Blinken meets with key Middle Eastern powers in Jordan to plan post-war future for Gaza as Arab countries demand urgent end to bloodshed – a day after Israel snubbed call for temporary ceasefire

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued his meetings with key Middle East foreign ministers in Jordan on Saturday and urged support in planning a post-war future for Gaza.

Blinken is trying to build support among leading Arab countries that remain wary as Israel steps up its military operations in Gaza.

Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar call for “an immediate ceasefire, the delivery of humanitarian aid and ways to end the dangerous decline that threatens the security of the region,” the Jordanian ministry said of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Friday.

Blinken faced pressure to facilitate a ceasefire amid the leader’s outrage over the bombing and siege of the Gaza Strip.

“We must work together to stop this madness,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told the US Secretary of State.

The talks in Amman come just a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly rejected calls for a humanitarian ceasefire after Blinken warned that Israel risks losing any hope of eventual peace with the Palestinians unless it resolves the humanitarian crisis softened.

Heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters also raged on the outskirts of Gaza City on Saturday.

Blinken met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Mikati stressed the importance of pursuing a ceasefire in Gaza and stopping what he described as Israeli aggression in southern Lebanon, Mikati’s office said.

Lebanese Hezbollah has clashed with Israeli forces across the border since the Hamas attack on Israel, which left 1,400 dead.

Blinken thanked Mikati for his leadership “in preventing Lebanon from getting into a war that the Lebanese people do not want,” the US State Department said.

He also discussed U.S. efforts to secure humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

The United States is deeply concerned that Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has stepped up missile and cross-border attacks on northern Israel, will play a more active role in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Blinken did not speak publicly as he posed for photos with Qatar’s foreign minister, whose country has emerged as Hamas’ most influential interlocutor.

Qatar has been crucial in negotiating the limited release of hostages held by Hamas, and in convincing Hamas to allow foreign citizens to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt.

Blinken also met with the head of the UN agency charged with assisting Palestinian refugees, thanking Phillipe Lazzarini for his group’s “extraordinary work every day as a lifeline for the Palestinians in Gaza and a major, major expense item.

The agency has seen about 70 staffers die in the war so far and is critically short of essential supplies such as food, medicine and fuel.

Later, Blinken entered into joint talks with the foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the chairman of the PLO executive committee.

All have denounced Israeli tactics against Hamas, which they say constitutes unlawful collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

While in Amman, Blinken planned to visit Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose country this week recalled its ambassador to Israel and told the Israeli envoy not to return to Jordan until the Gaza crisis was over.

Blinken will go to Turkey on Sunday for meetings with President Recep Tayyep Erdogan and top officials, the State Department said. Turkey followed Jordan’s example on Saturday and announced that it had recalled its ambassador to Israel over the situation in Gaza.

Arab states have so far resisted US suggestions that they play a greater role in the latest Middle East crisis. They expressed outrage at the civilian toll of Israeli military operations, but believed that Gaza was a problem largely of Israel’s own making.

The Blinken group meeting was convened by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi, who said the meeting was organized “in the context of their efforts aimed at stopping Israel’s war on Gaza and the humanitarian catastrophe it is causing.” , the ministry said. .

Egyptian officials said there is consensus among Arab governments involved in talks with the US to oppose “any discussion” on the post-war period in Gaza before establishing a ceasefire and the delivery of more humanitarian aid and fuel to Gaza is allowed.

They said Egypt, in coordination with Qatar, has proposed humanitarian breaks from the fighting of six to 12 hours a day to allow aid deliveries, evacuations of seriously injured people to Egypt and the import of fuel. The United Nations would oversee fuel deliveries to hospitals and other vital civilian infrastructure.

U.S. officials believe that Arab support, however modest, will be critical to efforts to alleviate deteriorating conditions in Gaza and lay the foundation for what would replace Hamas as the territory’s governing authority, if and when Israel succeeds in exterminating the group.

But there are few ideas about the future governance of Gaza.

Blinken and other U.S. officials have vaguely suggested that this could include a combination of a revived Palestinian Authority, which has had no role in Gaza since 2007, with international organizations and possibly a peacekeeping force.

U.S. officials acknowledge that these ideas have been received with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

About 100 trucks have entered Gaza in the past two days and the current capacity is about 100 to 105 per day. The Israelis have indicated they are now willing to consider screening and allowing as many trucks as can be handled efficiently, according to two officials traveling with Blinken.

Given the already exponential increase in the population of southern Gaza by roughly 800,000 to one million and the possibility that many of the 300,000 to 400,000 people still in the north will flee south, needs are expected to increase increase and as many as 500 to 600 trucks will be needed. per day, officials said.

Increasing that capacity will also depend on the relative stability of the security situation on the ground, something that is unlikely to be achieved without humanitarian pauses, they said.

The officials said they believed Israelis would come to understand the need to provide adequate aid to Gaza’s growing southern population, but were still grappling with what pauses could mean for the intense pressure they are putting on Hamas to shut down the group. to release Israelis and others in custody. taken hostage, officials said.