Blinken Talks About Gaza’s Future in Meeting With Palestinian Authority Leader

Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, met on Wednesday with Mahmoud Abbas, the chief of the Palestinian Authority, to debate Israel’s battle in opposition to Hamas in Gaza and the place that the authority might play there when the battle ebbs.

Mr. Blinken traveled in a convoy from Tel Aviv in Israel to Ramallah, the seat of the authority, throughout the Israeli-occupied West Monetary establishment. The two males shook fingers exterior the authority’s headquarters and sat down for talks with their aides.

The Biden administration has said it envisions a activity for the Palestinian Authority in governing every the West Monetary establishment and Gaza. Hamas has run Gaza as a result of it gained elections throughout the tiny coastal strip in 2006 and violently drove out Fatah, the group now accountable for the authority throughout the West Monetary establishment.

President Biden has moreover said Israel ought to allow for the formation of a Palestinian state, arguing {{that a}} political reply is the one technique out of the decades-old battle between Israelis and Palestinians. Mr. Blinken reiterated that view in a info conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after conferences with Israeli officers. He moreover said Saudi Arabia — whose ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he met with on Monday — was nonetheless ready to ponder establishing common diplomatic relations with Israel, nevertheless supplied that Israel agreed to concrete steps in direction of the establishment of a free and neutral Palestine.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and his right-wing authorities have rejected the notion of a Palestinian state, and Mr. Netanyahu said years ago that Israeli officers ought to help a robust Hamas in Gaza with a goal to undermine the Palestinian Authority and the considered a unified Palestine. He has moreover rejected any substantial place for the authority in Gaza.

After meeting with Mr. Abbas, Mr. Blinken consider to fly to Bahrain for additional talks on the battle. The Bahrain stop was a last-minute addition to his multiday diplomatic mission all through the jap Mediterranean and the Heart East that began remaining Friday. Mr. Blinken plans to satisfy in Cairo later throughout the journey with the president of Egypt, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Mr. el-Sisi and Mr. Abbas are anticipated to be in Aqaba, Jordan, shortly Wednesday for a catastrophe administration summit known as by King Abdullah II.