Blinken urges Hamas to accept ‘extraordinarily generous’ Israeli peace proposal, releasing hostages

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia Monday morning for the first part of a wider Middle East tour, where he called Hamas to accept the latest and “extraordinarily generous” proposal for a Gaza truce.

The United States has seen “measurable progress” in the humanitarian situation in Gaza over the past few weeks,  Blinken said upon his arrival, but urged Israel to do more.

Speaking in Riyadh at the opening of a US-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting, Blinken said the most effective way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was to achieve a ceasefire. He then said Washington continued efforts to prevent the Gaza war from expanding.

Later, Blinken said the United States and Saudi Arabia have done intensive work together over the last month on Israeli-Saudi normalization.

World Economic Forum Pannel

During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, Blinken said he had not yet seen a plan from Israel on a Rafah offensive that would protect civilians.

The Saudi foreign minister said on Monday when asked about Saudi-US security pact negotiations that bilateral agreements between the kingdom and the United States were “very very close.”

“Most of the work has already been done. We have the broad outlines of what we think needs to happen on the Palestinian front,” Faisal bin Farhan said in a panel at the World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh.

“The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly,” Blinken said during the World Economic Forum meeting, followed by “I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that Egypt was hopeful about a proposal for a truce and hostage release in the Gaza Strip but that it was waiting for a response on the proposal from Israel and Hamas.

Shoukry was speaking on a panel in Riyadh with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who said the war in Gaza had turned “Israel into a pariah state.”

This trip is aimed at discussing with Arab partners post-war Gaza and to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take concrete and tangible steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

In Riyadh, Blinken is expected to meet with senior Saudi leaders and hold a wider meeting with counterparts from five Arab states – Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan – to further the discussions on what governance of the Gaza Strip would look like after the war, according to a senior State Department official.

Blinken is also expected to bring together Arab countries with the European states and discuss how Europe can help the rebuilding effort of the tiny enclave, which has been reduced to a wasteland in the six-month long Israeli bombardment, following Hamas’s brutal terror attack on Israel and its kidnapping of over 200 hostages to Gaza.

A group of European nations, including Norway, plan to recognize Palestinian statehood in conjunction with the presentation of an Arab state-backed peace plan to the United Nations.

“We can see by joining forces we can make this more meaningful. We really want to recognize the Palestinian state, but we know that is something you do once,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh.

Blinken’s trip comes as Egypt was expected to host leaders of Hamas to discuss prospects for a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Advancing regional security

In Saudi Arabia, the Secretary will participate in a Ministerial meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council to advance coordination on regional security, the State Department shared on Saturday in its plan for the trip.  

Blinken will visit Israel and Jordan after he visits Saudi Arabia, the State Department announced on Sunday. The US official will be in the region until May 1.

Conversations over Gaza’s rebuilding and governance have been going on for months with a clear mechanism yet to emerge.

The United States agrees with Israel’s objective to that Hamas needs to be eradicated and can no longer play a role in Gaza’s future but Washington does not want Israel to re-occupy the strip.

Instead, it has been looking at a structure that will include a reformed Palestinian Authority with support from Arab states.

This is a developing story. 

JPost