Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken opened the U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue, the first bilateral dialogue held since 2015.

Meeting with his Israeli and UAE counterparts, Blinken said that President Joe Biden's administration's policy on Syria was largely focused on humanitarian relief.

Blinken had met virtually in mid-September with Lapid and top Emirati foreign policy adviser Anwar Gargash, as well as top diplomats from Bahrain and Morocco.

The deal, which gave Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear programme, has been on life support since 2018.

Austin traveled to the Gulf region earlier this week, a week after the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan ended. He first went to Doha with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to visit the main base for the massive airlift set up by the United States out of Kabul.

Blinken, accompanied by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, is the most senior US official to visit the region since the Taliban's lightning takeover of Afghanistan on August 15.

Blinken will spend Monday and Tuesday in Qatar, the largest hub for the evacuations of some 100,000 Afghans in the final days

Bennett said Israel had shared intelligence with the United States, Britain and others also tying Iran to the attack.

A British security guard and a Romanian crew member were killed in what analysts said bore all the hallmarks of the "shadow war" between enemies Iran and Israel

The MT Mercer Street, managed by prominent Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer, was struck on Thursday off the coast of Oman, in an incident Israel has blamed on Iran.