Saudi's crown prince snubbed the US Secretary of State by making him wait hours for a meeting before postponing it, report says

• Mohammed bin Salman reportedly kept Antony Blinken waiting for hours for a meeting, then didn't show, a report said. 
• It came as Blinken, the US secretary of state, tried to persuade the Saudi ruler to condemn the Hamas terror attacks. 
• Arab countries have criticized Israel's response to the Hamas attacks. 

Saudi Arabia's ruler kept US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, waiting for hours for a meeting, then didn't show up until the next day, in an astonishing snub to the US' top diplomat, The Washington Post said. 

In the wake of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel, Blinken last week visited several US allies in the Middle East in a bid to rally them around the US' position, including Mohamed bin Salman. 

The core goal of the trip was to persuade the leaders to condemn Hamas' brutal violence, and try and tamp down unrest in their countries sparked by the new fighting.

But Blinken reportedly got a cold reception in Riyadh, where key differences between the US and Saudis emerged. 

Blinken had expected to meet Mohamed bin Salman in the evening after touching down on Saturday, but was kept waiting for hours, with the crown prince eventually showing up the next morning, the report said. 

In the meeting, the crown prince reportedly called for Israel to halt military operations "that claimed the lives of innocent people," after Israel bombarded the densely populated Gaza strip, and imposed a blockade on food, fuel, and other supplies. He also reportedly called for the conflict to be de-escalated.

The Saudi position is in contrast to that taken by the Biden administration. The US president has backed Israel's bid to eliminate Hamas in the wake of the terror attacks, but has called for civilian lives to be protected.

Blinken's attempts to find common ground with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, another US regional ally, also met with little success, the report says. 

There were signs in recent weeks that Saudi Arabia and Israel were on the verge of a historic agreement, that would've seen relations between them normalized. Analysts believe that among Hamas' core aims in launching the October 7 attacks was ruining the talks.

Saudi Arabia has long been among the US' key regional allies, but in recent years its ruler has sought to steer a more independent course for the kingdom, forming closer ties with US rival China. Last year, a diplomatic spat erupted when the Saudis snubbed the Biden administration and refused to increase oil production.