Middle East crisis live: Blinken flies to Saudi Arabia as mediators seek to jumpstart ceasefire negotiations

US secretary of state to meet regional leaders after Hamas says it is studying Israel’s latest counterproposal

Israel’s war in Gaza, along with conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere, put “a lot of pressure” on the economic “mood”, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister, Mohammed al-Jadaan, said at one of the first panel discussions of the two-day World Economic Forum (WEF) special meeting in Riyadh.

“I think cool-headed countries and leaders and people need to prevail, and you need to make sure that you actually de-escalate,” Jadaan said.

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