Arab States Do Not Want the Israel-Hamas Conflict to Spread: Blinken
After several days of shuttle diplomacy between Arab nations, which he said shared the U.S. determination to ensure Israel’s conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas does not spill over elsewhere in the region, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Israel on Monday to talk “about the way forward.”
The top American ambassador has also visited Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Israel is preparing a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip in retribution for a fatal Hamas attack on civilians.
International anxiety over the violence has grown as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian issued a warning on Sunday that “the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger.”
As he was getting ready to depart Cairo, Blinken told reporters, “There’s a determination in every country I went to, to make sure that this conflict doesn’t spread.” “They are trying to prevent this by using their own relationships and influence to do so.”
Binken met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo after meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Sunday. Sisi gave Binken a direct evaluation of Israel’s reaction to the 1,300-victim Hamas assault.
Sisi said in televised comments to Blinken that “the (Israeli) reaction went beyond the right to self-defence and turned into collective punishment for 2.3 million people in Gaza.”
Since its militants attacked Israeli cities eight days ago, killing men, women, and children and taking hostages in the deadliest assault on civilians in the nation’s history, Israel has pledged to completely destroy Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
Gaza is now completely besieged after being subjected to the most intensive assault it has ever seen by Israeli planes and artillery. According to the authorities of Gaza, about 2,450 Palestinians have died.
U.S. ACTIONS TO DETER
The goal of international diplomacy has been to stop the war from spreading, especially into Lebanon. The United States has made a particular effort to dissuade Iran, which supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Over the previous week, Hezbollah and Israel have already exchanged border fire.
According to Blinken, the United States made it plain that both state and non-state entities should not exploit the circumstance.
“We’ve followed up those statements with real measures, including sending our two biggest aircraft carrier combat groups there right away. That’s intended as a deterrence, not a provocation, he added.
No one should take any actions that may ignite a fire elsewhere, Blinken said.
Prior to leaving for Cairo, Blinken characterized his discussions with the Saudi crown prince—one of the most powerful figures in the region—as “very productive.” The meeting, according to a U.S. official, lasted slightly under an hour.
The Israeli siege of Gaza was one of the ways the crown prince emphasized the need to find solutions to end the conflict and respect international law during the discussion, according to the Saudi official news agency SPA.
The Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza would reopen, according to Blinken in Cairo.
“We are now very actively engaged with countries in the region, with the United Nations, and with Israel, to make sure to the best of our ability that people can get out of harm’s way and that the assistance they need, the food, water, and medicine, can get in,” he added.
