Category Archives: Antony Blinken

Israel under pressure to let more aid into Gaza as hostage talks continue

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Antony Blinken holds two-hour meeting with Netanyahu while Hamas considers ceasefire proposal

Israel’s leaders were under renewed pressure to allow more aid into Gaza on Wednesday after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told Benjamin Netanyahu to “accelerate and sustain improvements” seen during recent days in the amount of humanitarian assistance reaching the territory.

Humanitarian agencies say that though the number of lorries entering Gaza after being vetted by Israel has increased significantly, these still deliver only a fraction of what is needed.

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Saudis push for ‘plan B’ that excludes Israel from key deal with US

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Riyadh seeks more modest agreement with Washington in absence of Gaza ceasefire and Netanyahu resistance to Palestinian state

The US and Saudi Arabia have drafted a set of agreements on security and technology-sharing which were intended to be linked to a broader Middle East settlement involving Israel and the Palestinians.

However, in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza and in the face of adamant resistance from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government to the creation of a Palestinian state – and its apparent determination to launch an offensive on Rafah – the Saudis are pushing for a more modest plan B, which excludes the Israelis.

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Middle East crisis: 40-day ceasefire on table if Hamas accepts deal, says UK foreign minister – as it happened

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Current proposed deal includes 40-day ceasefire and release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages, says David Cameron

Antony Blinken has told a meeting of regional leaders in Riyadh that the most effective way to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza is to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia, the US secretary of state said that there had been “measurable progress” in delivering aid to Gaza, which Israel has beseiged for six months, but more is needed.

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Antony Blinken to visit Saudi Arabia to try to restart Gaza ceasefire talks

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US secretary of state to discuss avoiding regional conflict amid fears about Israeli ground invasion of Rafah

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will travel to Saudi Arabia to try to restart fraught ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel and discuss efforts to prevent spiralling regional conflict, while other senior US officials claimed Israel was willing to listen to their fears about a ground invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city.

A delegation from Hamas, expected in Cairo in parallel to Blinken’s visit, said they would provide a response to an Israeli proposal focused on an initial hostage release.

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Chinese jets fly sorties over Taiwan strait in show of force as US delegation departs

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End of secretary of state Antony Blinken’s three-day visit marks upsurge in military activity after period of relative calm

Taiwan has reported that a dozen Chinese warplanes flew sorties close to the island on Saturday, in a sudden surge of military activity just hours after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, left Beijing following talks with President Xi Jinping and top Chinese officials.

Before Blinken’s three-day visit to China, US officials had pointed to a period of relative calm in the Taiwan strait over the past few months, after years of aggressive Chinese military manoeuvres and threats, as a factor in improving US-Chinese relations since Joe Biden held a summit meeting with Xi in November.

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US has seen evidence of attempts by China to influence election, says Blinken

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Secretary of state met Xi Jinping in Beijing and warned of sanctions over China’s support for Russian arms industry

Washington has seen evidence of attempts by Beijing to “influence and arguably interfere” in this year’s US elections, the secretary of state has said during a trip to China, also warning that Chinese companies face new sanctions if they do not stop supplying material and equipment to the Russian arms industry.

Antony Blinken told CNN that he had reiterated Joe Biden’s message to Xi Jinping not to interfere in November’s vote – a warning that reportedly received assurances from the Chinese president that he would not do so. Asked whether China was keeping to its promise, Blinken said: “We have seen, generally speaking, evidence of attempts to influence, and arguably interfere, and we want to make sure that that’s cut off as quickly as possible.

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Antony Blinken arrives in China with warning for Beijing over support of Russia

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US secretary of state to hold talks with Chinese counterpart and most likely with President Xi Jinping

Antony Blinken has landed in China amid a worsening rift between the world’s two most powerful countries that threatens to overshadow otherwise improving relations.

The US secretary of state arrives with a warning that the US and its European allies are no longer prepared to tolerate China’s sale of weapon components and dual-use products to Russia, which are helping Vladimir Putin rebuild and modernise his arms factories, enabling him to intensify his onslaught on Ukraine.

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Antony Blinken rejects suggestion of ‘double standard’ on Israel

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Comments come as US state department report finds that Gaza war has had negative impact on human rights in Israel

The US secretary of state has rejected the idea that Washington might have a “double standard” when applying US law to allegations of abuses by the Israeli military in Gaza, while suggesting that examinations of such charges are ongoing.

“In general, as we’re looking at human rights and the condition of human rights around the world, we apply the same standard to everyone. That doesn’t change whether the country is an adversary, a competitor, a friend or an ally,” Antony Blinken told a news conference as he announced the department’s annual human rights country reports.

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UK will not suspend arms exports to Israel, David Cameron says

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Foreign secretary says Britain’s position on export licences is ‘unchanged’ after reviewing latest legal advice

David Cameron has confirmed the UK government will not suspend arms exports to Israel after the killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike on Gaza last week, as he insisted the UK would continue to act within international law.

The foreign secretary said that he had reviewed the most recent legal advice about the situation on the ground but this left the UK’s position on export licences “unchanged”.

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Father of killed World Central Kitchen worker tells Blinken US should suspend aid to Israel

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‘If the United States threatened to suspend aid, maybe my son would be alive today,’ John Flickinger told the US secretary of state

When the US’s top diplomat called with condolences over the killing of John Flickinger’s son in the Israeli airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza, Flickinger knew what he wanted to say.

The grieving father told Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, that the killings by Israel in the Hamas-run territory must end – and that the United States needs to use its power and leverage over its closest Middle East ally to make that happen.

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Charities halt Gaza aid after drone attack that killed seven workers

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Humanitarian groups say they cannot operate safely after Israeli targeting of food charity convoy prompts international outcry

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza seems likely to worsen after charities announced they are suspending operations in the territory in the aftermath of an Israeli drone attack which repeatedly targeted a clearly identified convoy of international aid workers, killing seven.

The strikes on a team from World Central Kitchen (WCK) led the charity – along with other aid organisations such as Anera, which helps refugees around the Middle East, and the US-based Project Hope, which focuses on healthcare – to announce that it would pause operations in Gaza to protect its staff.

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Blinken calls new Israeli settlements inconsistent with international law

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Secretary of state’s characterization of West Bank settlements signals return to longstanding US policy reversed by Trump

Israel’s expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank was inconsistent with international law, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday, signaling a return to longstanding US policy on the issue, which had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.

The Trump administration in 2019 in effect backed Israel’s right to build West Bank settlements by abandoning a long-held US position that they were “inconsistent with international law”.

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Overnight Israeli airstrikes kill scores in Gaza as fears grow of push into Rafah

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More than 127 reportedly killed in bombings, including in Rafah where more than a million people are sheltering

Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed scores of people overnight, as fears grow of the military campaign intensifying in the southern city of Rafah, a tiny pocket of the territory where more than a million people are sheltering.

Amid intensifying divisions in Israel’s government over the war, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was expected to arrive in the region on Sunday, his fifth trip since the militant group attacked Israel on 7 October, killing at least 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.

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Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘plausibly’ amounts to genocide, US court finds

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But federal judge in California says lawsuit aimed at stopping US military support for Israel is outside court’s jurisdiction

A federal court in California has ruled that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “plausibly” amounts to genocide, but dismissed a case aimed at stopping US military support for Israel as being outside the court’s jurisdiction.

“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases,” the US district court in the northern district of California ruled. “The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter.

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Blinken restates commitment to Palestinian state on West Bank visit

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US secretary of state met Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, on visit dismissed as ‘theatre’ by residents

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, restated Washington’s commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state during a brief trip to the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, a visit dismissed by many residents as “theatre”.

Blinken told Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), that the US position was that a Palestinian state must stand alongside Israel, “with both living in peace and security”, a spokesperson said.

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Israeli prime minister says “no intention of permanently occupying Gaza” – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

The Times of Israel reports that Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet will meet at 7pm tonight (5pm GMT) to discuss Israeli plans for the Gaza Strip when the war has finished.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that at least five Palestinians were injured and one detained in an Israeli security raid on Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It cites the Palestine Red Crescent Society saying a child and an elderly woman were among the injured.

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Antony Blinken tells Israel: Palestinian rights are key to peace

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US secretary of state rejects calls for immediate ceasefire but urges ally to make ‘hard decisions’ as fighting continues

Anthony Blinken has reaffirmed the United States’ “unique bond” with Israel, and rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but told his hosts in Tel Aviv that other regional powers have made clear that a pathway to the realisation of Palestinian political rights is essential for peace in the region.

Hinting at having held difficult talks with Israeli officials on Tuesday, the US secretary of state said the exceptional friendship between the two countries demanded that the US be “as forthright as possible when the choices matter most” and called for Israel to make “hard decisions”.

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Blinken returns to Middle East and warns of risk war could spread

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US secretary of state begins visit to region as fears grow Israel could expand Gaza conflict to Lebanon

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has returned to the Middle East for the fourth time in three months as he warned Israel’s war against Hamas risked spreading throughout the region.

Recent intensifying violence between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, increasing attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and strikes by Tehran-linked groups on US bases in Iraq, have created an increasingly febrile atmosphere across the Middle East.

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Blinken puts pressure on Middle East countries to contain Gaza conflict

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The US secretary of state was speaking in Turkey, on trip that will take him to Jordan, Egypt and Israel

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has urged Middle East countries to use their influence over regional actors to ensure the Gaza conflict is contained and prevent “an endless cycle of violence,” as he continued his week-long trip aimed at calming tensions.

Blinken was speaking on Saturday, after Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group said it had fired rockets at Israel, who said it had struck a “terrorist cell” in retaliation. Hezbollah called the strikes a “preliminary response” to the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week in an attack widely attributed to Israel

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Creation of Palestinian state is only way to peace, EU foreign policy chief says – as it happened

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Josep Borrell wants European-Arab initiative to revive a peace process, with the ultimate aim being a two-state solution

The World Health Organization and the United Nations have made a new delivery of medical supplies to southern Gaza, the WHO director-general has said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the shipment included eight refrigerators, eight solar panels, and clean delivery kits to supports 66 births as well as medicines and supplies to enable surgeries. He added that it would support 142,000 people requiring care.

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