US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kickstarted his Middle East trip Sunday as he landed in Egypt. He will be looking to de-escalate Israeli-Palestinian tensions after an eruption of violence last week, besides having Iran and Ukraine high on the agenda.
Blinken will be travelling to Jerusalem and Ramallah on Monday and Tuesday after a stop in Cairo. A meeting with the Israel’s new right-wing government had been on the cards since its election. The region is witnessing one of the worst violence in years, making Blinken’s trip all the more important and urgent.
A Palestinian gunman killed seven people outside a synagogue in a settler neighbourhood of east Jerusalem on Friday, with another attack on Saturday. Ten people were killed in an Israeli army raid Thursday on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. in one of the deadliest such operations in a long time.
Israel stressed that it had been targeting Islamic Jihad militants, before hitting sites in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to overnight rocket fire.
Blinken is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. In his meeting with the former, he will repeat US’s calls for calm and emphasize Washington’s support for a two-state solution.
In Ramallah, he will meet with Mahmoud Abbas and call “broadly for steps to be taken to de-escalate tensions”, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said. He also condemned the “horrific” synagogue attack.
“The most important thing in the near term is to try to get some calm,” Blinken told in an interview with Saudi-owned news outlet Al Arabiya, according to a State Department transcript.
Blinken will also meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the violence is expected to figure in talks with him as well. Egypt has traditionally played the role of a Middle East mediator, something that has helped the country remain a key US partner despite President Joe Biden’s criticism of its human rights record.
(With inputs from agencies)
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