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Mr. Blinken met individually in Amman with King Abdullah II and Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s overseas minister. He thanked the king for Jordan’s position in sending humanitarian help to Gaza, and the 2 agreed to maintain coordinating on help, in line with an announcement by a State Division spokesman, Matthew Miller.
The U.S. has been urgent Israel for months to permit extra help into Gaza. Mr. Blinken strengthened that message with a go to to a warehouse with bins of canned meals that had been meant to be delivered to Gaza on vehicles organized by the United Nations World Meals Program.
Sheri Ritsema-Anderson, the resident U.N. coordinator in Jordan, informed reporters that in her 15 years working within the Center East, she had by no means seen a humanitarian scenario as dire because the one in Gaza, describing it as an “epic disaster.”
She mentioned about 220 vehicles of varied forms of help and gas are actually stepping into Gaza day by day, however that’s solely a fraction of the quantity wanted.
Earlier than the Oct. 7 Hamas assaults that prompted Israel to launch airstrikes and a floor invasion in Gaza, which has pressured a lot of the territory’s 2.2 million Palestinians from their properties, about 600 to 800 vehicles carried provides into Gaza every day. The territory has been underneath a de facto blockade by Israel, with the help of Egypt, for greater than 16 years.
Mr. Blinken praised the U.N. meals program, saying it was doing its work “at super danger” — a reference to the risks posed by Israeli airstrikes. And he emphasised the necessity to successfully distribute the help “all over the place in Gaza.” Assist vehicles are coming into Gaza via border crossings within the south, after being inspected by Israeli authorities. Though Israel has been withdrawing some fight forces from northern Gaza, a lot of the help shouldn’t be reaching the north, probably the most devastated a part of the strip.
In his assembly with the king, Mr. Blinken additionally reiterated that the U.S. was in opposition to transferring Palestinians out of Gaza, in line with Mr. Miller. Two far-right Israeli ministers endorsed that concept final week, drawing harsh rebukes from the U.S. and different nations.
Mr. Blinken flew into Doha, Qatar, within the afternoon and met with the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and with the prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, who additionally acts because the overseas minister. The officers spoke about potentialities for attempting to get Hamas to launch extra hostages and for making certain the battle doesn’t unfold throughout the area.
“It is a second of profound stress within the area,” Mr. Blinken mentioned at a information convention with the prime minister. “It is a battle that might simply metastasize.”
Mr. Blinken pointed to the current assaults within the Pink Sea by the Houthi militia of Yemen, which have jeopardized international delivery. Coping with the risk from the Houthis was one of many matters mentioned by American and Qatari officers in Doha. Tim Lenderking, the U.S. particular envoy for Yemen, joined Mr. Blinken’s delegation in Doha for the talks.
Mr. Blinken additionally expressed disappointment on the killing on Sunday in Gaza of Hamza Dahdouh, a contract journalist who was the eldest son of Wael Dahdouh, the bureau chief for Al Jazeera in Gaza.
Sheikh al-Thani mentioned that Qatar was attempting to push ahead with hostage talks, regardless of the potential for the current deadly bomb assault in Lebanon in opposition to Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy political chief of Hamas, to set again discussions. The bombing has been attributed to Israel.
“It has been ongoing,” the sheikh mentioned of the hostage talks, including that there have been “challenges, ups and downs, all through the method.”
After his conferences in Doha, Mr. Blinken flew to Abu Dhabi to have conferences with officers within the United Arab Emirates on Monday.
Mr. Blinken was in Turkey on Saturday, assembly along with his Turkish counterpart and with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with whom he mentioned the necessity to maintain the Gaza battle from spreading, amongst different topics, in line with a State Division assertion. Later, he met with Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on the island of Crete.
Chatting with reporters, Mr. Blinken indicated that Turkey may play a job in a plan for postwar Gaza.
“I feel from our conversations at present, it’s clear that Turkey is ready to play a optimistic, productive position in work that should occur the day after the battle ends,” he mentioned.
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