US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was made to wait all night for an audience with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Blinken flew to the Saudi capital Riyadh at the weekend as he toured Middle Eastern capitals to discuss the sharp escalation of the Palestine-Israel conflict.
Israel is conducting round-the-clock bombing raids on the besieged Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.5 million people, in preparation for a ground invasion which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed will destroy the ruling Hamas movement.
That comes in response to an offensive launched on October 7 by militants loyal to Hamas and other groups which took the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and intelligence services by surprise.
The Palestinian WAFA news agency said on Monday that the death toll in Gaza had reached 2,808, including 936 women and 853 children — two-thirds of the total.
The IDF updated the number of its casualties to 291 soldiers, with 199 more taken prisoner in Gaza. some 1,100 Israeli civilians have also been killed in guerrilla attacks and shelling of settlements.
American media reported that the US Secretary of State assumed his meeting with the heir to the throne, who also serves as prime minister to his father King Salman, would be on Saturday evening. But he was forced to wait until the morning before we was admitted.
Asked by reporters how it went as he returned to his hotel, Blinken replied only that it was “very productive.”
A brief State Department statement said Blinken “highlighted the United States’ unwavering focus on halting terrorist attacks by Hamas, securing the release of all hostages, and preventing the conflict from spreading.”
Source: Sputnik
