President Joe Biden and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides have discussed a new effort by the U.S. administration and mediators in the Middle East to forge cease-fires to end fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.

The United States and other mediators are ramping up efforts to halt the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

President Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser on Tuesday held talks in Doha with senior Qatari leaders on the ongoing efforts to complete a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

Israel's military says a “complex operation” has been conducted to free a hostage in Gaza.

The White House says that ongoing cease-fire talks in Cairo have been constructive and will continue over the weekend as the U.S. and Mideast allies continue to press Israel and Hamas to forge an agreement.

The Biden administration has launched an intense drive to persuade Hamas and Israel to accept a new cease-fire proposal in the nearly eight-month-old war in Gaza while it also presses Arab nations to get the militant group to go along with the terms.

President Joe Biden has spoken with his Egyptian and Qatari counterparts ahead of a trip by his CIA director meant to press toward a deal to secure the release of more hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a pause to fighting in Gaza.

Negotiations to free the hostages held by Hamas hardly ran smoothly.

Jordan’s foreign minister has offered blistering criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, describing it as “blatant aggression” against Palestinian civilians that threaten to engulf the wider Middle East.

President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia — a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer.

The U.S. has resupplied Saudi Arabia with Patriot antimissile interceptors in recent weeks as the Biden administration looks to ease what has been a point of tension in the increasingly complicated U.S.-Saudi relationship.

Saudi Arabia is signaling it isn’t willing to pump more oil and won’t push for changes to an agreement with Russia and other producers that has kept a lid on oil production levels.

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan is traveling to Saudi Arabia.

Top Biden administration officials and U.S. senators have crisscrossed the Middle East, seeking to assuage growing unease among key Gulf Arab partners over America’s rapprochement with Iran and other policy shifts.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top Biden administration national security aides have met with the chief of Israel's Mossad spy agency for talks that focused primarily on Iran.