On the efforts of the Amir of the State of Kuwait to hold the Gulf Summit on time in Kuwait, Al-Jubeir pointed to the Kingdom's participation alongside the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain if the Qatari crisis continues, stressing that consultations are now underway among countries and will be announced. On the efforts exerted through the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council to exert influence on Iran, Tillerson stressed the importance of Iraq being able to stand on its own. "We seek to build the Iraqi economy and infrastructure to a large extent, and in this context we are working to strengthen the economic movement fully and as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques said today that Iraq can stand by itself but may face some external challenges such as the Iranian influence. He added that the Iranian militias in Iraq, which are fighting against the terrorist Daesh must return to their homeland and no justification for their presence in Iraq and it is now up to the Iraqi people to regain the initiative themselves in the liberated areas and allow the Iraqi people to regain life and build it in cooperation with neighboring countries, and the talk here is about coordination council which is of great importance for coordination in this area, and this will strengthen relations between Iraq and the rest of the Arab countries. In the same context, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said, "The Kingdom and Iraq have geographical, economic and social ties as well as a strong neighborly relationship and common aspirations." He added, "It is important that these two countries have the greatest influence in determining future directions." He mentioned that Iraq had lived under the rule of the radical Ba'ath party, Iraq waged more than a war as well as the war launched against Kuwait at the beginning of the last century and now after a decade, Iraq must regain what it lost in the economy. He stressed the importance of benefiting from the social ties and the common assets that bind the two countries and the relations rooted in history, and seeking through this council to work on building the best relations that will pave the way for the future and work together in cooperation with the United States. In this context, we look forward to the development of bilateral relations between the Kingdom and Iraq in various fields and to the promotion of relations to higher levels to be a part of our common history. --SPA 22:39 LOCAL TIME 19:39 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w518304