ARAB-ISRAELI PEACE WOULD ISOLATE IRAN, BLINKEN SAYS
▶ US Secretary of State outlines vision for regional settlement at Davos
The US wants a Middle East settlement in which Arab nations make peace with Israel, leaving Iran isolated, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
America recognises that such a deal would only be acceptable if it involves a path to Palestinian statehood, he added.
Mr Blinken said it was in Israel’s hands to “seize the opportunity that we believe is there”.
He set out this US peace vision as the World Economic Forum in Davos heard calls for an end to the Israel-Gaza war.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said a peace process was needed to “prevent a spillover that could send the entire region up in flames”.
Mohammad Mustafa, chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund, called for international pressure on Israel to halt its offensive. Israel says it is acting in self-defence against Hamas and has vowed to continue its campaign. “The humanitarian effort is a priority and the war has to stop – very quickly,” Mr Mustafa said.
“If we are not careful maybe more people will be killed or die from hunger and famine than the war itself.”
The lack of food and water was so severe that the death toll was likely to rise even in the event of a ceasefire, he added.
Mr Blinken said Israel had a “profound” decision to make. “You now have something you didn’t have before, that is Arab countries and Muslim countries even beyond the region that are prepared to have a relationship with Israel,” he said.
“If you take a regional approach, if you pursue integration with security, with a Palestinian state, all of a sudden you have a region that’s come together in ways that answer the most profound questions that Israel’s tried to answer for years.
“And what has heretofore been its biggest single concern in terms of security, Iran, is suddenly isolated along with its proxies and will have to make decisions about what it wants its future to be.”
The US vision for a postwar Middle East involves a route to a Palestinian state, an isolated Iran and normalised relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
Mr Blinken told the World Economic Forum in Davos that “the choice is there” to move to a “different equation” after the Israel-Gaza war.
It is up to Israel to decide whether to “seize the opportunity that we believe is there”, and Palestinians to form a more effective self-government, he said.
The war has featured heavily in discussions at the annual gathering of the world’s elite in Davos, with both Saudi Arabia and Qatar calling for moves towards sustained peace.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres yesterday said a peace process was needed “to stem the suffering and prevent a spillover that could send the entire region up in flames”. Mr Blinken said the US shared the “absolute conviction” with Arab countries that any settlement with Israel “has to include a pathway to a Palestinian state”.
The UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020, while the US has been brokering talks on normalisation with Saudi Arabia.
“If you pursue integration with security, with a Palestinian state, all of a sudden you have a region that’s come together in ways that answer the most profound questions that Israel’s tried to answer for years,” Mr Blinken said.
In such a scenario, he said Iran would be “suddenly isolated, along with its proxies” and would “have to make decisions about what it wants its future to be”. A “stronger, reformed” Palestinian Authority should also be part of the postwar future, he added.
Western diplomats have expressed interest in working with the PA as a moderate alternative to Hamas, which currently governs Gaza.
Israel and Hamas have both signalled they are unwilling to accept a two-state solution, however, that is the very solution that is required, Mr Blinken said.
“The problem is getting from here to there, and of course, it requires very difficult challenging decisions,” he said. “It requires a mindset that’s open to that perspective. The choice is there, and ultimately this is about choices.”
For Israel “this is a profound decision for the country as a whole to make”, he said. “What direction does it want to take? Can it seize the opportunity that we believe is there? They’ll have to make those decisions,” he added.
He acknowledged that any peace settlement would not “happen overnight” but, quoting Martin Luther King Jr, said the US had a “fierce urgency of now” to make progress.
After Davos was told that disinformation was the world’s top threat amid several elections around the world, Mr Blinken warned that many people do not believe Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel “actually happened”.
Mr Blinken blamed the “poison of dehumanisation” for damaging societies and international relations.
“What we’re seeing every single day in Gaza is gut-wrenching, and the suffering we’re seeing among innocent men, women and children breaks my heart,” he said.
“The question is: what is to be done?
“There has to be, and there is, another way, that answers Israel’s most profound concerns and questions. Israelis have to live with security. They can’t have a repeat of October 7.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told delegates in Davos that the war would spread “if the genocide does not stop” in Gaza.
Mr Amirabdollahian said Iran did not welcome the regional escalation but said that Israel had responded with 10 times the violence it had suffered from Hamas.
He accused the US of making a “strategic mistake” by backing Israel and claimed it was responsible for bringing “the conflict to the Red Sea” after the US and Britain launched air strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels last week.
The deputy chairman of Yemen’s presidential council told Davos that the Houthis were exploiting the Palestinian cause.
Aidarus Al Zoubadi accused the group of “causing escalation and affecting the humanitarian situation in Yemen”.
“Most of the population relies heavily on imports, so the population are suffering greatly,” he said. “What the Houthis have perpetrated is unacceptable and we welcome what the US and UK did.”
Western diplomats are interested in working with the Palestinian Authority as a moderate alternative to Hamas