U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Bethlehem on Friday morning for a meeting with Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas.
It followed Biden’s visit earlier in the day to the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives in eastern Jerusalem, where he announced $100 million in aid for Palestinian health-care projects based in Israel’s capital city.
Biden’s direct flight to Jeddah follows Riyadh’s announcement on Friday that the kingdom is opening its airspace to “all carriers,” paving the way for Israeli commercial liners to overfly the kingdom and drastically reducing flight times from the Jewish state to destinations in East and Southeast Asia.
On Thursday, Biden and Lapid signed an agreement pledging to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and reaffirming a U.S. commitment to expanding and supporting peace among Israel and its moderate Arab neighbors.
Washington is similarly “committed to continue playing an active role” in the Abraham Accords and ensuring regional security, “including in the context of President Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia,” with the aim of expanding the “circle of peace” to include more Arab and Muslim states, states the declaration.