Blinken shuttles from the West Bank to Iraq trying to contain the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought his diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Biden administration's latest effort to ease civilian suffering in the Gaza Strip and start to sketch out a post-conflict scenario for the territory.
Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as American forces in the region face a surge of attacks by Iranian-allied militias in Iraq and elsewhere. U.S. forces shot down another one-way attack drone Sunday that was targeting American and coalition troops near their base in neighboring Syria, a U.S. official said.
Video above: Blinken urges Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians as it fights Hamas in Gaza
On a stop not announced in advance, Blinken traveled to Ramallah in an armored motorcade and under tight security. His visit came just hours after Israeli planes struck a refugee camp in Gaza, killing at least 40 people according to health officials there.
Despite the secrecy and the U.S. State Department's refusal to confirm the trip until after Blinken had left the West Bank, Palestinians turned out to protest U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza as word of his arrival leaked. Demonstrators held signs showing dripping blood and messages that included, "Blinken blood is on your hands."
Neither man spoke as they greeted each other in front of cameras and their meeting ended without any public comment.
A senior American official traveling with Blinken stressed what the official said was the U.S. commitment to pressing Israel to protect civilians in Gaza, increase humanitarian aid supplies and rein in and punish surging violence by extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Blinken also told Abbas that the U.S. was pushing Israel to fully restore suspended tax remittance transfers to the Palestinian Authority. Those funds were partially unblocked last week, but the Palestinians want the whole amount. In addition, Blinken said the U.S. envisions the Palestinian Authority as "playing a central role" in any post-Hamas administration in Gaza, according to the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to detail private discussions.
The Palestinian Authority administers semiautonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It has not been a factor in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when Hamas seized control after winning in elections there a year earlier.
Blinken said in Baghdad that the Palestinian Authority 바카라 게임 웹사이트is playing a very important role right now in the West Bank in trying to keep stability there. That바카라 게임 웹사이트s hugely important because no one wants another front in the West Bank or anywhere else, and they바카라 게임 웹사이트re really stepping up under very difficult conditions to do the necessary work.바카라 게임 웹사이트
He said that 바카라 게임 웹사이트what we all agree바카라 게임 웹사이트 is that in shaping a future for Gaza, the West Bank and 바카라 게임 웹사이트ultimately바카라 게임 웹사이트 for a Palestinian state, "Palestinian voices have to be at the center of that. The Palestinian Authority is the representative of those voices, so it바카라 게임 웹사이트s important that it play a leading role.바카라 게임 웹사이트바카라 게임 웹사이트
Abbas, however, said the Palestinian Authority would only assume power in Gaza as part of a 바카라 게임 웹사이트comprehensive political solution바카라 게임 웹사이트 to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Palestinians' official WAFA news agency. He also condemned Israel바카라 게임 웹사이트s bombardment of Gaza as a 바카라 게임 웹사이트genocidal war" and urged Blinken 바카라 게임 웹사이트to immediately stop them from committing such crimes,바카라 게임 웹사이트 the new agency reported.
He called for an immediate cession of the war, and the delivery of humanitarian aid and fuel, and the restoration of water and electricity in Gaza. The Palestinian leader said "military and security solutions" would not bring security to Israel, and insisted that "security and peace" would be achieved only through ending Israel's occupation and establishing a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 Mideast war borders with east Jerusalem its capital, according to the Palestinian news agency's account of the meeting.
On his second trip to the Middle East since the war began, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday before Saturday. Netanyahu so far has rejected humanitarian pauses. The Arab officials pushed for an immediate cease-fire. Blinken said that would be counterproductive and could encourage more violence by Hamas.
Earlier, the U.S. State Department said Blinken reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced.
The meeting with Abbas came at the start of Blinken's third day of his latest Mideast mission, his second since the surprise Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7. Blinken visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday before meeting in Jordan with Arab ministers Saturday.
At each stop, Blinken has offered firm U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself but also stressed that it must adhere to the laws of war, protect civilians and increase humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza. To do that, as well as to ease the flow of foreigners fleeing Gaza, he has made the case that Israel should implement rolling humanitarian pauses to its airstrikes and ground operations, something that Netanyahu has thus far flatly rejected.
The Arab foreign ministers with whom Blinken met in Amman 바카라 게임 웹사이트 from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates 바카라 게임 웹사이트 issued the same demand. But Blinken said the U.S. would not push for one.
U.S. officials believe that Netanyahu may soften his opposition if he can be convinced that it is in Israel's strategic interests to ease the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The soaring death toll among Palestinians 바카라 게임 웹사이트 more than 9,700, according to officials of Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry 바카라 게임 웹사이트 has sparked growing international anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets over the weekend to demand an immediate cease-fire.
Arab states are resisting American suggestions that they play a larger role in resolving the crisis, expressing outrage at the civilian toll of the Israeli military operations but believing Gaza to be a problem largely of Israel's own making.
Among Arab leaders, Blinken said it is clear that 바카라 게임 웹사이트everyone would welcome the humanitarian pause.바카라 게임 웹사이트 He said it 바카라 게임 웹사이트could advance things that we바카라 게임 웹사이트re all trying to accomplish,바카라 게임 웹사이트 including freeing hostages, bringing in aid and getting out foreign citizens. On that last point, he said: "We바카라 게임 웹사이트ve had important progress there in recent days but also real complications that come along with it. We continue to work through them.바카라 게임 웹사이트바카라 게임 웹사이트
In Baghdad, the talks touched on the security of U.S. forces.
바카라 게임 웹사이트I made very clear that the attacks, the threats coming from the militia that are aligned with Iran, are totally unacceptable and we will take every necessary step to protect" American personnel, Blinken said before heading to Turkey. He said the prime minister expressed his own determination to stop the militia strikes.
The U.S. has deep concerns that Iran and its proxies, including several militia groups in Iraq, may take advantage of the situation in Gaza to further destabilize the Middle East. Already, Iranian-backed militias have intensified rocket and other attacks on U.S. military facilities in Iraq and Syria, drawing at least one retaliatory strike from American forces.
Sunday's attack by drone against a U.S. site in Syria was at least the 32nd on U.S. and coalition military facilities in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. To date, there have been at least 17 attacks in Iraq and 15 in Syria. At least 21 service members have been injured by the attacks, but all have returned to duty, the Pentagon said.
The same U.S. official who confirmed the U.S. shootdown of the drone said the drone strike was very similar to other recent attacks on U.S. personnel at bases in Iraq and Syria and is believed at this point to be linked to Iranian-backed militia. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Associated Press writers Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.