Blinken to visit Saudi Arabia to discuss ‘strategic cooperation’
Next week’s trip will be the top US diplomat’s first trip to the kingdom since the Iran-Saudi normalization deal.
Washington, D.C. – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia next week, his first trip to the kingdom since Tehran and Riyadh agreed to restore diplomatic ties in a deal brokered by Beijing.
The State Department said Friday that the top United States diplomat will meet with Saudi officials and attend Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) talks during his visit, which begins June 6.
Blinken will “discuss strategic cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia on regional and global issues and a range of bilateral issues, including economic and security cooperation,” the State Department said in a statement.
He will also co-host a meeting for the Global Coalition Against ISIL (ISIS) to “address the ongoing threat posed by ISIS and our commitment to ensure its lasting defeat,” the department added.
US officials have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitment to the alliance with Saudi Arabia and to the security of the kingdom. Since Riyadh’s normalization agreement with Tehran, they too have cautiously welcomed the rapprochement.
“From our perspective, anything that can help ease tensions, avoid conflict and in any way curb dangerous or destabilizing actions by Iran is a good thing,” Blinken said in March after the deal was announced.
More recently, Saudi Arabia and the US have been working together in Sudan, pushing for a ceasefire between the African country’s warring factions.
Friday’s statement announcing Blinken’s visit did not mention Yemen, where Washington says it has called for an end to the year-long conflict between Saudi Arabia and its partners against the country’s Houthi rebels, who are affiliated with are to Iran.
Saudi Arabia and the Houthis held direct talks in April, leading to a prisoner swap agreement following the kingdom’s deal with Iran.
Earlier this week, Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, told US senators at a briefing that the Iran-Saudi deal is just a “relaxation.”
“It’s not a reconciliation, a big rapprochement or a full normalization,” Leaf said.
The two countries had in fact agreed to fully normalize relations and resume diplomatic relations.
Leaf also downplayed China’s role in closing the deal. “This agreement – I would say – has not been brokered by the Chinese; they organized it. The Iranians and the Saudis did all the agreements and talks themselves,” she said.
Leaf added that the deal was primarily aimed at Yemen as the Saudis push for more calm in the region to “continue their socio-economic modernization project”.
At a time when ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran are heating up, tensions between Tehran and Washington have increased. Diplomacy between the two countries has stalled as Iran continues its nuclear program.
Despite the Tehran-Riyadh deal, US officials say they continue to push for normalization between the kingdom and Israel.
“We have opened up the airspace of Saudi Arabia and Oman to civilian flights to and from Israel and Asia – a step towards what we hope will be full normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. in a speech. last month.