It was also announced on Friday that Sheikh Muhammad, who is deputy commander of the UAE armed forces, will meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on April 26 to discuss "common strategic interests" in the Middle East. The announcement from the White House comes a week after the Sheikh Muhammad held talks in Abu Dhabi with the head of the US Central Command, Gen. James Mattis. Central Command is in charge of US military activity the Middle East and North Africa as well as central Asia. 
Two days prior to those talks, Sheikh Muhammad also met with Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon. According to the White House, their discussions centered on the UAE's role in the international civilian protection mission in Libya. The UAE and Qatar are the only Arab states to send warplanes for operations over Libya.
Donilon had flown in from Riyadh where he and  King Abdullah held talks on a broad range of shared strategic interests.