Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the country, on Monday in anticipation of a summit on Tuesday to discuss an end to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry published video of the two statesmen meeting but offered few details on the discussion. The State Department said in a readout that Rubio and the crown prince “discussed Yemen and threats to navigation from Houthi terrorists that threaten global commerce, American interests, and Saudi citizens and infrastructure,” as well as other Middle Eastern issues. While Rubio reportedly thanked Saudi Arabia for hosting talks on Ukraine, the State Department did not explicitly say that the two discussed the issue in depth.
The visit is Rubio’s second since becoming America’s top diplomat and addresses the same issue as the prior one, in which he met with Russian officials in Riyadh to get a sense for what conditions Russia would be open to accepting in exchange for ending the bloody, three-year invasion. Rubio is expected to meet with top Ukrainian officials, including the country’s foreign and defense ministers, to discuss the war. In addition, Rubio told reporters on Monday that he expects to potentially discuss an agreement between Washington and Kyiv to jointly pursue rare-earth mineral mining in Ukraine. (Read More)
