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Trump’s Mideast envoy to meet with Saudi crown prince in Riyadh

Steve Witkoff will then travel to Israel to discuss the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025. Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images.
Special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025. Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Witkoff will reportedly discuss advancing an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and Riyadh as part of an expansion of the Abraham Accords.

Witkoff’s visit follows his participation in the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi camp in Poland on Monday, where he led the U.S. delegation.

On Wednesday, Witkoff is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. The talks will focus on fully implementing the first phase of the hostage and ceasefire agreement with Hamas, as well as initiating negotiations for the second phase, the envoy stated on Sunday.

Witkoff on Sunday described the truce deal he helped broker between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization as “the most worthy thing I could ever do in my life.”

Speaking alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the official opening of the Altneu Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Witkoff said, “I have to thank President Trump, because without him, I don’t think that we would have had the deal. When he asked me to do this job, he said to me: We got to get these people home.”

“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost—taking out three of yours.”
Crowds thronged the plaza at Judaism’s second-holiest site, with the event broadcast on giant screens along the Old City walls.
“Although we all worry about an Iranian nuclear program, we should not feel any better about a Saudi nuclear weapons program,” Rep. Brad Sherman said.
“Voters in this district now finally have a choice of a true defender of Israel with a record of results, who’s not beholden to party leadership that is increasingly out of whack with what most of us feel,” said Scott Singer, mayor of Boca Raton.