JEDDAH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the “importance of an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza on Wednesday, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The officials also spoke about developments in the situation in the Gaza Strip and Rafah, and efforts to ensure the entry of urgent humanitarian aid into the enclave.
Blinken landed in Jeddah earlier on Wednesday on the first leg of a regional tour that was extended to include Israel.
On Thursday, he is due to travel on to Egypt, which neighbours Gaza and whose envoys have been involved in previous mediation efforts.
In Cairo, Blinken will discuss efforts to reach an “immediate ceasefire agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.
He will visit Israel on Friday, where he will discuss “the ongoing negotiations to secure the release of all hostages” and efforts to boost aid deliveries to Gaza, Miller said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Blinken said everyone in Gaza was now suffering “severe levels of acute food insecurity.”
“That’s the first time an entire population has been so classified,” he said during a visit to the Philippines.
Another major area of concern for the US, the United Nations and aid groups has been the fate of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip.
Since the war erupted, the tiny area’s population has surged to around 1.5 million with the arrival of hundreds of thousands displaced from elsewhere in the territory.
US President Joe Biden has put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pull back from a threatened full-scale ground operation.
