Saudi Gazette report

WASHINGTON — Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met on Thursday the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.

Blinken reiterated the US government’s commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory and people and reiterated US condemnation of Houthi attacks on the Kingdom.

“It’s a real pleasure to have my friend and colleague, the Saudi Foreign Minister here,” Blinken said at the State Department ahead of their closed-door meeting.

“We have a strong partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia. We are committed to the defense of the Kingdom, and we have a lot of work that we’re doing together on a variety of very significant issues,” the top US diplomat said.

For his part, Prince Faisal hailed the “tremendous, immense value” of bilateral ties between Riyadh and Washington.

“I had a productive meeting today with my friend Blinken, during which we discussed a range of issues of common interest and concern to both our nations and ways to strengthen our strategic partnership and cooperation on multiple fronts,” Prince Faisal said on Twitter after the meeting.

They both discussed Saudi-US strategic cooperation on regional issues, including the common goal of reaching a durable solution to end the conflict in Yemen.

They also discussed other regional and broader issues.