Antony J. Blinken is in the midst of his most tense trip as America’s top diplomat, visiting at least seven countries in the Middle East in four days to drum up support for Israel, which is at war with Hamas.
During the whirlwind tour, sometimes guarded by security officials wearing bulletproof vests, the secretary of state broadcast several U.S. messages at once. He made it clear that he fully supports the US response to Hamas’ cross-border invasion that has killed more than 1,300 people.
He has tried to persuade Arab countries to tone down their criticism, which will not be an easy task, as Israel’s devastating attacks have left around 1,800 Palestinians dead, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Mr. Blinken and his aides also spoke with hosts about efforts to free hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including some U.S. citizens abducted from Israel on Saturday. It also included hostages that U.S. authorities said were sexually active. And he sought to prevent the conflict from escalating to involve Israel’s other enemies, such as Iran and the Lebanon-based militia Hezbollah.
Blinken landed in Israel on Thursday, less than a week after Hamas militants attacked a town in the country’s south.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III arrived in Tel Aviv the next day with a similar message of support.
After transiting through Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia on Friday, Mr. Blinken is scheduled to head to the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
His visit comes as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reaches levels of violence not seen in years, posing a myriad of new challenges for President Biden’s foreign policy, which has focused on defending Ukraine and countering Chinese influence. It was held inside.
Blinken’s trip reflected the tensions within the Biden administration. Comparing the atrocities committed by Hamas to those of the Islamic State, Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken sent a clear message that the United States primarily supports Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and that regional countries should do the same. We aim to send
“Israel has the right and even the duty to protect its people,” Blinken said at a news conference in Doha, Qatar. “What Israel is doing is not retaliation. What Israel is doing is protecting the lives of its people,” he said, adding: “We are working to ensure that something like this never happens again.”
“Imagine if this happened in the United States,” he said.
At the same time, Mr. Blinken expressed concern, in softer, perhaps more formal-sounding language, about the potential impact on Gaza’s 2 million mostly impoverished Palestinians.
“But at the same time, how Israel behaves is important,” he said in Doha. Blinken said he had spoken with Israeli officials about the need to prevent civilian casualties.
He added that Hamas “uses civilians as human shields.” This suggests an understanding that Israeli attacks inevitably involve many innocent casualties.
Biden administration officials said this week that Israel has been showered with international goodwill but would face heightened criticism among Americans and other countries if it carries out what it says will be a protracted military offensive in Gaza. I understand that.
Still, Blinken suggested during the trip that the Biden administration would be highly tolerant of whatever the outcome of Israel’s military response.
At his first stop, a military base in Tel Aviv, where diplomatic security officials who normally wear suits wore camouflage uniforms, Mr. Blinken delivered a message directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: ”
“Too often in the past, our leaders have been ambivalent in the face of terrorist attacks against Israel and its people,” Blinken said. “This must be a moment of moral clarity.”
Blinken is delivering that message to Arab countries he is visiting through Sunday. Of these countries, only the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have explicitly condemned Hamas’ attacks.
Qatar’s first statement after the attack said Israel was “solely responsible” for the violence against its people resulting from the Gaza blockade. Saudi Arabia also issued a statement making similar claims.
The Jordanian government said in a statement on Friday that the country’s monarch, King Abdullah, had pressed Blinken on the need for a humanitarian corridor and aid to Gaza and “warned of collective punishment for Gaza residents.” It did not include any condemnation of Hamas.
Such talks highlight the challenges Mr. Blinken faces among Arab nations. But it also confirms the personal misgivings many Arab leaders have about Hamas, says Dennis, who has served as a Middle East adviser to several presidents and is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Ross said.
Blinken’s challenge, he said, is to “remind everyone that Hamas cannot be considered victorious.” Hamas must be considered decisively defeated. ”
“Everyone I meet privately would agree,” Ross said.
Blinken also pursued two other important goals on this trip.
One is to tell countries in contact with Hezbollah and Iran not to join the war. The other is to help Hamas-influenced countries win the release of about 150 hostages captured on Saturday. Mr Blinken was accompanied on his visit by Steve Gillen, the US deputy special envoy for hostage affairs, who remained in Israel after his departure.
White House officials said Mr. Biden spoke by phone Friday with Mr. Guillen’s boss, special envoy for hostage affairs Roger Carstens, and other senior officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan. participated in.
Qatar is an important interlocutor, making Blinken’s suspension there particularly sensitive. Officials in Doha have held talks with Iran, hosted Hamas leadership offices and brokered the release of hostages and prisoners of war in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
“Qatar is demonstrating the urgency with which this effort is being taken,” Blinken said Friday at a press conference with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha. I am grateful to you.”
Asked by a reporter whether the government would continue to allow Hamas to operate in Doha, which has been the subject of harsh criticism from Israeli supporters, al-Thani said the office would continue to allow Hamas to operate “as a means of communication and It will be useful as a means of bringing peace and tranquility to the region.” ”
Al-Thani also said, in words clearly aimed at Israel, that Qatar opposes “collective punishment” and “the beating or targeting of civilians, women and children.”
In Qatar, Mr. Blinken did not publicly address the issue of Hamas’s presence there, but he did generalize that following Saturday’s “unconscionable” attack, “we can no longer do business as usual with Hamas.” Ta.
“You would probably expect him to be more candid in his private life,” Ross said.
Blinken, who is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, is concerned about how the conflict could affect months-long negotiations seeking a deal that could formally normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. We’re going to talk about gender. The deal would include U.S. concessions to Riyadh, including a security agreement.
Since the Hamas attack and the start of Israel’s military operation against the Palestinians, Saudi officials have taken a wait-and-see attitude before moving forward with normalization talks. National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby told reporters Friday that the United States remains supportive of the Saudi-Israeli deal.
“But clearly these are sovereign states,” he added. “They can decide for themselves under what circumstances and at what pace they will act. And, of course, they can decide for how long they will continue their efforts.”
During his visit to Israel, Austin met with Israeli leaders and also reaffirmed U.S. support for renewed attacks on Hamas.
Mr. Austin arrived from Brussels to attend the NATO Defense Ministers’ Meeting. He saw firsthand some of the weapons and security aid that the Biden administration rushed to Israel after last weekend’s attacks. A second shipment of weapons arrived on Friday, Israeli officials said.
Asked about the potential for civilian casualties in Gaza as Israeli forces prepare for a major ground offensive there, Austin said Israel has the right to defend itself. He added that he had been working with the Israeli military for many years, starting when he was an army general.
“They are professional, disciplined and focused on the right thing,” he told reporters after meeting for nearly two hours with Israeli Prime Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel’s war cabinet.
Eric Schmidt He contributed reporting from Washington.