Amman (Jordan), November 4 (AP) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken once again reached West Asia since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict and met the leaders of Arab countries on Saturday.
During this, he sought the support of Arab countries to plan the future of Gaza after the end of the war.
US officials believe that support from Arab countries will be vital to efforts to handle the deteriorating situation in Gaza. At the same time, they are also considering that if Israel succeeds in eliminating Hamas, then who will take its place.
Blinken spoke to officials in Amman, the Jordanian capital. A day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored Blinken’s blunt warning that if Israel does not ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it could lose any hope of an eventual peace deal with the Palestinians.
The US State Department said Blinken expressed gratitude to Mikati for preventing Lebanon from being pushed into war against the will of the Lebanese people.
Blinken also discussed US efforts to ensure humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.
Blinken also met the head of the United Nations agency involved in helping Palestinian refugees and expressed his gratitude to the agency for providing humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Nearly 70 of the agency’s employees have died in the war and the agency is running out of supplies like food, medicines and fuel.
Blinken then held joint talks with the foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and the chairman of the PLO Executive Committee. All the leaders condemned Israel’s action against Hamas. He said that Israel’s action amounts to illegal collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
The US State Department said Blinken will travel to Turkey on Sunday for meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and top officials on Monday. Turkey announced on Saturday that it had recalled its ambassador to Israel due to the situation in Gaza.
AP Zoheb Madhav
Madhav
