US President, Joe Biden will meet Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank on Friday before he flies to a controversial summit in Saudi Arabia.
According to Analysts, his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is likely to be strained, after ties hit a low under the Trump administration.
Later, Mr Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia to meet its de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his father, King Salman.
Two years ago, Mr Biden had pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the 2018 murder in Turkey of Saudi dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
The prince denies involvement, but US intelligence concluded he approved it.
Topics of discussion for the leaders will include energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation.
Mr Biden’s meeting with President Abbas in Bethlehem earlier on Friday will be the highest-level meeting between the US and the Palestinians since the Palestinians froze ties in a dispute over the closure of the Washington office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the main representative body of the Palestinians, by the Trump administration in 2018.
The Palestinians want the US to do more to re-start peace talks with Israel and to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem, which served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians before it was shut under President Trump in 2019.
Bbc/Adebukola Aluko
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