Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken plans to visit Israel and three Arab states next week, as the United States pushes for a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza.
Blinken is scheduled to travel to Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan from Monday to Wednesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement on Friday. The trip, which will be his eighth visit to the region since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 that sparked the war, comes at a particularly tense time.
The Biden administration is working to stop the fighting in Gaza in hopes of freeing Israeli hostages (and some Israeli-Americans) held by Hamas and ending a conflict that has taken a heavy toll in lives, physically devastated the most of Gaza and has created political pressure. President Biden to restrict US arms deliveries to Israel.
Relations between the Biden administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel are particularly strained in the wake of Biden’s decision to delay the delivery of 2,000-pound American bombs, a move intended to ensure they are not used in the type of “invasion.” on a large scale” from the city of Rafah in Gaza, which Biden has said he opposes.
Blinken’s trips also come as concerns grow that fighting could intensify along Israel’s northern border with the Iran-backed, Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. The exchanges of fire have led to evacuations on both sides of the border.
A ceasefire “would open the possibility of achieving calm along Israel’s northern border, so that both displaced Israeli and Lebanese families can return to their homes,” Miller’s statement said.
Qatar and Egypt have played roles as mediators between Hamas and Israel, which do not negotiate directly.
Israel recently strained relations with Egypt by taking “tactical control” of a buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border, known as the Philadelphia Corridor.
In Jordan, Blinken is expected to attend a conference on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, co-hosted by Jordan, Egypt and the United Nations.