A. Blinken, who will later visit Jordan and Israel, will meet in the capital of Saudi Arabia with the foreign ministers of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region and Europe regarding plans for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after the war, said a State Department official.
Blinken is expected to hold new talks with the Saudi leadership on a possible normalization of the kingdom’s relations with Israel, a US State Department spokesman said.
Saudi Arabia, which is the custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites, considered the possibility before the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas carried out the deadliest attack in Israel on October 7.
The United States had hoped that the prospect of normalizing relations would encourage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long opposed the Palestinian statehood drive, to moderate.
In Riyadh, A. Blinken will also meet with several foreign ministers of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region and Europe, who have arrived for the World Economic Forum meeting and the negotiations of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council.
A State Department official said Blinken would discuss with these countries plans to rebuild the Gaza Strip after the war between Israel and Hamas.
