Senior US, French officials in Middle East seeking to ease Gaza war
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[April 29, 2024]
By Humeyra Pamuk and John Irish
RIYADH (Reuters) -French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on
Monday talks on a ceasefire in Gaza were progressing as he joined U.S.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Saudi Arabia on a diplomatic push
to ease the war between Israel and Hamas.
Sejourne was expected to hold talks in Riyadh with ministers of Arab and
other Western countries as well as Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas.
"Things are moving forward but you always have to be careful in these
discussions and negotiations. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic and
we need a ceasefire," Sejourne told Reuters on the sidelines of a World
Economic Forum (WEF) meeting.
"We will discuss the hostages, humanitarian situation and the ceasefire.
Things are progressing, but we must always remain prudent in these
discussions and negotiations."
Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the first stop in a broader
trip to the Middle East.
Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and
seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel retaliated by imposing a total siege on Gaza, then mounting an
air and ground assault that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians,
according to health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Palestinians have been suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and
medicine in a humanitarian crisis that has accompanied an Israeli
military offensive that has demolished much of the impoverished strip.
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Blinken, speaking at the opening of a meeting with Gulf Arab states,
said the most effective way to address the humanitarian crisis and
create space for a more lasting solution was to get a ceasefire that
allowed the release of hostages held by Hamas.
"We still need to get more aid in and around Gaza. We need to improve
deconfliction with the humanitarian assistance workers. And we have to
find greater efficiency and greater safety, and deconfliction is at the
heart of that," he said.
In Riyadh, Blinken is expected to discuss with Arab foreign ministers
what the governance of the Gaza Strip might look like after the
Israel-Hamas war ends, according to a senior State Department official.
Blinken is also expected to bring together Arab and European countries
and discuss how Europe can help reconstruction efforts in the Gaza
Strip, which has been reduced to a wasteland in a six-month-long Israeli
bombardment.
Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh said all parties needed to
find a path towards a two-state solution to the conflict or the Middle
East risked another catastrophe.
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![](../images/042924PIX/news_p34.jpg)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken poses during a group photo
session with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman
bin Jassim Al Thani, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal
bin Farhan bin Abdullah and other representatives of the Gulf
Cooperation Council on the day of the Joint Ministerial Meeting of
the GCC-U.S. Strategic Partnership to discuss the humanitarian
crises faced in Gaza, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 29, 2024.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool
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"What we have to look at is an irreversible pathway towards
realizing a two-state solution ..so that we are not in this bind
again in a couple of years and drag the region and perhaps the
entire world into further tension and endanger global peace and
security," he said at the WEF meeting in Riyadh.
Israeli airstrikes on three houses in the southern Gaza city of
Rafah killed at least 20 Palestinians and wounded many others,
medics said on Monday, as Egyptian and Qatari mediators were
expected to hold a new round of ceasefire talks with Hamas leaders
in Cairo.
An assault on Rafah, which Israel says is the last Hamas stronghold
in Gaza, has been anticipated for weeks but foreign governments and
the United Nations have expressed concern that such action could
result in a humanitarian disaster given the number of displaced
people crammed into the area.
Conversations about 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 that Hamas needs to
be eradicated and cannot play a role in Gaza’s future, but
Washington does not want Israel to re-occupy the enclave.
Instead, it has been looking at a structure that will include a
reformed Palestinian Authority - which exercises limited self-rule
in the Israeli-occupied West Bank - with support from Arab states.
Blinken will also discuss with Saudi authorities efforts for a
normalization accord between the kingdom and Israel, a deal that
includes Washington giving Riyadh agreements on bilateral defense
and security commitments as well as nuclear cooperation.
In return for normalization, Arab states and Washington are pushing
for Israel to agree to a pathway for Palestinian statehood,
something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly
rejected.
From Riyadh, Blinken will head to Jordan and Israel and the focus of
the trip will shift to the efforts to improve the dire humanitarian
situation in Gaza.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Pesha Majid and
Maha El Dahan; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Michael Perry,
Angus MacSwan and Mark Heinrich)
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