RIYADH, Saudi Arabia
United States Secretary of
State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the first stop in a
broader trip to the Middle East to discuss issues including the governance of
Gaza once the war with Israel ends.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is welcomed by Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director of Protocol Affairs Mohammed Al-Ghamdi as he visits Saudi Arabia in the latest Gaza diplomacy push, in Riyadh on April 29, 2024.
The top US diplomat heads to
Israel later this week, where he is expected to press Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to take the concrete and tangible steps US President Joe
Biden demanded this month to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
In Riyadh, Blinken is expected
to meet with senior Saudi leaders and hold a wider meeting with counterparts
from five Arab states – Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates
and Jordan – to further the discussions on what governance of the Gaza Strip
would look like after the war, according to a senior State Department official.
Blinken is also expected to
bring together Arab countries with the European states and discuss how Europe
can help the rebuilding effort of the tiny enclave, which has been reduced to a
wasteland in the six-month long Israeli bombardment.
A group of European nations,
including Norway, plan to recognise Palestinian statehood in conjunction with
the presentation of an Arab state-backed peace plan to the United Nations.
“We can see by joining forces
we can make this more meaningful. We really want to recognise the Palestinian
state, but we know that is something you do once,” Norwegian Foreign Minister
Espen Barth Eide told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum
meeting in Riyadh.
Blinkin's trip comes as Egypt
was expected to host leaders of the Islamist group Hamas to discuss prospects
for a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
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