US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Cairo on Sunday as part of a Middle East tour that will take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
In remarks to Al Arabiya television, he said US ties with Saudi Arabia are constantly evolving.
“We’ve had a relationship – an important relationship with Saudi Arabia for decades, for generations, across administrations in our own country and across leaders in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
On Iran, he stated that Tehran has rejected what was on the table about returning to the 2015 nuclear deal.
“We continue to believe that the most effective way to deal with the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program is through diplomacy,” he stressed.
President Joe Biden has also made clear that “we’re determined that Iran not acquire a nuclear weapon, and every option remains on the table to ensure that that doesn’t happen. But our preferred path would be diplomacy.”
On the ongoing protests in Iran, Blinken said the Iranian youths have been standing up for their basic rights against the repression of the regime.
“We support the Iranian people, but these decisions are theirs. They’re not ours. They’re not anyone else’s,” he added of regime change.
