In response to a reporter's question about whether President Joe Biden would bring up her case during his trip to Israel, Sullivan said that Blinken "actually spoke with Shireen’s family a short while ago."
"He has invited the family to the United States to be able to sit down and engage with them directly," Sullivan added.
Sullivan, who spoke aboard Air Force One enroute to Israel, insisted that the Biden administration had been very engaged in trying to get to the bottom of her killing, adding that her case would "of course" be "one of the subjects at play" during Biden’s visit in Israel.
A beloved veteran journalist at Al Jazeera Arabic, Abu Akleh, was killed during an Israeli raid in the West bank on May 11 while on assignment in the occupied Palestinian city of Jenin. The US conducted an investigation, which determined that the gunfire "likely" came from the IDF positions.
Last week, her family sent a letter to Biden, demanding that he meet with them during his regional tour and help ensure that justice is served in the investigation of her killing.