Rubio touches down in Riyadh ahead of talks with Russian officials today

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio landed in the Kingdom yesterday, Reuters reports. Rubio is expected to discuss Trump’s proposal for Gaza — which entails the displacement of Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries — with Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, Reuters adds.

US-Russian talks start today: The US delegation includes Rubio, Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and White House Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, who also touched down in Riyadh yesterday, the newswire wrote. They will meet up with Russian FM Sergei Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, who were due to leave Moscow for Riyadh yesterday, Reuters said citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Where’s Ukraine? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed his displeasure at not being invited to the talks and stated that Ukraine will not recognize any settlements reached without its involvement, Ukrainian news agency Interfax reports. Zelensky is scheduled to meet Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman in Riyadh tomorrow, in a trip unrelated to the US-Russia talks. He will also meet with US Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg later this week to discuss a possible meeting with Trump, who confirmed earlier Zelenskiy will be involved in the anticipated talks, without providing further details.

Axios also had the story.