U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, his first stop in a wider tour of the Middle East as Washington tries to advance negotiations on a normalization deal between the Kingdom and Israel as well as make progress on talks for the governance of postwar Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards a plane, en route to Saudi Arabia, Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, his first stop in a wider tour of the Middle East as Washington tries to advance negotiations on a normalization deal between the Kingdom and Israel as well as make progress on talks for the governance of postwar Gaza.
The top U.S. diplomat’s fifth trip to the region since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack comes at a perilous moment and amid retaliatory U.S. strikes on Iran-backed militia across Syria, Iraq and Yemen in response to a drone strike last week in Jordan that killed three American troops and wounded dozens.
Blinken is also set to visit Egypt, Qatar and Israel later this week and push to advance the Egyptian- and Qatari-mediated conversations with Hamas to achieve a hostage deal.
In Riyadh, Blinken was expected to meet with the Kingdom’s de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as his Saudi counterpart, foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the military would never fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip for security reasons and that a civilian-military army unit would be established in the Palestinian enclave.
Two vessels from CMA CGM, the world's third-largest container shipping line, have travelled through the Suez Canal, the authority that runs the waterway said on Tuesday, in a sign the disruptions linked to the Gaza war could be easing.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, met on Monday with Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi, FM of Oman, to review bilateral relations and discuss regional and international developments.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.