US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday urged “calm” and “de-escalation” after violence flared between Israel and the Palestinians, as he began a Middle East tour in Cairo.
Washington’s top diplomat, after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the nation’s foreign minister, left Egypt headed for Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Israel is reeling from an attack that killed seven civilians outside a synagogue in annexed east Jerusalem on Friday last week, a day after the deadliest army raid in years in the occupied West Bank claimed 10 lives.
Photo: Reuters
“We’ve seen horrific terrorist attacks in the last couple of days that we condemn and deplore,” Blinken told Saudi Arabian TV channel Al Arabiya.
At a news conference in Cairo, Blinken urged “all parties to calm things down and de-escalate tensions,” while also stressing the “importance of working for a two-state solution.”
In the latest bloodshed, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said — the 35th Palestinian killed this month, according to a tally based on official sources from both sides.
The US has historically taken a lead on Middle East diplomacy and Egypt, which has relations with Israel, has long served as a mediator in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Blinken was later due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a veteran leader who returned to power late last year at the helm of a right-wing government, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Blinken had long planned the visit, but the trip takes on a new urgency after some of the worst violence in years.
A Palestinian gunman on Friday last week killed seven people outside a synagogue in a settler neighborhood in east Jerusalem, and another attack followed on Saturday.
An Israeli army raid on Thursday on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank had killed 10 people, in the deadliest such operation in years.
Israel said it was targeting Islamic Jihad militants and later hit sites in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire.
Abbas met with CIA Director William Burns in Ramallah late on Sunday to discuss the “dangerous developments,” Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
The US embassy declined to comment.
Blinken yesterday met al-Sisi and then Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry.
Blinken commended al-Sisi for “Egypt’s important role in promoting stability in the region” and “discussed ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said.
Egyptian diplomats and intelligence services are regularly called upon to intercede between Israelis and Palestinians.
Al-Sisi’s spokesman Bassam Radi said that the “recent developments affirm the importance of working immediately within political and security frameworks to calm the situation and curtail any unilateral decisionmaking from either party.”
Blinken’s Israel visit is part of Washington’s efforts to engage quickly with Netanyahu, who had tense relations with the administration of former US president Barack Obama.
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