US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is on a tour of the Gulf, has indefinitely postponed a visit to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said Wednesday, citing "scheduling issues."

"The Secretary's trip to Saudi Arabia has been postponed due to scheduling issues. He looks forward to rescheduling at the soonest opportunity," a defense department official told AFP.

Austin traveled to the Gulf region earlier this week, a week after the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan ended.

He first went to Doha, Qatar with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to visit the main base for the massive airlift set up by the United States out of Kabul. The United States and its allies evacuated some 123,000 people, mostly Afghans who fear Taliban retribution, in the final days of the 20-year US war that President Joe Biden ended last month.

Austin then traveled to Kuwait, where he met Wednesday with the country's leaders. He thanked them for their "critical role" in supporting the evacuations from Afghanistan, he said on Twitter.

He also traveled to Bahrain, where he praised the "heroic work" of the US Navy personnel stationed there during the Afghanistan evacuations, which Austin called the "largest military airlift mission in history."

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China, Italy leaders moot G20 summit on Afghanistan
Rome (AFP) Sept 7, 2021
Italian leader Mario Draghi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Tuesday to discuss holding an extraordinary G20 summit on the situation in Afghanistan. Draghi and Xi "mainly discussed the recent developments of the Afghan crisis and the possible areas of international cooperation to manage it, including the G20," the Italian premier's office said in a statement. Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20 forum of global economic powers, wants to call a meeting of ... read more