US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Saudi Arabia, his first stop in a wider tour of the Middle East as Washington tries to advance negotiations on a normalisation deal between the Kingdom and Israel, as well as make progress on talks for the governance of Gaza in the future, Reuters reports.

The top US diplomat’s fifth trip to the region since Hamas’s October 7 attack comes at a perilous moment.

Blinken is also set to visit Egypt, Qatar and Israel later this week and push to advance the Egyptian and Qatari-mediated conversations with Hamas to achieve a hostage deal.

In Riyadh, Blinken is expected to meet with the kingdom’s de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as his Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.