US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday on a trip to repair damaged ties with the long-time ally, as the oil-rich monarchy seeks deeper connections with Washington’s adversaries.
Blinken’s three-day visit will also include discussions about attempts to end crises in Sudan and Yemen, the combined fight against the Islamic State group (IS), and Arab-Israeli relations.
His visit coincides with a period of rapidly shifting alliances in the Middle East, centered on a March rapprochement between regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran mediated by China.
Last month, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was welcomed back to the Arab League for the first time since the start of the 12-year civil war, which his government has been backed by Russia and Iran.
“There is just a tremendous amount of work that we’re trying to do,” a US State Department senior official dealing with Arabian Peninsula affairs, Daniel Benaim, said before Blinken’s trip.
“We’re focused on an affirmative agenda here and the great deal of work our countries can do together.”
Blinken arrived in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Tuesday evening and is due to see Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before traveling to Riyadh for a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting on Wednesday.
The visit is Blinken’s first since the monarchy reestablished diplomatic relations with Iran, which the West regards as a pariah due to its disputed nuclear programs and role in regional crises.
The US provided cautious backing for the pact struck in China, a rising power making advances in the Middle East.
The murder of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in 2018 severely damaged US-Saudi relations, which had been centered for decades on energy and defense.
Washington was also irritated when Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil supplier, declined to assist in bringing down surging energy costs following Russia’s invasion on Ukraine last February.
Rights advocates, including Abdullah Al-Qahtani, a US citizen whose father, Mohammad Al-Qahtani, was imprisoned for ten years after starting a civil rights organisation in Saudi Arabia and is still missing, encouraged Blinken to speak out.
“He has to bring up my dad’s situation. Is he alive? Is he being tortured? We don’t know,” Abdullah Al-Qahtani told a virtual news conference.
Prince Mohammed, 37, has pursued an autonomous foreign policy, including a Monday meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Iran, a long-standing adversary of the United States and Israel, reopened its embassy in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday after a seven-year break.
Nonetheless, US-Saudi strategic connections remain strong, particularly in defense: Washington has traditionally given the Sunni Arab behemoth with security protection from Shiite Iran, while Riyadh purchases cutting-edge US weaponry.
US and Saudi diplomats have worked closely to arrange a permanent ceasefire in Sudan’s eight-week-old war, which has so far failed, and Saudi assistance has been critical in removing thousands of foreigners from the battle zone.
The two countries are also fighting IS, a jihadist group that has lost all of its territory in the Middle East but is becoming more active in Africa.
They are also talking about ending the crisis in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has long offered military assistance to the government in its struggle against Huthi rebels backed by Iran.
The US also hopes that Saudi Arabia would eventually agree to normalize relations with Israel, which has already established connections with many other Arab countries through the Abraham Accords, which were negotiated by the Trump administration.
Blinken reaffirmed on the eve of his Saudi trip that “the United States has a real national security interest in promoting normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”
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He stated that Washington has “no illusions” that this can be accomplished quickly or easily, but that “we remain committed to working toward that outcome.”
Saudi Arabia has previously stated that Israel must first recognize the existence of an independent Palestinian state.
