PNN – White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who went to Saudi Arabia for the ceasefire in Gaza, met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this Sunday morning.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, citing Saudi Arabia’s WAS news agency, Sullivan and bin Salman who met in Dhahran, in addition to stopping the war in Gaza, discussed strategic relations between the two countries and ways to develop them in various fields.
In this meeting, they also consulted about the final form of strategic projects between Saudi Arabia and America.
Among the other issues discussed by the two sides was finding a valid solution for the formation of two independent governments in Palestine in a way that would satisfy the demands and legal rights of the Palestinian people.
The latest regional developments, the necessity of stopping the war, establishing a ceasefire and facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza were among the other topics discussed by bin Salman and Sullivan.
It was on Saturday night that the White House announced that the National Security Adviser of the US President left Washington for Riyadh on Saturday local time to meet and talk with the Saudi crown prince about the Gaza war.
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Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the US National Security Council, announced that Sullivan and Crown Prince Bin Salman will discuss bilateral and regional issues, including the Gaza war and ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the region.
The spokesperson of the National Security Council of the White House announced that after Saudi Arabia, Sullivan will travel to the occupied Palestinian territories to meet with senior Israeli officials, including the Prime Minister of this regime, Benjamin Netanyahu, and to discuss the Gaza war, “ongoing negotiations for the release of all hostages.”
Before traveling to Saudi Arabia and occupied Palestine, National Security Adviser Joe Biden met with representatives of 17 countries whose citizens were captured in the Israeli war, including Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, and Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand and Great Britain. The group discussed ideas for securing the release of the hostages in Gaza, with a particular focus on ways they could consult more as a collective group in public and private settings.
The meeting came as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas for an agreement to secure the release of hostages and a cease-fire in Gaza appear to have once again stalled. Ambassadors and representatives who met with Sullivan discussed ways to pressure the negotiating parties, including Israel, Egypt and Qatar, to return to the negotiating table and finalize a ceasefire in Gaza.
One of the ideas discussed was finding a way to have a unified voice at the United Nations, the US administration official said. The 18 countries also released a statement in late April in which they demanded the release of all the hostages and warned that the fate of these people was of “international concern”.
US officials are hoping to reach a bilateral agreement with the Saudis and possibly present it to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which would include a commitment to a two-state solution as the other side of the agreement. Netanyahu then faces a choice: if he agrees, he could secure a historic peace deal with Saudi Arabia; if he says no, he may be branded a dissident and lose all American support.
Many in the White House, citing the war in Gaza, Netanyahu’s dependence on his far-right coalition partners, and US domestic politics, think that a deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel is a pipe dream.