THE Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ministerial meeting hosted by Riyadh this week brought together foreign ministers from the Gulf Region and the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Riyadh for a three-day diplomatic visit which started on Tuesday.
In his opening speech, Blinken assured its Gulf Arab partners that the U.S. remains committed at a time of rapidly shifting regional alliances.
The Arab ministers talked about key regional issues including conflicts in Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and the Palestinian territories during the GCC-U.S. joint ministerial meeting on strategic partnership.
The Senior U.S. official also met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and held private talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, wherein both sides talked about working together for a resolution to the conflict in Yemen, finding a political solution in Syria, countering Iran’s destabilizing behavior, as well as strong cooperation to end the fighting in Sudan.
Blinken also expressed Washington’s desire to expand the Abraham Accords by collaborating with several Arab countries to widen and deepen the normalization of relations with Israel.
The landmark deal mediated by the U.S. took effect on September 15, 2020, during the time of former U.S. President Donald Trump, with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain among the first two Arab States to recognize Israel’s sovereignty, while Sudan and Morocco normalized ties with the Jewish State a few months later.
As the summit kicked off in Riyadh, His Highness Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, issued a royal decree to establish a new institute for the Global Cyber Security Forum, which aims to harness the potential of cyberspace and promote cyber safety on a global scale.
