Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday to speak with senior Arab officials and try to find possible solutions to the Israel-Gaza war’s thorniest problems, including humanitarian aid, reconstruction and hostages The Foreign Ministry announced this on Saturday.
One of Mr. Blinken’s priorities on Monday and Tuesday will be to “discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that secures the release of hostages,” a department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in a statement. He added that Mr. Blinken would underscore his belief that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a ceasefire for the Palestinian people, as the group has not budged on hostage negotiations.
Saudi Arabia is hosting a three-day World Economic Forum meeting attended by senior Arab officials, including Mr. Blinken’s diplomatic counterparts. They include senior ministers from Qatar and Egypt who acted as Arab mediators in several rounds of talks on a possible hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
The forum’s website says Mr. Blinken will take part in a half-hour public “conversation” starting at 12:45 p.m. on Monday, the final day of the conference.
American officials are pushing for Hamas to release about 40 of the more than 100 hostages it is holding in exchange for the release of many more Palestinian prisoners and a six-week ceasefire. U.S. officials say this would be the first step toward securing a lasting ceasefire, and Israel supports the proposal. However, Hamas insisted on a commitment to a permanent ceasefire, and many Arab officials, including in Saudi Arabia, called for the same; These officials say such a ceasefire should take place immediately.
Mr. Blinken and other top aides to President Biden have also tried to push for a long-term political solution to the conflict. At best, they imagine Saudi Arabia and perhaps some other Arab nations agreeing to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. In return, Saudi Arabia would receive advanced weapons and security guarantees from the United States, including a mutual defense treaty, as well as a commitment to U.S. cooperation on a civilian nuclear program in the kingdom.
Israel, for its part, would need to commit to a concrete path to establishing a Palestinian nation with specific deadlines, U.S. and Saudi officials say.
Before the war began last October, U.S. and Saudi officials held intensive talks to reach agreement on the terms of such a proposal. A big question for these negotiators at the time was what Israel would agree to. Since the war began, Americans and Saudis have publicly insisted that Israel must accept the existence of a Palestinian state.
But since the Oct. 7 attacks, in which Hamas and allied gunmen killed more than 1,200 people and took about 240 people hostage, Israeli leaders and ordinary citizens have become even more resistant to the idea. About 100 of the hostages were released last November as part of a prisoner swap during a week-long ceasefire. The Israeli military has launched attacks to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry.
Mr. Miller also said on Saturday that Mr. Blinken planned to discuss “further progress on mitigating climate change and the global energy transition” at one of the World Economic Forum events. The minister also expected to attend a meeting of ministers from various nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional organization, to discuss security coordination.
An Israeli official told The New York Times on Friday that Mr. Blinken planned to visit Israel during his stay in the region.
If Mr. Blinken does go there, the issues he is likely to discuss will undoubtedly be the same as those on his agenda for Riyadh, including increasing humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, a possible political solution in the form of a cross-country one Megadeals and the impasse over a hostage-taking/ceasefire agreement. He would also likely discuss Israel’s plans for a major offensive in the Rafah area of Gaza, which Mr. Biden opposes.
The details of Mr. Blinken’s planned trips to the Middle East often change at the last minute. As of Saturday evening, the State Department had not announced any stops outside of Riyadh.
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2024-04-27 22:54:07
www.nytimes.com
