US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Riyadh on Sunday with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who has suspended talks on possible normalization with Israel amid the war with the Palestinian Hamas.
The American diplomatic chief began a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shortly after 7:30 a.m. (4:30 GMT), an American official told AFP.
Antony Blinken has been traveling the region since a commando of Gaza’s ruling Islamist movement carried out an unprecedented attack in Israel on October 7, sparking a deadly war against the Palestinian territory.
The violence claimed thousands of lives on both sides.
Last month, Prince Mohammed bin Salman reported progress in U.S.-sponsored talks on possible normalization with Israel, but a source close to the government said on Saturday that the talks had been put on hold.
The Gulf kingdom, custodian of Islam’s first holiest sites, has never recognized Israel and did not join the United States-brokered 2020 Abraham Accords, which allowed its neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Morocco, to establish official relations with Israel.
In recent months he has been pressured by the American government to do the same, with Riyadh demanding security guarantees from Washington and support in developing a civilian nuclear program in return.
After a solidarity visit to Israel on Thursday, the American diplomatic chief began a tour of Arab countries that also took him to Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.