WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt on Tuesday for his 10th trip to the Middle East since taking office in 2011. War in Gaza The talks began nearly a year ago, and were partly aimed at refining the proposal to be presented to Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and hostage release.
In contrast to recent mediation missions, the top US diplomat is traveling this time without the Biden administration’s optimistic expectations of an expected breakthrough in the stalled negotiations.
Unlike previous missions, Blinken has no public plans to go to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this trip. Fiery public statements by the Israeli leader But there are some other demands that cannot be retracted, such as his declaration that Israel will accept only “complete victory” when Blinken was in the region in June, and some other demands that cannot be retracted, which have complicated previous diplomacy.
Blinken is scheduled to travel to Egypt for talks on Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aty and others, in a trip described as focusing on U.S.-Egyptian relations and consultations with Egypt on Gaza.
This generally relaxed approach comes months after President Joe Biden and his officials Speak out about the deal Ending the war in Gaza is within reach, in the hope of building pressure on Netanyahu’s far-right government and Hamas to strike a deal.
The Biden administration now says it is working with other mediators, Egypt and Qatar, to come up with a final revised proposal to try to push Israel and Hamas into at least a six-week ceasefire that would free some of the hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The Americans believe that public attention to the details of the talks now will only hurt that effort.
U.S., Qatari and Egyptian officials are still consulting “about what this proposal will include, and we’re trying to see that it’s a proposal that can lead the parties to a final agreement,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.
The State Department noted Egypt’s important role in Gaza peace efforts when it announced last week that the Biden administration plans to Granting the country its full $1.3 billion in military aid.Blinken told Congress that Egypt had made progress on human rights, including the release of political prisoners.
Blinken’s visit comes amid the threat of a new front in the Middle East, with Israel threatening to step up military action against the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Biden’s envoy, Amos Hochstein, was in Israel on Monday to try to calm tensions after a stop in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has one of the most powerful armies in the Middle East, and like Hamas and smaller groups in Syria and Iraq, it is allied with Iran.
Hezbollah and Israel have traded blows across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that sparked the war in Gaza. Hezbollah says it will ease the strikes — which have displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border — only when a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
A U.S. official said Hochstein told Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that intensifying the conflict with Hezbollah would not help bring Israelis home. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Hochstein stressed to Netanyahu that he risked igniting a wide-ranging, long-term regional conflict if he went ahead with an all-out war in Lebanon.
Hochstein also assured Israeli officials that the Biden administration remains committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the tensions on Israel’s northern border in conjunction with the Gaza deal or on its own, the official said.
Netanyahu told Hochstein that “it will not be possible to return our residents without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north.” The prime minister said Israel “appreciates and respects” the American support but “will do what is necessary to maintain its security and return the residents of the north to their homes safely.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant warned in his meeting with Hochstein that “the only remaining way to ensure the return of northern communities in Israel to their homes will be through military action,” according to his office.
In Gaza, the United States says Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal in principle, and that the biggest stumbling blocks now include disagreements over details of a prisoner swap and control of a buffer zone on the Gaza-Egypt border. Netanyahu has demanded in recent weeks that the Israeli military be allowed to maintain a presence in the Philadelphi Corridor. Egypt and Hamas have rejected that demand.
Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7 killed about 1,200 people. The militants also kidnapped 250 people and are still holding about 100 hostages. About a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
The Israeli offensive on Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, the health ministry in Gaza said, and the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its tally. The war has caused widespread destruction, displaced most of Gaza’s population and created a humanitarian crisis.
Netanyahu says he is working to bring the hostages home. Critics accuse him of dragging his feet on the deal because it could lead to the collapse of his hardline coalition government, which includes members who oppose the truce with the Palestinians.
Asked earlier this month whether Netanyahu was doing enough to reach a ceasefire, Biden simply said, “No.” But he added that he still believed a deal was imminent.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
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