WASHINGTON: The rulers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have dropped out of a White House summit planned at Camp David this week.

Officials in Washington confirmed that the kingdoms are sending deputies instead.

In a statement released to the US media on Monday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, will head the country’s delegation to the Camp David summit. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will also take part in the summit.

“The US-GCC summit will be coinciding with the humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen,” the statement said.

“There is also the opening of the King Salman Relief and Humanitarian Action Center,” said Mr Jubeir, who was the Saudi envoy in Washington before he was elevated to his new job.

US officials told various media outlets in Washington that they did not see Saudi King Salman’s decision to skip the summit, which included a separate meeting with President Obama, as a snub.

The summit aims at offering security guarantees to the member states of the Gulf Security Council that a nuclear deal with Iran would not weaken their position in the region.

The New York Times quoted a senior Obama administration official as saying that King Salman was expected to explain his decision during a telephone call with President Obama.

The Times reported that when the king met Secretary of State John Kerry in Riyadh last week,

he indicated that he was looking forward to coming to the meeting.

But on Friday night, after the White House put out a statement saying Mr Obama would be meeting King Salman in Washington, administration officials received a call from the Saudi foreign minister that the king would not be coming after all.

Earlier, at a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the White House was not taking Saudi King Salman’s decision as a snub.

He said that if the schedule change was intended to send a message to the White House, the “message was not received.”

Mr Earnest said the Saudi King had formally accepted the invitation to meet with President Obama ahead of the summit.

But The Washington Post observed that the Saudi announcement “represented an abrupt about-face and came as a surprise after Secretary Kerry was assured of the king’s attendance when he met with Saudi officials last week in Riyadh and Paris.”

A senior State Department official told the Post that the king’s decision to stay home was not a brushoff.

“There is zero tension,” the official said. “Our understanding is that the Saudis and other GCC leaders are quite pleased with US positions and the substance of Camp David, including any assistance we are going to provide.”

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2015

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