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The U.S. Secretary of State heads to Israel on Friday to satisfy Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Battle Cupboard.
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Revealed Mar 22, 2024 • 5 minute learn
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CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Thursday a significant Israeli floor assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah could be “a mistake” and “pointless” to defeating Hamas, underscoring the additional souring of relations between the USA and Israel.
Blinken, on his sixth pressing Mideast mission because the warfare started in October, spoke after huddling with high Arab diplomats in Cairo for discussions on efforts for a cease-fire and Gaza’s post-conflict future. He stated an “fast, sustained cease-fire” with the discharge of Israeli hostages held by Hamas was urgently wanted and that gaps have been narrowing in oblique negotiations that U.S., Egypt and Qatar have spent weeks mediating. These negotiations are to proceed at a senior stage in Qatar on Friday.
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Blinken heads to Israel on Friday to satisfy Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Battle Cupboard. The rising disagreements between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden over the prosecution of the warfare will doubtless overshadow these talks — significantly over Netanyahu’s willpower to launch a floor assault on Rafah, the place greater than one million Palestinians have sought refuge from devastating Israeli floor and air strikes additional north.
Netanyahu has stated that with out an invasion of Rafah, Israel can’t obtain its objective of destroying Hamas after its lethal Oct. 7 assault and taking of hostages that triggered Israel’s bombardment and offensive in Gaza.
“A significant navy operation in Rafah could be a mistake, one thing we don’t help. And, it’s additionally not essential to cope with Hamas, which is critical,” Blinken advised a information convention in Cairo with Egyptian Overseas Minister Sameh Shoukry. A significant offensive would imply extra civilian deaths and worsen Gaza’s humanitarian disaster, Blinken stated, including that his talks on Rafah in Israel on Friday and discussions between senior U.S. and Israeli officers subsequent week in Washington will probably be to share concepts for different motion.
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The U.S. place on a Rafah operation has shifted considerably in latest days. Initially, U.S. officers stated they may not help a significant incursion into town until there was a transparent and credible plan for getting civilians out of hurt’s means. Now, U.S. officers stated they’ve concluded there isn’t any credible means to do this, given the density of the inhabitants of greater than one million folks. They are saying now that different choices, together with particularly focused operations towards identified Hamas fighters and commanders, are the one approach to keep away from a civilian disaster.
However Netanyahu, on a roughly 45-minute name with GOP senators on Wednesday, pledged to disregard warnings a few Rafah operation. He additionally took intention at Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer’s condemnation final week of the civilian demise toll in Gaza and his name for brand new elections in Israel in a speech that Biden later stated was “good.”
Netanyahu confused that Israel would transfer forward in Rafah, in line with senators who participated within the assembly. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, stated Netanyahu “made it very clear that he and the folks of Israel intend to prosecute the warfare to the complete extent of their energy and that he wouldn’t be dictated to by Senator Schumer or President Biden.”
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Netanyahu has been accused by Israeli critics of undermining bipartisan American help by cultivating shut ties with Republican leaders.
As Blinken and the Arab ministers met, Gaza’s Well being Ministry raised the territory’s demise toll to almost 32,000 Palestinians because the warfare started on its soil. Additionally, U.N. officers stepped up warnings that famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza.
The Cairo talks gathered Blinken with the overseas ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to a high official from the Palestine Liberation Group, the internationally acknowledged physique representing the Palestinian folks. In addition they mentioned methods to extend pressing humanitarian assist deliveries to Gaza by land, air and sea.
In an earlier assembly with Blinken, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi confused the necessity for a right away cease-fire and warned towards the “harmful repercussions” of any Israeli offensive in Rafah, in line with a press release issued by el-Sissi’s spokesperson.
Each events renewed their rejection of the pressured displacement of Gazans and agreed on the significance of taking all obligatory measures to make sure the arrival of humanitarian assist into the Gaza Strip, the assertion stated.
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Blinken stated “gaps are narrowing” in talks over a cease-fire however that extra work was wanted. “There are nonetheless actual challenges,” he stated. “We’ve closed some gaps however there are nonetheless gaps.”
Netanyahu’s workplace stated Thursday that the top of the Mossad spy company will return to Qatar on Friday to satisfy with CIA chief William Burns and different key mediators within the talks. The workplace stated Thursday that Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief would additionally be a part of the talks.
In the meantime, the USA stated it could search a vote Friday on a revised and more durable U.N. decision demanding “a right away and sustained cease-fire” to guard civilians and allow humanitarian assist to be delivered. The decision is notable as a result of it doesn’t straight tie the discharge of the hostages to the necessity for a cease-fire.
Nonetheless, Blinken stated the 2 should go hand-in-hand. “There may be an pressing want for a right away, sustained cease-fire with the discharge of hostages,” he stated.
Netanyahu has additionally rejected the Biden administration’s repeated remonstrations that Israel’s long-term safety can’t be assured with out the creation of an impartial Palestinian state.
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A transparent path and deadline for the formation of a Palestinian state are key necessities for Saudi Arabia and different Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel, one thing Netanyahu is eager to attain. Blinken spent a lot of his time in Jeddah with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussing the normalization course of, which might additionally embrace U.S.-Saudi agreements.
With tensions operating excessive after not talking for a month, Biden and Netanyahu held a cellphone name on Monday throughout which Netanyahu agreed to ship a staff of specialists to Washington to debate the Rafah plans. Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant may even go to Washington individually subsequent week.
The warfare started after Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 folks within the shock Oct. 7 assault out of Gaza that triggered the warfare, and kidnapped one other 250 folks. Hamas remains to be believed to be holding some 100 folks hostage, in addition to the stays of 30 others.
Related Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Noha ElHennawy in Cairo contributed to this report.
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