Saudi Crown Prince discusses regional developments with White House adviser Sullivan

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Jeddah, and discussed Saudi-US strategic relations and how to enhance them in various fields, as well as regional and international developments of common interest, state news agency SPA reported on Sunday.

Several US senior officials attended the meeting: US ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney, National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk, and US senior adviser for energy security Amos Hochstein, SPA reported.

Separately, the Crown Prince held another meeting with deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval, which Sullivan and the US delegation also attended.

SPA reported that the meeting involved discussions of ways to strengthen ties between the respective countries in a manner that would enhance the growth and stability of the region.

After Sullivan’s visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to visit Saudi Arabia in June for a meeting of the Global Coalition to defeat ISIS, Bloomberg reported last week citing people familiar with the matter.

The visits by top-level US administration officials serve as Washington’s latest attempts to smooth over tensions with Saudi Arabia that intensified over contrary energy interests and the OPEC+ decision to cut oil output levels.

Recently, the US and Saudi Arabia combined their efforts to resolve the conflict in Sudan, both urging for a political solution to quickly end the hostilities, and jointly issued a statement welcoming recent negotiation talks between Sudan’s two warrying military factions in Jeddah.

The White House has also recently commended Saudi Arabia’s efforts towards achieving notable progress in ending the Yemen war.