Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to West Asia to press the Israelis, Palestinians and regional players to build on last week’s Gaza ceasefire by laying the groundwork for an eventual resumption in long-stalled peace talks.
President Joe Biden announced Mr. Blinken would depart on Monday for a short visit to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt for what will be the Biden administration’s highest-level in-person meetings on the crisis that erupted earlier this month.
Mr. Blinken’s primary goal will be to shore up the ceasefire in the hope that it will hold, discuss an urgent infusion of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, stress the need for an end to intra-communal violence within Israeli cities and lay the preliminary groundwork for a return to peace talks, according to a senior State Department official.
In a statement, Mr. Biden said Mr. Blinken will work with regional partners to ensure “the coordinated international effort to ensure immediate assistance reaches Gaza.”
While Mr. Blinken will meet with the leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan, he will not see anyone from the militant Hamas movement that runs Gaza. Hamas is a U.S.-designated “foreign terrorist organisation,” and contacts between American officials and the group are banned. That means the U.S. must rely on third countries like Egypt and Qatar to pass messages to Hamas.
Blinken said Sunday that the behind-the-scenes effort led by Mr. Biden paid off, securing a truce after 11 days.