Blinken will hold talks with Saudi leaders in Jeddah on Wednesday and travel to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials from the Philippines, where the secretary of state is visiting, spokesman Matthew Miller said.
This will be Blinken’s sixth trip to the Middle East since October 7, when the war between Israel and Hamas began.
“The Secretary will discuss efforts to reach an immediate cease-fire agreement that secures the release of all remaining hostages, intensify international efforts to increase humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, and coordinate post-conflict planning for the Gaza Strip, including ensuring that Hamas is no longer able to direct or repeat the attacks of October 7.” , M. Miller said in a statement.
A. Blinken will also discuss “a political path for the Palestinians with Israeli security guarantees and an architecture for long-term peace and security in the region.”
He will also raise the important issue of ending attacks on merchant ships by Yemen’s Houthi rebels to restore stability and security in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, Mr Miller added.
Blinken is in Manila on a short tour of Asia to bolster US support for allies in the region in the face of China’s ambitions.
The announcement comes a day after David Barnea, the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, was due to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Egyptian envoys in Doha, a source close to the talks said.
The meeting comes after Hamas proposed a new six-week truce, allowing more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and exchanging 42 Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
According to a Hamas official, the proposed truce would see Israeli forces withdraw from all towns and populated areas in the Gaza Strip.
An unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 in Israel killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to official figures.
Hamas also took about 250 hostages, of which Israel knows about 130 are still in the Gaza Strip, including 33 dead hostages.
After vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive that killed at least 31,726 people, mostly women and children, in the besieged enclave, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s Health Ministry.
The United Nations has been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is at risk of starvation, and aid agencies are reporting huge difficulties getting into the territory, especially in the north.
UN agencies say donors have started using air or sea transport, but these are not viable alternatives to land transport.
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2024-04-06 07:31:34