US President Joe Biden is expected to arrive in Israel next month, likely on July 14, for his first official visit since taking office.
An official announcement on the trip is due to be published by the White House sometime in the next 24 hours.
Biden is also expected to visit Saudi Arabia during the trip, where he is scheduled to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and discuss with him, among other things, his country’s relations with Israel.
The President is scheduled to meet with senior Israeli government officials and also to visit and meet with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, but it is still unclear whether such a meeting will take place in Ramallah or Bethlehem.
Biden is also interested in visiting an Arab hospital in eastern Jerusalem without Israeli escort, a move that Israel opposes due to the fact that it may be interpreted as an American attempt to establish facts on the ground.
Last week, Biden shot down reports that he was planning an official visit to Saudi Arabia.
“I have no direct plans at the moment. But let me tell you I have been engaged in trying to work with how we can bring more stability and peace in the Middle East,” he said at the time.
A report on NBC News recently claimed that Biden's planned visits to Israel and Saudi Arabia had been postponed to July.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later pushed back on the reports, arguing that a trip had never been confirmed to begin with.
The White House has said the president feels that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a "pariah" for his role in the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey in 2018.