U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East this week mainly as a firefighter rather than a peacemaker. For the most part, Blinken’s nine-nation tour—the latest démarche by the Biden administration in a frenetic, monthslong campaign to avert a wider regional war—is about tamping down the conflagration in Gaza and preventing the United States from being pulled in any further.
But the administration is also hoping to begin laying down a scheme for a more lasting Middle East settlement. And Saudi Arabia—where Blinken landed Monday before heading on to…
