W.H. Refuses to Say Whether Saudi King Not Attending Obama’s Summit Is a ‘Snub’

PICKLER: "Is it safe to assume since your deputy announced the visit on Friday that he had formally accepted the invitation at one point?"

EARNEST: "Yes, that is true."

PICKLER: "Does the White House consider this of snob of any kind, or how do you interpret this then?"

EARNEST: "Well, again, for the reasons that king changed his travel plans, I would refer you to the Saudi Arabia. What I am confident they will tell you is that the travel plans are completely unrelated to the agenda that is planned for Camp David. And again, that is based on the private conversations that the secretary of the state has had with the king himself and with the other senior officials in Saudi Arabia, both in Riyadh and in Paris. That's evident from the public statements that we have seen from senior members of the Saudi Arabia national security team so far. We continue to be confident that the senior officials who will be representing the interests of Saudi Arabia at the meeting will be able to -- are empowered to not just represent the views of Saudi Arabia in the meeting, but also to implement any decisions that are made in the context of the meeting. So, the point is, the president wanted to convene a discussion with our GCC partners with the goal of modernizing and deepening our security cooperation with them. I will point that these GCC members consider the security cooperation that they have with the United States as integral to their own country's national security. So it is in the interest of these countries to send senior members of their national security team who can represent the views of their country and ensure that they live up to any commitments that they make in the context of the meeting. Based on the list of the attendees that we have seen so far, we are confident that that will occur."