US National Security Council Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk and State Department energy envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the meetings with senior Saudi officials, Axios reported, citing three current and former US officials.
On Monday, Axios reported that the Biden administration is brokering talks aimed at finalizing the transfer of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.
In 2017, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi ratified a treaty to hand over the islands to Saudi Arabia. The deal withstood protests and legal challenges in Egypt but was never finalized.
The two Red Sea islands figure prominently in the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement signed in 1979, which promises safe passage to Israeli civilian and military ships through the narrow waterways of the Straits of Tiran. READ MORE
