By Deutsche Welle
21 Oct 2024, 10:00 AM EDT
The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, begins this Monday (10/21/2024) a trip to Israel and other countries in the Middle East seeking an agreement between the Israeli Government and Hamas to end the Gaza war.
The trip of the head of American diplomacy will last until Friday, but the State Department has not yet detailed which countries he will visit in addition to Israel.
This is Blinken’s eleventh tour of the Middle East since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023 and the first since Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an operation on October 16 in the Gaza Strip.
“Secretary Blinken will speak about the importance of ending the war in Gaza, achieving the release of all hostages, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Post-conflict plan design
Blinken will also participate in talks to design a post-conflict plan for Gazans once freed from “the tyranny of Hamas” and will insist that Israel must allow more food and medicine into the Strip.
Likewise, it will address the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon and will ask for the application of resolution 1701 of the United Nations Security Council of 2006, which established the cessation of hostilities, the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south of the country and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
The United States has participated in mediation over the last year, along with Qatar and Egypt, for Israel and Hamas to close an agreement to declare a ceasefire in the offensive on Gaza and release the hostages.
With the death of Sinwar in an Israeli operation, Washington maintains that the biggest obstacle preventing an agreement between the parties has been removed and believes that an opportunity has been opened to end the war.
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