Blinken meets Saudi crown prince on Mideast crisis tour

AFP :
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a crisis tour of the Middle East, met Sunday with the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, which has put on hold normalisation with Israel.

The top US diplomat began meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at his palace in Riyadh just after 7:30 am (0430 GMT), a US official said.

Blinken has been touring the region since Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel on October 7 and killed 1,300 people, sparking a massive retaliatory campaign targeting the Islamist group in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 2,200 people.

Before the violence, the Saudi crown prince, known by his initials MBS, had spoken of progress in US-led diplomacy to normalise relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Saudi Arabia has put the process on hold after the violence, with some suspecting that Hamas wanted to stop normalisation for fear it would further weaken the Palestinian cause.