Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) welcomes U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at the Presidential Palace in the capital Cairo on Jan. 20, 2018. (AFP photo)

CAIRO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday arrived in Cairo, the first destination of his Middle East tour covering Egypt, Jordan and Israel, Egyptian state-run MENA news agency reported.

It is the first visit of a senior U.S. official to the Middle East since President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in last December.

Trump also intended to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite regional and international rejections and warnings.

Pence's Middle East tour was supposed to come last month, but suspended by Trump's Jerusalem decision.

The U.S. senior official is scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi over regional developments.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has existed since the Western-backed creation of Israel and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1948.

The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the light of the UN-proposed two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders.