عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Blinken Set to Return to the Mideast for 5th Time Since Gaza Conflict Began

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a press conference held by him and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a press conference held by him and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Blinken Set to Return to the Mideast for 5th Time Since Gaza Conflict Began

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a press conference held by him and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a press conference held by him and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (not pictured) at the State Department in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to the Middle East later this week on his fifth urgent diplomatic mission since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October, the White House and a State Department official said Wednesday.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby and the State Department official said Blinken would travel to the Mideast this weekend as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to prepare for post-conflict reconstruction and governance of Gaza, ramp up humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, release hostages held by Hamas and prevent the war from spreading.

The trip comes as discussions over a cease-fire and hostage release are intensifying, but also as fears grow of a regional conflict.

“These negotiations, our negotiations, are very, very active," Kirby said, noting talks held last weekend between CIA Director William Burns, senior Israeli and Egyptian intelligence officials and Qatar's prime minister. “We believe that the discussions have been productive. They’ve been moving in the right direction.”

He also recalled a recent trip to the Mideast by national security council official Brett McGurk, a call between President Joe Biden and the emir of Qatar, whose country is the chief interlocutor with Hamas, and he said: Blinken “will be heading back over to the region at the end of this week.”

The State Department official said Blinken would be traveling to the Middle East “in the coming days” but could not give exact dates or destinations because the trip was still being planned. On his previous visits, Blinken has stopped in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye and Iraq.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

UN Envoy to Syria Warns that Threat of Terrorism is `Resurging' with Attacks by ISIS Extremists

UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen (AFP)
UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen (AFP)
TT
TT

UN Envoy to Syria Warns that Threat of Terrorism is `Resurging' with Attacks by ISIS Extremists

UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen (AFP)
UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen (AFP)

The top UN envoy for Syria told the Security Council on Monday that the threat of terrorism is “resurging” with attacks by ISIS extremists set to double this year, endangering civilians already facing a “protracted state of displacement and dire humanitarian conditions.”
UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen said Syria is “riddled with armed actors, listed terrorist groups, foreign armies and front-lines” 13 years after President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on peaceful protests against his government turned to civil war. Nearly a half million people have died in the conflict and half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced.
The ISIS group declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq that it seized in 2014. It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year battle that killed tens of thousands of people and left cities in ruins, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries.
Pedersen warned the Security Council of Syria’s delicate security situation.
“The threat of regional conflict cascading over Syria has not abated, particularly with an uptick in Israeli strikes on Syria,” Pedersen said.
Israel has attacked targets in Syria linked to Iran for years, but the strikes have escalated over the past five months as the war in Gaza and conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border continue.
US deputy ambassador Robert A. Wood blamed Iran, Assad’s greatest regional supporter, for the violence in Syria.
“Iran and its proxies and partners have only brought death and destruction and do nothing to help the Syrian people,” Wood said, calling on Assad to curb Iran’s influence.
The Syrian, Iranian, and Russian ambassadors to the UN strongly condemned Israel’s strikes on Syria.
Iranian Ambassador Amir Saeed Iravani said the attacks “flagrantly violate international humanitarian law” and are a “serious threat to regional peace and security.” He said Israel’s strikes add to the chaos created by Syria’s civil war.
Over 16 million people in Syria currently need humanitarian assistance and 7.2 million remain displaced in the “worst humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict,” Ramesh Rajasingham, coordination director in the UN humanitarian office, told the council.
He added that “severely reduced humanitarian funding” exacerbates Syrians’ suffering during months of extreme heat, when rainwater dries up and a lack of basic sanitation infrastructure increases the risk of water-borne diseases.
In opposition-held northwest Syria, over 900,000 people, more than half children, are not receiving “critical water and sanitation support,” Rajasingham said.
Rajasingham and Pedersen called for increased humanitarian access to Syria and international funding. The 2024 UN humanitarian appeal for $4 billion remains only 20% funded, “seriously constraining” humanitarian work, Rajasingham said.
On the political front, Pedersen urged the Security Council to pursue Syrian-led peace negotiations with the involvement of “all major international stakeholders,” in line with a unanimously adopted 2015 resolution by the council.
“The conflict is ultimately a political one that can only be resolved when the Syrian parties are able to realize their legitimate aspirations,” Pedersen said.
Last week, Syria announced that all 185 candidates from Assad’s Baath party won parliamentary seats in the country’s elections, a seven-seat increase to the party’s majority.
Pedersen said the elections are “not a substitute” for the political process outlined in the 2015 Security Council resolution, while Wood called the elections a “sham” and a “rubber stamp on Bashar Al-Assad’s continued dictatorship.”
Wood said the US “will not normalize relations with the Syrian regime or lift sanctions absent an authentic and enduring political solution.”