to discuss the Qatar crisis, in which Sheikh Sabah has been leading mediation efforts.

The trip to Washington on September 6 will be Sheikh Sabah’s fourth since he became the emir in 2006, and comes as the US administration is throwing its weight behind Kuwait’s mediation in the “intra-GCC political dispute,” Lawrence Silverman, the US Ambassador to the country, said.

The emir’s visit is a result of discussions between Sheikh Sabah and Mr Trump in February, and during the Riyadh Summit in May, Mr Silverman said.

“That was the genesis of the idea of having His Highness visit Washington and focus on the bilateral relationship, but of course also on regional issues that concern both of us.

Washington has recently further supported Kuwait’s mediation by sending the former Centcomm commander, Anthony Zinni, to tour the region in an attempt to resolve the dispute.

“We want to see an end to this dispute as quickly as possible, for the sake of the region,” Mr Silverman told the Kuwait state news agency Kuna on the heels of Mr Zinni’s visit to Kuwait.

This is Zinni’s first leg of a tour that will also take him to Jeddah, Manama, the UAE and Cairo in addition to Doha.

Source: thenational.ae