US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned on Wednesday 18/9 about the risk of escalation in the Middle East after the detonation of thousands of sirens belonging to members of the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
News of the blasts came as the top US diplomat was traveling to Cairo to meet with senior Egyptian officials in hopes of advancing efforts for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and improving relations with Egypt.
See also: New round of explosions in Lebanon with wireless explosions – Over 100 injured today with three dead
Hezbollah vowed to respond to Israel, accusing it of setting off suicide bombers in various parts of Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people, including two children, and injuring nearly 3,000. Israel declined to answer questions about the blasts.
Asked about the explosions, Blinken said the United States was still gathering evidence but it was in no one’s interest to widen the conflict.
“It is imperative that all parties avoid any action that could escalate the conflict,” Blinken told a news conference alongside his Egyptian counterpart, without specifying who the US believed was behind the blasts.
Blinken said he is focused on securing a ceasefire agreement that will bring calm, including on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, and that 15 of the 18 paragraphs of an agreement have been agreed to by all parties.
Making progress involves long waits for messages to be transmitted between the sides that leave time for events to disrupt talks, Blinken said.
“We’ve seen that in the interim, there can be an event – something that makes the process more difficult, that threatens to slow it down, stop it, derail it – and anything of that nature, by definition, is probably not good for the , in terms of achieving the result we want, which is a ceasefire,” noted Blinken.
He cited the killing of six Israeli hostages last month, which was attributed to Hamas. He did not name Israel, which is believed to have targeted members of groups aligned against it in Lebanon, Syria and Iran that have hampered the talks.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told Blinken during their meeting this morning that Egypt opposes efforts to “escalate the conflict and expand its reach regionally” and called on all sides to act responsibly, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. a statement.
For his part, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelati said Egypt would not accept any changes to the security arrangements that were in place on its border with Gaza before the war broke out last October.
Border security, and whether Israel will maintain a military presence along a 14km buffer zone known as the “Philadelphia Corridor”, have become central to months-long talks to reach a cease-fire agreement and free the hostages in Gaza. Israeli troops entered the demilitarized zone in May as part of an offensive around Rafah.
Egypt, which is brokering the ceasefire talks, says Israel must withdraw and the Palestinian presence must be restored at the Rafah crossing between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Gaza.
“Egypt reiterates its position, it rejects any military presence along the opposite side of the border crossing and the aforementioned (Philadelphia) corridor,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelati told reporters at a joint news conference in Cairo with his US counterpart by Anthony Blinken. Abdelati also expressed frustration over new demands and claims that have prevented an agreement from being reached.
“There is a lack of political will on one side, which is clear when we get to the moment of truth to reach an agreement,” he said, apparently referring to Israel.
Abdelati said Hamas, which Egypt says it deals with as a “Palestinian national faction”, remains fully committed to a ceasefire proposal announced by US President Joe Biden in late May, and on amendments to that proposal made in early July. Subsequent Israeli demands for a troop presence in Gaza complicated efforts to reach an agreement.
Like Blinken, Abdelati also said that any escalation, including the explosions that injured Hezbollah members in Lebanon on Tuesday 9/17, would create obstacles to the completion of a cease-fire agreement in Gaza. Hezbollah accuses Israel of being behind the blasts.
“Certainly what happened not only hinders ongoing negotiations, but also carries the threat of entering a general war.”
Blinken will travel from Cairo to Paris on Thursday 9/19 for a meeting with the foreign ministers of France, Italy and Britain to discuss the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine and other issues, a State official said. Department. Blinken will also meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, the official said.
Blinken will not visit Israel on this trip. It is the first time he has missed a stop at Washington’s closest ally in the region since Hamas sparked the war in Gaza nearly a year ago.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said this was because Washington plans to discuss bilateral issues with Egypt on the trip, and the Gaza ceasefire proposal the US and mediators are working on is not yet ready to be presented to the Israel.
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