US reaches out to Arab leaders on Israel, Gaza fighting
Source: AP
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, MATTHEW LEE and EDITH M. LEDERER
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his envoy reached out to Palestinian and regional Arab leaders on Tuesday as attacks between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers raged on, maintaining what the Biden administration is calling its quiet diplomacy while still declining to press for an immediate cease-fire.
Blinken, speaking during an unrelated trip focusing on Russia and Nordic countries, also defended the U.S. decision to block what would have been a unanimous U.N. Security Council statement on the fighting and its civilian toll, and the overall U.S. approach to the worst Israeli-Palestinian fighting since 2014. President Joe Biden, speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, expressed general support for a cease fire but stopped short of joining dozens of Democratic lawmakers in demanding one.
“Our goal remains to bring the current cycle of violence to an end” and then return to a process in which a lasting peace can be forged, the U.S. diplomat said.
Blinken said he had spoken to the foreign ministers of Morocco and Bahrain, two Arab countries that recently have moved to normalize relations with Israel, while US envoy Hady Amr in Israel spoke with Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint press conference following meetings with the Icelandic Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson, at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland, Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Blinken is touting the Biden administration's abrupt shift in its predecessor's climate policies as he visits Iceland for talks with senior officials from the world's Arctic nations. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/europe-middle-east-israel-palestinian-conflict-government-and-politics-d313985ade629d9c33e9147e07712180
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