US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hear demands for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza when he meets Middle East foreign ministers in Jordan on Saturday, Jordan’s foreign ministry said.
Saudi, Qatari, Emirati, Egyptian, and Jordanian foreign ministers as well as Palestinian representatives will stress the “Arab stance calling for an immediate ceasefire, delivering humanitarian aid and ways of ending the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Israel has attacked Hamas-controlled Gaza in retaliation for an October 7 raid on Israel by Hamas militants that killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages. The civilian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 9,000, and humanitarian conditions in the enclave have grown dire.
Blinken, who arrived in Jordan on Friday after earlier meeting Israeli leaders, said the US was determined that there not be a second or third front in the conflict. He also appealed to Israel to take steps to protect civilians in Gaza.
The Arab ministers will hold a meeting ahead of their discussions with Blinken, the statement said.
Jordan puts pressure on the West
King Abdullah told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call on Friday the international community urgently needed to push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to protect civilians, the royal court said.
The monarch said Israel’s military campaign would not succeed and the only path to permanent peace was revived negotiations on an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
US-brokered negotiations towards a “two-state solution” of Palestinian independence in Israeli-occupied territories have been frozen for almost a decade.
Jordan is a staunch US ally and shares a border with the West Bank and Israel. Concerned about the potential for a wider conflict, Amman has boosted border security and asked Washington to deploy Patriot air defense systems.
The monarch has said he fears the Gaza war could trigger a new displacement of Palestinians to Jordan, already home to a large population of Palestinians dispossessed from their land when Israel was created in 1948.
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