Secret visit of US officials to Saudi Arabia to discuss oil.
Two senior US government officials arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday for talks with Saudi Arabia on various issues, including increasing oil production.
Two senior officials from US President Joe Biden have traveled to Riyadh to discuss a new mechanism between Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt to increase oil production.
The three current and former US officials announced this news in an interview with Axius news site. The trip comes as Joe Biden is considering a trip to Saudi Arabia at the end of July.
Sources cited by Axius said the trip was aimed at reaching an agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia on some bilateral issues, as well as oil.
Biden had said before becoming president that he would turn Saudi Arabia into a “despised state.” Since his presence in the White House, relations between the two countries have been strained over several issues.
One of the issues allegedly sparking a dispute between the Biden government and Saudi Arabia is the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a critical Saudi journalist at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. US intelligence has determined that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination.
White House Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk and US State Department Energy Representative Amos Hatchstein arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Earlier, Axius reported that the Biden government was making some covert efforts to mediate between Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt in negotiations that, if successful, could eventually lead to the normalization of relations between Riyadh and Tel Aviv.
