The Biden administration is sending a team of senior officials to visit top regional allies in the Gulf including visits to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Jordan, according to reports from several news outlets.
The President is seeking to “ease allies’ concerns over Iranian nuclear talks and address issues involving the United Arab Emirates’ planned purchase of the F-35 joint strike fighter,” according to Bloomberg.
The team of officials from the State Department, National Security Council and Defense Department will be led by NSC Middle East policy coordinator Brett McGurk and State Department counselor Derek Chollet, according to several people familiar with the plans.
The news of the tentative visit comes a day after Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince said in remarks that the United States was a strategic partner and that Riyadh had only a few differences with the Biden administration which it was working to resolve.
An unnamed official told Bloomberg that the “delegation will discuss important issues tied to U.S. national security and continuing efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East.” Officials from the State Department declined to comment to Bloomberg.
In a separate endeavor, U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking will travel to Saudi Arabia and Oman on Thursday for talks with government officials about efforts to end Yemen’s civil war, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
