Blinken claims progress in effort to boost Gaza truce
CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day Mideast mission on Wednesday, winning valuable diplomatic support and hundreds of millions of dollars of pledges from Arab allies as he moved to shore up the cease-fire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Gaza Strip's militant Hamas rulers.
But the mission made little headway in resolving the deeper issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the tensions in the contested holy city of Jerusalem that played a key role in the latest war.
After two days of talks with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab allies, Blinken acknowledged that any resumption of peace talks remained far off. In the meantime, he said he had made progress toward the more modest goals of cementing the cease-fire and rebuilding hard-hit Gaza.
“We see the ceasefire, not as an end, but as a beginning, something to build on,” Blinken told reporters in the Jordanian capital of Amman, where he met King Abdullah II.
He said the first priority was to meet the immediate needs of Gaza's 2 million people and then aim to “create better conditions in which we can try to move forward.”
Earlier, he was in Egypt for talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. The visits came a day after intensive talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Blinken has vowed to “rally international support” to rebuild hard-hit Gaza while promising to make sure that none of the aid reaches Hamas. He also is trying to bolster Hamas' rival, the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.
In a boost to those efforts, the energy-rich Gulf country of Qatar pledged $500 million to postwar reconstruction in Gaza. Qatar often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas and it has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to support past cease-fires.
In Cairo, Blinken met with el-Sissi for nearly two hours. Meeting with American diplomatic staff afterwards, he described Egypt as a “real and effective partner” that helped end the Gaza war.
El-Sissi spoke to President Joe Biden last week before and after the ceasefire was announced, and his government has also pledged $500 milllion in assistance to Gaza.
