US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met this Sunday in Riyadh with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, a country that has suspended discussions on possible normalization with Israel amid a war with the Palestinian Hamas.
Blinken has been traveling through the region since the Islamist movement, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 this month, sparking a war against the Palestinian territory.
The head of US diplomacy met for more than an hour with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the royal residence near Riyadh, a US official told AFP, describing the meeting as “very productive” but without to provide details.
The violence between Israel and Hamas has left thousands dead on both sides.
According to the Saudi news agency SPA, in the presence of the US Secretary of State, Bin Salman rejected “any form” of an attack targeting the civilian population and asked Blinken to support efforts to end the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip and stopping the escalation of the Gaza Strip. violence.
Bin Salman, de facto ruler of the Arab kingdom, stressed that work must be done “to ensure that international humanitarian law is respected” in order to return “to stability and the restoration of the path of peace that respects the right of the Palestinians guarantees a sustainable future’. and comprehensive peace,” SPA reported.
The Saudi crown prince also condemned any “disabling of vital infrastructures and interests that affect daily life,” a reference to both Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza and Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israeli territory, which fueled the escalation of violence brought about.
The note made no mention of whether the meeting, which took place behind closed doors, concerned political rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, one of the central objectives of US diplomacy in the area and the destruction of which is widely feared by many. has been interpreted as one of the most important objectives. targets of Hamas’ attack.
Last September, Mohammed bin Salman reported progress in talks on a possible US-sponsored normalization with Israel, but a source close to the Saudi government said on Saturday that the talks had been suspended.
The Gulf kingdom, guardian of Islam’s first holiest sites, has never recognized Israel and has not joined the US-brokered 2020 Abraham Accords, which allowed neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Morocco, to establish diplomatic ties with could concern Israel.
Bin Salman has been pressured by the US government in recent months to do the same, with Riyadh demanding security guarantees from Washington and in return help developing a civilian nuclear program.
After a solidarity visit to Israel, the head of North American diplomacy began a tour of six Arab countries on Thursday with the specific aim of putting pressure on Hamas to prevent the spread of the conflict in the region.
After Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Blinken today travels to Egypt, an important mediator between Israel and Hamas.
A US government source told France-Presse (AFP) news agency on Saturday that Cairo had been working on an agreement that would allow US citizens to leave the Gaza Strip, but that Hamas prevented them from going to the only border crossing. , on the border with Rafah.
The Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel last Saturday with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of armed militiamen by land, sea and air.
In response, Israel bombed several Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip from the air and imposed a total siege of the territory, cutting off water, fuel and electricity supplies.
The attacks have already caused thousands of deaths and injuries in both areas.
Source: DN
