UNITED STATES: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been rushing around the Middle East for the past three days in an attempt to keep a situation under control that may spiral out of control.
On Friday, Blinken called on Israeli leaders to consider implementing temporary ceasefires as a means to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and encourage the release of hostages. However, the Israeli prime minister swiftly rejected this proposal.
He had a meeting with representatives of Israel’s Arab neighbours on Saturday. They were all in favour of an instant cease-fire. Israel is committing war crimes, according to Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister of Jordan. Joe Biden, the US president, was upbeat about the progress being made in obtaining humanitarian pauses.
Sensationalising the tension in the area, Blinken visited Ramallah on Sundays while hiding his whereabouts. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, received him in a convoy of military vans and SUVs.
When Blinken and Israeli President Isaac Herzog met in Tel Aviv on Friday, Israeli demonstrators demanded that the government take further action to free the hostages held by Hamas on October 7.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have descended upon the streets in large numbers in nations throughout the region, as well as in Europe and the US. Protesters crowded the streets of Berlin, London, and Paris, and scaled the fence outside the White House in Washington, DC. Istanbul demonstrators called Blinken “an accomplice of the massacre.”
Blinken’s is talking to all parties involved and the issue hasn’t escalated yet. Joe Biden’s October meeting in Jordan with Arab leaders was unexpectedly cancelled due to an incident at a Gaza hospital; nevertheless, Blinken’s meeting with foreign ministers on Saturday seemed to be a step in the right direction.
Nevertheless, the secretary of state’s attempts to persuade his Arab counterparts to consider how to guarantee a “durable” peace in the region, as well as the long-term prospects for the Palestinian people, proved less fruitful.
“How can we even entertain what will happen in Gaza when we do not know what kind of Gaza will be left after this war is done?” Safadi asserted. “Are we going to be talking about a wasteland? Are we going to be talking about a whole population reduced to refugees?”
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