US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is leaving for the Middle East today, the State Department said, as Washington pushes to restart ceasefire talks to end the war in Gaza after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Chinois.
The US top diplomat’s 11th trip to the region since the October 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel that sparked the Gaza war comes as Israel steps up its military campaign in Gaza and Lebanon against of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
Blinken will discuss with regional leaders the importance of ending the war in Gaza, ways to craft a post-war plan for the Palestinian enclave, and how to achieve a diplomatic resolution to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, the State Department said in a statement.
The meeting with Netanyahu
As part of his visit, the US secretary of state will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at noon tomorrow in Jerusalem, according to the prime minister’s office. The country’s president, Isaac Herzog, will meet with Blinken at 8:15 p.m. in Tel Aviv.
Blinken is expected to stress the need to get more food, medicine and other humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, the State Department said.
The West wants an end to war
US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 5 presidential election, and many other Western leaders have said they would like the war in Gaza to end after last week’s Israeli killing of Sinwar, who was believed to be responsible for the October 7 attack.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already said the war will continue, and analysts say he may prefer to wait until the end of Biden’s term in January, and try his luck with the next president, either Harris or a Republican. opponent of Donald Trump, with whom Netanyahu has close relations.
“UN Resolution 1701 is not enough”
At the same time, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said today in Beirut that Washington is working for a settlement “as soon as possible” of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict based on UN resolution 1701, but the commitment of the two sides to implement it is no longer enough.
In a statement to reporters after a meeting with the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, an ally of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, the US envoy warned that “it is not in Lebanon’s interest” to link its fate “to other conflicts in the region”.
It is the first visit by Amos Hochstein, who said he has been working “non-stop” for a ceasefire since violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalated on September 23 into open war.
The United States wants to end the conflict “as quickly as possible,” the US envoy said.
“The commitment we have is to resolve this conflict on the basis of (UN) resolution 1701, this is what the solution should look like,” he added.
This resolution, which ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, provides for a cessation of hostilities between the two sides and stipulates that only UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army are allowed to be deployed in southern Lebanon, on the border with Israel .
“Resolution 1701 managed to end the war in 2006 but (…) nobody did anything to implement it,” the US official said.
“The commitment of both sides to respect Resolution 1701 is not enough,” he added.
According to Berry, as the Saudi Al Arabiya network reported last night, Amos Hochstein’s visit is the last chance before the US presidential election on November 5 to reach a solution in Lebanon.
Hochstein also met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who called on the UN to pass a resolution for an “immediate ceasefire” and to renew the commitment to implement resolution 1701.
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