Blinken calls a path to a Palestinian state essential for Israeli security
Acknowledges ‘challenging decisions’ ahead
DAVOS, Switzerland — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Israel cannot achieve “genuine security” without a pathway to a Palestinian state, insisting such a move could help unify the Middle East and isolate Israel’s top rival, Iran.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Blinken said the view of leaders in the Arab and Muslim world have changed on Israel, and the creation of a Palestinian state would help Israel integrate in the region.
“The problem is getting from here to there, and of course, it requires very difficult, challenging decisions. It requires a mindset that is open to that perspective,” Blinken said.
The Biden administration has been at pains to navigate between longtime US support for Israel and growing concerns that too many Palestinian civilians have been killed or injured in Israel’s war against Hamas militants since their deadly Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.
Blinken reiterated the need for a “pathway to a Palestinian state” and said Israel would not “get genuine security absent that.”
His comments came as Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, warned that fighting could intensify in the region if Israel doesn’t end its campaign.
“Today, we are witnessing genocide in Gaza and the West Bank; this means that war is ongoing, so there is possibility of extension,” Amirabdollahian said in a separate Q&A session. He didn’t meet with Blinken.
The top Iranian diplomat also acknowledged a missile strike Tuesday on Pakistan, calling it part of a fight against “terrorism,” and said Iran targeted Israeli sites in Iraq this week — moves that threaten to further ignite violence in the Middle East. The governments of Pakistan and Iraq both criticized the action directed by Tehran.
“We do respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan — also that of Iraq — but we don’t allow our security to be compromised and played with,” Amirabdollahian said through a translator.
With a barrage of attacks in recent days heightening fears of a broader war in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said on a Davos panel Tuesday that the kingdom agreed “regional peace includes peace for Israel.” He said Saudi Arabia “certainly” would recognize Israel as part of a larger political agreement.
“But that can only happen through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a rightwing government that is opposed to Palestinian statehood, and Netanyahu himself recently said that his actions over the years prevented the formation of such a state.
Mohammad Mustafa, chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund, who is believed to be a candidate for a future leadership position in the Palestinian Authority, said the international community has to “move fast and boldly to stop this aggression.”
He says the first step is getting food, water, medicine, and other aid into Gaza to prevent hunger from causing more deaths, then pivot to what he calls the root problem: occupation.
“Occupation cannot continue,” he said. “No people will accept to be oppressed the way Palestinian people have been oppressed.”
The leaders of France, Argentina, and Spain also spoke on a busy second day of the elite gathering, where heads of state mingle with corporate executives, activists, and more.
“Do not let yourselves be intimidated by the political caste and by the parasites who live off the state,” new Argentine President Javier Milei said in a fiery speech addressing the world’s business class. “You are social benefactors, you are heroes.”
Milei, a libertarian economist who was sworn in last month and promised changes to drastically reduce both Argentina’s budget deficit and inflation of over 200 percent seen last year, warned that political and economic leaders were “opening the doors to socialism” in what is a threat to the Western world.
Argentine native Pope Francis went the other way — urging business leaders to not be guided by profit alone but by high ethical standards because national governments cannot regulate the global economy for the common good.
In a letter to Davos organizers, the pope said wars worldwide show the need to tackle what he called the root causes of conflicts: economic injustices, hunger, and exploitation of natural resources.