As tensions from the Gaza battle echoed throughout the area, Mr. Blinken and Mr. Abbas additionally mentioned efforts to revive calm within the West Financial institution and to cease extremist violence in opposition to Palestinians, in response to an announcement from the State Division. Strikes by the Israeli navy and lethal assaults by armed Israeli settlers within the West Financial institution have surged for the reason that Oct. 7 Hamas incursion.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians stay below Israeli occupation within the West Financial institution, and Mr. Blinken has described the extremist violence in opposition to them as “an acute concern” for the US.
Mr. Abbas’s group, the Palestinian Authority, is a rival of Hamas, which ousted it from Gaza in a violent coup in 2007. Mr. Abbas has lengthy advocated the institution of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and Palestinian safety forces below his route have labored carefully with Israel to arrest Palestinian militants.
There are indications that if Hamas is defeated, the Palestinian Authority may have a job in Gaza. After the assembly on Sunday, a senior State Division official, talking on the situation of anonymity, mentioned that Mr. Blinken had made it clear that the US believes the Palestinian Authority ought to play a central function in what comes subsequent in Gaza.
Mr. Abbas has not, nonetheless, publicly condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas assaults, largely out of concern of inflaming sentiment amongst Palestinians, with whom he’s deeply unpopular. He has referred to as extra typically for a cease-fire and for protections for Palestinian civilians.
Mr. Blinken and Mr. Abbas final held talks three weeks in the past in Amman, days after the Hamas assaults.
On his journey to Baghdad on Sunday, the secretary of state met with Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, in what amounted to a present of assist.
Baghdad was the newest cease on a visit by way of the area aimed toward containing the fallout from Israel’s battle with Hamas. One of many Biden administration’s high priorities has been to discourage Iran and its proxies — significantly Hezbollah, the armed group that controls areas of Lebanon alongside Israel’s northern border — from coming into the fray.
