Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is due to meet with US President Barack Obama during his first visit to the White House this week.
The tour comes amid growing angst in the Middle East over how to handle ISIL, whose dominance has spread to Libya, as well as rising tensions between Egypt, a key US ally, and Qatar, which last week withdrew its ambassador to the country.
The leaders also are expected to discuss the oil price decline.
In a statement, the White House said: “The President looks forward to discussing with Sheikh Tamim political, economic, and security issues of mutual concern to our two countries.”
The Emir’s office has not released an official statement.
Qatar is home to the largest US air base in the Middle East and the two states have had long running diplomatic and economic ties.
Qatar was intended to host the Taliban’s headquarters, which would facilitate peace talks between Afghanistan and the US. The Taliban closed the office in July, 2013, over complaints of “broken promises” including the right to fly the flag of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” – what Afghanistan was called under Taliban rule.
On Thursday, the White House and a Taliban central spokesman denied a Reuters report that US officials were planning to meet with the Afghan Taliban in Doha.
Sheikh Tamim’s White House visit will be his third trip to the US since taking office in mid-2013.
In 2013, he spoke out against the suffering of the Palestinian people during an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
During a trip last year, he participated in an interview on CNN.
The last official White House visit between the leaders of the US and Qatar was in April 2013, less than two months before Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani ceded authority to his son, Doha News reported.
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