RIYADH: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Saudi Arabia’s king on Monday on a visit to key Gulf allies amid heightened tensions with Tehran after President Donald Trump called off a military strike to retaliate for Iran’s downing of a U.S. drone.
The top US diplomat had told reporters before departing on the trip to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that Washington wanted talks with Tehran, even as it planned to impose new economic sanctions.
“We’ll be talking with them about how to make sure that we are all strategically aligned, and how we can build out a global coalition, a coalition…that understands this challenge,” Pompeo said.
Saudi Arabia’s SPA state news agency said the king and Pompeo discussed regional and international developments at their meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
Relations between longtime foes Iran and the United States have deteriorated since Trump withdrew Washington a year ago from a 2015 accord that curbed Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for easing sanctions.
Tensions have flared following attacks in recent weeks on oil tankers in the Gulf which the United States blames on Iran, the shooting down of the drone last week, and repeated attacks on Saudi airports and oil installations by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.
Washington and Riyadh have publicly accused Tehran of being behind the tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has denied involvement in the explosive blasts.
The UAE has called for a de-escalation following the attacks, including on four vessels off its coast last month which an initial investigation said was carried out by a state actor without naming a country.
Pompeo is expected to discuss “ways to support maritime security” when he meets Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, the U. Mission to the UAE tweeted.
There was no public indication of whether Pompeo would raise the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi during his Saudi visit. A U.N. report last week called for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior officials to be investigated given credible evidence against them.
The Trump administration is pressing the Saudis to show “tangible progress” toward holding to account those behind the killing and wants them to do so before the one-year anniversary of his death on Oct. 2, a senior administration official told Reuters this month.
But Trump told NBC on Sunday he did not discuss the murder in a recent phone call with the crown prince. Asked if the FBI should investigate, he responded: “I think it’s been heavily investigated.”
The murder, by Saudi operatives inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, tarnished the crown prince’s international standing.
The CIA and some Western countries believe he ordered the killing, which Saudi officials deny. (Reuters)
