Blinken: US deeply committed to all Gulf partners

“The US is in this region to say we remain deeply invested in partnering all of you,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a Gulf Cooperation Council ministerial meeting Thursday in Riyadh, the day after he held wide-ranging talks with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. A US official said that Blinken and the Crown Prince had an “open, candid” discussion including among other things, Riyadh’s potential normalization of ties with Israel.

PM Binyamin Netanyahu has made this a priority policy goal. Riyadh,  which gave its blessing to the 2020 Abraham accords with fellow Arab governments, has insisted that its prerequisite for normal ties is a Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.