Washington:
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed for the Middle East on Monday, renewing his push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before the U.S. election and seeing new opportunities in Israel’s killing of the Hamas leader.
It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by a top U.S. diplomat since the war began a year ago, with Blinken warning during his last visit to Israel in August that it could be the “last chance” for a U.S.-led ceasefire plan.
That effort was unsuccessful and the conflict has since escalated and widened, with Israel attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and warning of new strikes directly against Iran, whose clerical leaders support both Hamas and Hezbollah.
US President Joe Biden personally drew up a ceasefire plan on May 31 that would also see the release of Gaza hostages, seeing new hope since Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week.
Biden told reporters during a visit to Germany that he called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him and told him Blinken would be traveling to the region.
“I told him we were very pleased with his actions and now it’s time to move forward – to move forward toward a ceasefire,” Biden said Thursday.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel last year that killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory actions in Gaza have killed 42,603 people, mostly civilians, according to health ministry data in the Hamas-controlled territory considered reliable by the United Nations.
Last month, Israel expanded its military campaign into Lebanon, where at least 1,470 people have died since then, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry data.
Blinken’s trip comes days after he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Israel that the United States could withhold some billions of dollars in military aid unless more humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza. More than 1.8 million people face extreme hunger.
– Impact of the US election –
The breakthrough could be a major boost for US Vice President Kamala Harris, who faces Donald Trump in a tight White House race on November 5.
The war is a political burden for both Biden and his political successor, Harris, and Netanyahu has repeatedly ignored U.S. pleas to do more to protect civilians.
Trump also spoke to Netanyahu about Sinwar’s killing, and the Republican said the Israeli leader had been proven right to ignore Biden’s pressure to scale back military action.
Trump said he would give Netanyahu greater freedoms, telling reporters that Biden “is trying to stop him and he should probably do the opposite.”
Trump was a staunch supporter of Israel during his first term. His relationship with Netanyahu is complicated, but unlike Democrats, Republican voters overwhelmingly support Israel and Netanyahu.
– See the way forward –
Blinken first flies to Israel and will then visit other countries in the Middle East until Friday.
Blinken will visit Jordan on Wednesday to discuss humanitarian aid in the Gaza corridor, an official on the plane with him said.
The State Department did not list his other destinations, but Blinken has visited a number of Arab countries on previous trips, notably Qatar and Egypt, which are key intermediaries in ceasefire negotiations.
Blinken “will discuss the importance of ending the war in Gaza, ensuring the release of all hostages and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people,” a State Department statement said.
According to reports, Blinken will also discuss post-war arrangements that are crucial to the peace agreement and seek a “diplomatic solution” in Lebanon, where the United States has not urged an immediate ceasefire.
Blinken is also trying to persuade Netanyahu to compromise by raising the prospect of normalization with Saudi Arabia — which would be a historic game-changer that Israel seeks to embrace, given that the kingdom is one of two Islamic kingdoms. Guardian of the holiest place.
Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history, called Sinwar’s death “the beginning of the end” of the war in Gaza, but his base has called for continued military operations in Gaza, which has essentially become ruins.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)