US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed hope on Monday that Hamas would accept an “extraordinarily generous” offer to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages.
“Hamas has before it an extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous proposal from Israel,” Blinken said in Riyadh at the World Economic Forum.
“Right now, the only thing that stands between Hamas and the people of Gaza is the ceasefire,” insisted the American official.
“They have to make a decision, and they have to do it quickly […]I hope they make the right decision,” he said of the leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“We can have a fundamental change in the dynamic” after more than six months of war, he said.
Blinken also discussed the ceasefire proposal with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
He insisted during this interview that “all efforts be made to convince Hamas to accept the immediate ceasefire proposal that is on the table,” according to a State Department statement.
Although Turkey maintains diplomatic relations with Israel, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has strongly criticized the Israeli offensive in Gaza. He also expressed his desire to play a more active role in mediation, after Qatar indicated in recent weeks that it would step back.
Mr. Blinken also reiterated on the eve of a trip to Israel his country’s opposition to an Israeli offensive on the overpopulated town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
“We have not yet seen a plan that allows us to believe that civilians can be effectively protected,” Blinken told a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh.
He also believed that diplomacy had prevented the war between Israel and Hamas from spreading outside the Gaza Strip.
Standardization
“We came very close to an escalation or expansion of the conflict, and I think through very focused and very determined efforts we were able to avoid that,” Mr. Blinken said.
Regarding possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, he indicated that the security pact between his country and Riyadh for such normalization was almost concluded.
“The work that Saudi Arabia and the United States have done together under their own agreements is, I think, close to fruition,” he said.
Previously, Mr. Blinken pleaded Monday for an integrated defense of the Arab Gulf countries against Iran, with the idea of promoting a regional understanding including Israel.
Mr. Blinken began his seventh visit to the Middle East in Riyadh since the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, which sparked war against the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip, sparking growing public pressure in favor of a ceasefire.
It is also Mr. Blinken’s first trip to the region since Iran’s mid-April attack with drones and missiles on Israel.
“This attack highlights the acute and growing threat posed by Iran, but also the compelling need to work together on an integrated defense,” Mr. Blinken told his Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) counterparts gathered in Ryad.