LONDON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s weeklong trip to the Middle East ended unexpectedly in London on Friday, but the lack of a cease-fire breakthrough for Gaza came as no surprise to U.S. and Arab officials, who described the growing regional conflicts as a “nightmare.”
The trip to Israel, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had been expected after President Joe Biden said this month that he would dispatch Blinken to the region following Israel’s killing of Hamas military chief Yahya Sinwar, a move that Blinken said helped open a window for new talks on a cease-fire proposal that has been languishing for months.
Blinken and other U.S. officials discussed various proposals that could potentially trigger the release of Israeli hostages and end the devastating war in Gaza. The main discussion this week was more focused on a post-war plan for Palestinian governance, reconstruction and security for the larger region.
The impact of the war was on full display on Blinken’s last day in Tel Aviv, when shortly before departing for the airport Wednesday, air raid sirens blared at the hotel where U.S. officials and press had been staying. The Israeli military said two rockets fired into Israel from Lebanon were intercepted, with smoke visible from the hotel.
Here are some takeaways from Blinken’s 11th visit to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began over a year ago:
While expectations were low for an agreement between Israel and Hamas militants, America and Israel did announce that after several weeks with no meetings, U.S. and Israeli negotiators will be arriving in Qatar in the coming days to revive talks.
Qatar has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas. Blinken, speaking to reporters Thursday in the Qatari capital, Doha, said negotiators would soon return to the Gulf city.
“What we really have to determine is whether Hamas is prepared to engage,” Blinken said. But Hamas’ political representatives have not so far signaled a softer stance.
“There is no change in our position,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese broadcaster.
Hamdan said their delegates heard from mediators in Cairo about the potential to revive cease-fire negotiations, but he reiterated that the group still insists on an end to Israel’s offensive in Gaza, as well as its complete withdrawal from the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the head of the Mossad, the country’s spy agency, would travel to Qatar on Sunday to meet with CIA director Bill Burns and the Qatari prime minister.
Throughout the trip, the U.S. questioned aspects of Israel’s handling of the war, raising concerns about a controversial plan in northern Gaza as well as pushing its ally to adhere to U.S. humanitarian law regarding the insufficient level of aid reaching Palestinians.
Before leaving Tel Aviv, Blinken and other U.S. officials cornered Netanyahu and members of his government regarding a proposal backed by some Israeli officials in which civilians would be ordered to leave the north and anyone remaining would be starved out or killed.
A senior State Department official said Tuesday that both Netanyahu and his aide Ron Dermer denied having a proposal titled the “General’s Plan” and that it was damaging for such a perception to even exist.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, said the U.S. responded by imploring the Israelis to go to great lengths to make it clear publicly that this is not their policy.
In that same meeting, Blinken also broached the issue of aid getting into Gaza, following up on a stern letter issued by him and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently that called for a remedy to the dire situation on the ground for Palestinians.
Blinken, according to the official, laid out a series of areas where the Israelis needed to improve, providing a 30-day deadline to begin seeing progress.
Days later in Doha, Blinken announced an additional $135 million in U.S. aid to the Palestinians but said again that the assistance would be hopeless if it is not able to get to the civilians in need.
Many Arab leaders this week publicly expressed their exasperation at the status of the cease-fire negotiations more than a year into the conflict. Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said he was sad that mediators got so close to a deal several times in recent months only to be derailed.
“Every time we got closer to a solution, unfortunately, there were many steps back,” he told reporters Thursday in Doha.
He added that going forward, there would be consequences “should there be any of the parties that refuse to be constructively part of the negotiations.”
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, took it even further, saying directly to Blinken during a meeting Friday in London that the “Israeli government is not listening to anyone,” and as a result, the conflicts have became a “nightmare that the region is continuing to live through.”
“The only path to save the region from that is for Israel to stop the aggressions on Gaza, on Lebanon, stop unilateral illegal measures of the West Bank that is also pushing the situation,” Safadi said.
Many questioned if the timing of the trip was the Biden administration’s 11th-hour effort to achieve even the most modest of breakthroughs in the region before the U.S. presidential election.
Blinken, instead, pointed to Sinwar’s death as providing a much-needed opening for mediators who had spent the last month trying to get back to the negotiating table.
The discussions around a post-war plan are being pushed by the U.S. as a way to rebuild goodwill among the various stakeholders after several lethal strikes over the summer, including two that took out the leaders of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
This is the last time Blinken will be in the region before Election Day in 11 days, and Democrats had hoped for a cease-fire deal by the time Americans began to vote.
That would have helped alleviate the serious criticism many voters have had toward Vice President Kamala Harris’ stance on the war. Critics say the Biden administration has not gone far enough to deter Israel’s conduct of the war, which has left more than 42,000 Palestinians dead.
Local health authorities do not differentiate between militants and civilians in their count but say women and children make up more than half the fatalities.
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