Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, met with Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior adviser to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, on Tuesday in Riyadh, according to sources familiar with the matter, Axios reported.
This is the first in-person meeting between the Trump administration and a Palestinian Authority official since Trump’s re-election in November. The White House, the Saudi embassy in Washington and al-Sheikh declined to comment on the meeting.
Relations between the United States and the P.A. mostly froze during Trump’s first term because of his decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Abbas sent a letter of reconciliation to Trump after the latter’s first assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024, and the two then spoke on the phone after Trump’s re-election.
The report stated that this meeting, which comes amid efforts to reach a permanent ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, was the result of weeks of back-channel planning, with one source saying Saudi Arabia brokered it.
Witkoff has said helping Trump broker the current ceasefire was “the most worthy thing I could ever do in my life.”
The meeting was also set amid the Trump administration’s efforts to finalize Israeli normalization with Saudi Arabia, which will help create a path toward a Palestinian state.
Witkoff traveled to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a U.S. official, Axios reported.
Witkoff will also travel to Israel on Wednesday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is expected to visit the Gaza Strip—the first such visit by a U.S. government official in 20 years.
In the United States, Netanyahu is scheduled to visit the White House on Feb. 4 after the prime minister’s office confirmed an invitation by Trump earlier on Tuesday.
