U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday to discuss Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and the agency’s potential role there once the conflict subsides.
Blinken traveled in a convoy from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Ramallah, the seat of authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The two shook hands and sat down with aides to talk outside the authority’s headquarters.
The Biden administration has said it wants the Palestinian Authority to play a role in governance of the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since winning elections in the tiny coastal strip in 2006 and violently ousted Fatah, now runs Gaza. Authority on the West Bank.
President Biden has also said that Israel must allow the establishment of a Palestinian state and believes that a political solution is the only way to resolve the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. reiterated this view At a news conference in Tel Aviv after meeting with Israeli officials on Tuesday, he also said that he met Saudi Arabia’s ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday and that he was still willing to consider establishing normal diplomacy with Israel. relations, but only if Israel agrees to take concrete steps to establish a free and independent Palestine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government reject the concept of a Palestinian state, Mr Netanyahu said a few years ago Israeli officials should support powerful Hamas in Gaza to undermine the Palestinian Authority and the idea of a unified Palestine. He also refused to give the Palestinian Authority any substantive role in Gaza.
After meeting Abbas, Blinken plans to fly to Bahrain for more talks on the war. The trip to Bahrain is the culmination of a multi-day diplomatic mission across the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East that began last Friday. Blinken plans to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi later in Cairo.
Sisi and Abbas are expected to travel to Aqaba, Jordan, later on Wednesday to attend a crisis leadership summit convened by King Abdullah II.
