Secretary of State Antony Blinken has returned from a seven-day trip to the Middle East in which he visited nine countries to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and the conflicts that threaten a larger regional war.
According to his spokesman Matt Miller, Arab nations are ready to work with the US on short-term and long-term solutions for the Palestinians in Gaza, but only if Israel is willing to go along.
“We traveled through nine countries and met leaders in each of those countries and were able to reach agreements with all of these Arab partners as well as with Turkey that they are ready to have these discussions, that they are ready to do this. “We are coordinating with the United States and they are prepared to take real steps to improve the lives of the Palestinian people in Gaza and to examine how to rebuild Gaza and establish a Palestinian-led government in Gaza,” Miller told Andrea on Friday MSNBC's Mitchell.
“But they were only willing to do that if they had a partner on the other side in Israel and if Israel was willing to take really concrete steps to establish an independent Palestinian state,” Miller continued.
Blinken traveled to Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and the West Bank to continue diplomatic talks as tensions in the region rise over the War between Israel and Hamas has increased.
The latest trip was Blinken's fourth visit to the region since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7 in a surprise attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages. In the months since, Israel has waged a deadly and destructive counteroffensive that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians and displaced almost the entire population of the region.
Miller said during the last trip that there was “really a difference” because the Arab partners they spoke to after the initial attacks were not ready to discuss reconstruction, security and governance in Gaza, but now Is it you.
Blinken reportedly had a “very frank conversation” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli government officials about the partners the country would gain in the Arab world if it agreed on the future of Gaza.
“But look, it will require difficult decisions, and not just difficult decisions on the part of the Arab partners in the region, but really difficult decisions on the part of Israel,” Miller said. “And that is why the United States cannot make these difficult decisions for Israel. We cannot make these difficult decisions for any of these countries.”
Miller said the U.S. plans to take a leadership role in presenting its vision for rebuilding Gaza and that Blinken will “continue to present” and “keep pushing” during upcoming trips to the region in the coming weeks and months.
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