The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will travel next week to Saudi Arabia, an important ally with which the US maintains sensitive relations, the State Department announced today.

Blinken’s visit to the kingdom, a “difficult ally”, comes as the two countries play a mediating role in the Sudan conflict, but have failed to secure several ceasefires between the warring generals.

Blinken will discuss with Saudi officials “strategic cooperation” between the two countries on regional and bilateral issues, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

He will also attend a ministerial meeting on Wednesday with the Gulf Cooperation Council, then on Thursday in Riyadh for a meeting of the coalition of countries fighting the Islamic State group.

The trip comes just weeks after White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s trip and nearly a year after President Joe Biden in the summer of 2022 which was not particularly successful.

Relations between Washington and Riyadh have been notoriously strained as President Biden’s administration accuses the oil-rich Gulf monarchy of human rights abuses and influencing crude prices.

The case of the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Riyadh authorities, in Istanbul remains hot even though the US has largely turned the page.

Biden had called for a “re-examination” of relations with Riyadh after the kingdom’s decision last October to decrease in oil production.

However, the Saudi ally, to which Washington has delivered many weapons, plays a key role in the region and American officials do not hide their desire for a rapprochement despite the many differences.

Peace efforts in Yemen are expected to feature prominently in Blinken’s talks, as is the “holy grail” of normalizing relations between Riyadh and Israel under the Abraham Accords.

These agreements that began during the presidency of Donald Trump allowed several Arab countries to normalize their relations with the Jewish state.

But Riyadh makes any normalization conditional on the recognition of a Palestinian state and also demands security guarantees from the US.

Speaking before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, the State Department’s top Middle East official, Barbara Leaf, admitted there was a lot of “effervescence” on the issue, while calling for a “gradual opening” between the Israelis and Saudis, citing for example cultural exchanges or sports.

As for Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula and ravaged by years of war, it is experiencing a period of calm following the ceasefire negotiated by the UN in April 2022.

Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in neighboring Yemen since 2015 to support pro-government forces against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.