US President Joe Biden will discuss energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation in Saudi Arabia on Friday on a trip designed to reset the U.S. relationship.
Biden will hold meetings with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, along with other government officials, a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
Biden will meet with a broader set of Arab leaders at a summit in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Saturday.
At the start of Biden's trip to the Middle East, officials said he would avoid close contacts, such as shaking hands, as a precaution against COVID-19. But the president ended up engaging in hand-shaking in Israel.
The United States is eager to see Saudi Arabia and its OPEC partners pump more oil to help bring down the high cost of gasoline and ease the highest U.S. inflation in four decades.
Lebanon's Hezbollah warned Israeli residents to evacuate towns within 5 km of the border between the countries in a message posted on its Telegram channel in Hebrew early on Friday.
The US House of Representatives rejected an effort on Thursday to stop President Donald Trump's air war on Iran and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorized by Congress, backing the Republican president's military campaign.
Foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the European Union have strongly condemned the Iranian attacks targeting GCC states, calling them a direct threat to regional and global security.
US President Donald Trump claimed the right to join Iran in deciding its next leader as the war escalated, with US and Israeli jets hitting areas across the country and Gulf cities coming under renewed attack.
The United States and interim authorities in Venezuela have agreed to re-establish diplomatic and consular relations, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday, aiming to foster a peaceful transition to elect a new government in the South American country.
His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and the UAE's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, has discussed the latest regional developments with Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.