A group of US officials from the White House, State Department and Pentagon are heading to the Middle East this week to meet with America’s allies in several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), sources in Washington said last Wednesday.
It is indicated that the main goal of the mission is “to conduct negotiations to resolve differences on a number of issues in the region, including the nuclear deal with Iran”.
Brett McGurk and Derek Chollet will head the Washington delegation, one source told Pan-Arab TV. Brett McGurk is White House Middle East and North Africa Coordinator, Derek Chollet is Senior Political Adviser to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
The delegation will also include Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, Joey Hood, and Deputy Assistant to the Head of the Pentagon for the Middle East, Dana Strole.
Bloomberg was the first to report on the landing of a diplomatic “assault” by the United States in the Middle East.Among the countries that Joe Biden’s emissaries will visit will be Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Egypt. It is assumed that this list can be expanded.
The visit coincides with ongoing indirect talks in Vienna between the US and Iran to re-establish the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Tehran’s nuclear program. Apparently, the American administration intends to devote its Arab partners to the details of the upcoming restart of the 2015 nuclear deal.