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Published January 7, 2024, 3:18 PM ET
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun a week-long visit to the Middle East to counter the growing threat of a second front in the Israel war. AP
Jordan's King Abdullah II warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday of “catastrophic” consequences if the Middle East war continues, as the White House struggles to avert a widening conflict.
“His Majesty King Abdullah warned on Sunday in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of the catastrophic impact of the ongoing war on Gaza and stressed the need to end the tragic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip,” the Royal Court said after their meeting.
Abdullah II urged Blinken to push for a ceasefire in the three-month hot war between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Blinken has embarked on a week-long trip to the Middle East to diplomatically try to ease rising tensions in the region.
Abdullah II argued that there will be “no stability in the region without a just solution to the Palestinian issue and a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.”
He also unequivocally rejected any attempt to displace Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank – something Israeli President Isaac Herzog had already strenuously ruled out in an interview on Sunday.
Jordan's King Abdullah II called for a ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel war on Sunday. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
“Absolutely, absolutely not,” Herzog said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the expulsion of the Palestinians. “Totally disagree or disagree with the position of the Israeli government, the Israeli parliament or the Israeli public.”
“I say directly, officially and unequivocally: This is not the Israeli position.”
After Blinken's meeting with Abdullah II, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller addressed concerns about the expulsion.
“The minister thanked King Abdullah II for Jordan’s role and leadership in providing life-saving assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” Miller said in a statement.
“The minister also emphasized U.S. opposition to the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the urgent need to protect Palestinian civilians in the West Bank from extremist settler violence.”
Last year, Blinken publicly complained that “far too many Palestinians had been killed” in the bloody war.
Jordan, which borders Israel, has long expressed unease about the war. Its monarch has also attacked Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.
Blinken is trying to manage profound dynamics in the Middle East. AFP via Getty Images
After his trip to Jordan, Blinken was scheduled to meet Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Qatar on Sunday.
Blinken's trip to the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean comes amid growing fears in the Biden administration that a second front could erupt amid Israel's growing tensions with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Days after Hamas' deadly surprise attack on Israel on October 7, President Biden persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from a preemptive strike against Hezbollah, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Smoke rises from the Gaza Strip along the border in southern Israel on January 7. ABIR SULTAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
However, there is still a risk that the conflict will spread.
Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim group that doubles as a political party in Lebanon and a militant force. It is classified as a terrorist organization by both the United States and a number of other countries.
There have been exchanges between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in recent days, including on Saturday when the group claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel.
Dozens of rockets are believed to have hit Israel. This is apparent retaliation after the group accused Israel of killing Hamas leader Saleh Arouri in Beirut days earlier.
Palestinians search for victims at the site of an Israeli attack in Gaza. Portal
Israel estimates that Hezbollah has a stockpile of nearly 150,000 precision-guided rockets – making it a more formidable military force than Hamas, according to the Associated Press.
Hezbollah and Israel have a warlike past.
Well over 1,200 Israelis have been killed since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October. More than 240 people were also taken hostage by Hamas. About half of them have now been released.
Gaza's Hamas-affiliated Health Ministry claims that at least 22,835 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting.
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