Blinken starts Mideast tour as Israel-Palestinian conflict flares
US SECRETARY OF STATE ARRIVES IN CAIRO; WILL HEAD TO JERUSALEM TODAY
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived yesterday in Egypt at the start of a Middle East trip on which he will look to notch down Israeli-Palestinian tensions after an eruption of violence.
Blinken, who will travel today and tomorrow to Jerusalem and Ramallah after his stop in Cairo, had long planned the visit to see Israel’s new rightwing government, but the trip takes on a new urgency after some of the worst violence in years.
A Palestinian gunman on Friday killed seven people outside a synagogue in a settler neighbourhood of east Jerusalem, and another attack followed on Saturday.
On Thursday, nine people were killed in an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in one of the deadliest such operations in years.
Israel said it was targeting Islamic Jihad militants and later hit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire.
Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and call “broadly for steps to be taken to de-escalate tensions,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters as he condemned the “horrific” synagogue attack.
Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and call “broadly for steps to be taken to deescalate tensions,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
Talks with Al Sissi today
The violence is also likely to figure in talks today between Blinken and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, whose country’s traditional role as a Middle East mediator has helped him remain a key US partner.
The United States, with its close relationship to Israel, has historically taken a lead on Middle East diplomacy.
But experts questioned whether Blinken could achieve any breakthroughs.
“The absolute best they can do is to keep things stable to avoid another May 2021,” said Aaron David Miller, a veteran US negotiator, referring to 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas that ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.
Ghaith Al Omari, a former Palestinian official now at The Washington Institute, expected Blinken to repeat traditional US positions rather than break new ground. “The trip itself is the message,” he said. “Blinken will ask Abbas to do more but it is not clear what they can do,” he said, referring to the Palestinians.
US support for Palestinian state
Blinken is expected on his trip to reiterate US support for a Palestinian state, a prospect that few expect to advance under the new Israeli government.
The State Department said Blinken would also call for the preservation of the status quo at the flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque compound, which is holy both to Jews and Muslims.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right ideologue who holds a security post in Netanyahu’s government, in early January defiantly visited the site, which Jews call the Temple Mount.