Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and several international officials will be in Riyadh this week for talks aimed at pushing for a peace agreement in Gaza to be held on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting, the WEF's president said on Saturday.
"We do have the key players now in Riyadh and hopefully the discussions can lead into a process towards reconciliation and peace," Børge Brende said at a news conference in Riyadh, adding that Gaza's humanitarian crisis would be on the agenda.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend the meetings alongside regional leaders including Qatar's prime minister, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Oman's crown prince and Bahraini officials, Brende said.
Egypt's foreign minister, Brende said, would be there to update officials on a round of talks Egyptian negotiators held in Israel on Friday in an effort to restart stalled efforts to end the war in Gaza and return the remaining Israeli hostages.
"There is now a bit of momentum for negotiations on the hostages and also a possible ceasefire," Brende said.
US forces bombed targets in southern Iran overnight after President Donald Trump said Tehran would pay dearly for the deaths of American soldiers, while Iran targeted US sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan and a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz.
Lebanese army troops began deploying in the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh on Tuesday after Israeli forces withdrew from the area, a senior Lebanese security official said, in line with a US-brokered plan.
Kuwait's Ministry of Foreign Affairs today summoned Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Totonchi to deliver a formal protest note over Iran's targeting of the Kuwaiti tanker Kaifan in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday evening, which resulted in injuries to several crew members.
A Russian guided-bomb attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least three people on Tuesday and injured more than a dozen, regional officials said.
French lawmakers approved on Tuesday a ban on social media access for children under the age of 15, as concerns grow around the world over the impact social media have on the health and safety of minors.