Russia said that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, will hold conversations with the senior US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on Tuesday that he will focus on ending the fighting in Ukraine and restoring “the entire complex” of the ties of Russia.
Rubio arrived in the Saudi capital Riad on Monday on a previously planned trip. The US National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, and the envoy of the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who will arrive later on Monday, will join him in the conversations with the Russians.
The conversations will be among the first discussions in a high -level person in years among Russian and American officials and are intended to precede a meeting between US and Russian presidents.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy advisor to President Vladimir Putin, would fly to the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday.
“They are expected to celebrate a meeting with their American counterparts on Tuesday, which will mainly focus on restoring the entire Russian-American relations complex,” said Peskov.
“It will also be dedicated to the preparation of possible negotiations on the Ukrainian agreement and the organization of a meeting between the two presidents,” he added
Peskov refused to comment on a Reuters Report that Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Sovereign Fund of Ralguía de Russia, would also meet with the United States delegation.
Peskov declined to comment when asked if Putin and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, would meet face to face in Saudi Arabia at the end of this month.
The spokesman for the United States Department, Tammy Bruce, confirmed that Rubio, Waltz and Witkoff will meet with the Russian delegation in Riad on Tuesday.
The conversations occurred after President Donald Trump spoke last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone and ordered the senior officials to begin negotiations about the conflict, who repeatedly bought to end during his presidential campaign.
Riad, who is also involved in conversations with Washington about the future of the Gaza Strip, has played a role in the first contacts between the Trump administration, which took office on January 20, and Moscow, helping to ensure an exchange of Prisoners last week.
The main diplomat of the United States, Rubio, who spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that the next weeks and days would determine if Putin takes peace seriously.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is also in the region. Zelensky, who arrived at the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, said he also intended to visit Saudi and Türkiye Arabia, but no dates were established.
He said he had no plans to know Russian or American officials and that Ukraine is not believed to be invited to the conversations housed in Saudi.
Gaza speaks
On the agenda of Rubio’s meeting with the Saudi heir prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, Trump is likely to be Trump’s proposal so that Gaza’s Palestinian residents are resett .
This proposal has enraged the Arab world and has increased fears among the Palestinians in Gaza of being expelled from the coastal strip.
Gaza has been devastated by the fight that exploded when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli stories.
The Israel offensive launched in response killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities, before an agreement reached last month brought a fragile fire.
Saudi Arabia, together with other Arab nations, has rejected any plan that implies resetting the Palestinians, and Riad is leading Arab efforts to develop a counterproposal, which could involve a reconstruction fund led by the Gulf and an agreement to leave Hamas.
Salman has also insisted that Saudi Arabia would not normalize ties with Israel, a long -standing target of Washington, without an agreement on a path to a Palestinian state.
Rubio visited Israel on Sunday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promising support for Israel in his regional rivalry with Iran.
