US Secretary of State arrives in Saudi Arabia
Shafaq News/ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Saudi Arabia on Monday, marking his first stop in a broader Middle East tour.
He is expected to meet with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
According to senior US officials, the visit aims to advance negotiations on a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, as well as to make progress on discussions for the governance of postwar Gaza.
Blinken's visit, his fifth to the region since Hamas' attack on October 7, comes at a precarious moment, with retaliatory US strikes on Iran-backed forces across Syria, Iraq, and Yemen in response to a drone attack last week in Jordan that killed three American troops and wounded dozens.
This week, the top US diplomat will visit Egypt, Qatar, and Israel, advancing conversation regarding the hostage issue and the mediation moderated by Egypt and Qatar to the hostage deal.
The visit is to "deliver a message directly to countries in the region that the United States does not want to see the conflict intensified and will not intensify the conflict." The US senior official said.
