US President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday on his first visit to the Middle East since taking office last year.
He then had stops in the West Bank and Saudi Arabia, where Biden is meeting with Arab leaders at a summit of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.
The visit comes amid global energy and food crises and high oil prices as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, unfinished negotiations over a return to the Iran nuclear agreement, a fragile truce in the war in Yemen and strains in US-Saudi relations since the murder of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi.