Blinken Meets With Egypt’s President as U.S. Pushes for Cease-Fire at U.N.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/21/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news

Middle East Crisis

Blinken Meets With Egypt’s President as U.S. Pushes for Cease-Fire at U.N.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is on his sixth wartime trip to the Mideast as part of diplomatic efforts to arrange for an immediate pause in the fighting in Gaza.

 

The top U.S. diplomat begins talks in Cairo before another visit to Israel.

 

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after arriving in Egypt on Thursday, continuing his sixth swing through the Middle East in pursuit of a temporary Gaza cease-fire that the United States is also seeking via a newly disclosed U.N. resolution.

 

Mr. Blinken will later join several Arab foreign ministers to discuss how Gaza will be governed and kept secure once Israel finishes its military campaign there.

 

Other attendees will include foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. The group will also discuss providing Gaza’s desperate population with more humanitarian aid and planning for the eventual aftermath of the war.

 

Mr. Blinken arrived from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where on Wednesday he told a Saudi-run news outlet about the new effort at the United Nations. He also held a late-night meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in which he repeated the U.S. goal of reducing being the Gaza conflict “the establishment of a future Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel,” the State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in a statement on Thursday.

 

Mr. Blinken and the crown prince also “continued discussions on achieving lasting regional peace and security, including through greater integration among countries in the region and enhanced bilateral cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Miller said.

 

That is a reference to discussions between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia about a possible deal in which the Gulf Arab state would establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel for the first time. In return the Saudis have asked the U.S. for security guarantees, arms sales and backing for a civil nuclear program. Such a deal would also likely require Israeli support for a path to Palestinian statehood.

 

Mr. Blinken plans to travel on to Israel, where he will discuss the potential Saudi normalization agreement as well as Israel’s war plans and ways to protect and deliver more aid to civilians there.

 

The United States has submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council calling for “an immediate cease-fire tied to the release of hostages” in Gaza, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, during his latest trip to the region to broker a diplomatic resolution to the war between Israel and Hamas.

 

Biden administration officials have grown more forceful in recent weeks in their push for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict, as the humanitarian conditions in Gaza have reached crisis levels and political pressures mount for international action.

 

In an interview with Al Hadath, a Saudi-run news channel, Mr. Blinken said that he hoped other countries would back the U.S.-proposed resolution. “I think that would send a strong message, a strong signal,” he said.

 

The United States has angered many U.N. member nations by vetoing three previous Security Council resolutions for a halt in fighting, saying at the latest vote in February that calling for an immediate cease-fire would interfere with diplomatic efforts to reach a deal securing the release of hostages.

 

However, last month, the Biden administration began circulating its own draft proposal that mentioned a cease-fire for the first time, albeit with several conditions, signaling that the United States was more open to criticizing how Israel is conducting its war in Gaza.

 

And in a speech in early March, Vice President Kamala Harris called for an “immediate cease-fire,” after months of more measured language from administration officials that focused on backing a temporary halt or a humanitarian pause in the war.

 

Mr. Blinken said in Wednesday’s interview that negotiations mediated by Egypt and Qatar between Hamas and Israel were “getting closer” to reaching an agreement. Negotiators have been in Qatar since Monday for the latest round of talks, after several previous attempts ended without a resolution.

 

Hamas last week presented a new proposal that excluded a previous demand that Israel immediately agree to a permanent cease-fire in return for beginning an exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Israeli officials said ahead of this week’s talks that the broad proposal being discussed includes a 42-day pause, in exchange for the release of 40 of more than 100 hostages taken from Israel and held in Gaza.

 

“I think the gaps are narrowing, and I think an agreement is very much possible,” Mr. Blinken said.

 

— Victoria Kim