Category Archives: Antony Blinken

Israeli troops encircling Gaza City expected to enter in force within 48 hours

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Gaza split into two parts, says Israel, as US sends missile-carrying submarine to Middle East

The Israeli military says it has completely encircled Gaza City after more than a week of heavy fighting, in effect severing the territory into two, as Israeli ground troops appeared poised to enter the dense urban sprawl from the south.

What seemed to be the beginning of the second stage of the Israeli ground operation was accompanied by a barrage of 16 rockets fired from southern Lebanon towards the Israeli city of Haifa on Monday afternoon.

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What happens to Gaza the day after the war ends?

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A reformed Palestinian Authority or a multinational force have been mooted as solutions for security in the territory, but both proposals have met resistance

When Antony Blinken arrived in the Middle East on his most recent visit, one of the US secretary of state’s aims was to lift some of the fog over what happens to Gaza in the war’s aftermath, but he is meeting resistance both from Israel and Arab states.

Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said on Saturday at a press conference alongside Blinken: “What happens next? How can we even entertain what will happen in Gaza when we do not know what kind of Gaza will be left after this war is done? Are we going to be talking about a wasteland? Are we going to be talking about a whole population reduced to refugees? Simply, we do not know – we do not have all the variables to even start thinking about that.”

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Antony Blinken meets Arab leaders in fresh effort to stop Gaza conflict escalating

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US secretary of state meets officials from Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and UN as further civilian casualties reported in Gaza

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met senior Jordanian and other Arab officials in Amman on Saturday in the latest effort by Washington to avert a regional escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas, ease the acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza and build support for planning a post-conflict future for the territory.

The trip was Blinken’s second to the Middle East since the conflict began almost a month ago but came against the backdrop of further civilian casualties in Gaza and an apparent snub from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Israeli PM tells US: no pause in Gaza fighting without release of hostages

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Netanyahu says ‘full force’ offensive will continue, despite growing concerns over civilian casualties

Israel will continue its offensive in Gaza “with full force” and will refuse any temporary ceasefire that does not include the release of more than 240 hostages held by Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu has said, rejecting US calls for a pause in the fighting.

Earlier on Friday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, flew into Israel to urge the Israeli prime minister to temporarily stop its military offensive to allow aid into the territory amid rising concerns over civilian casualties as the fighting intensifies.

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Blinken to urge Israel to show restraint in campaign to destroy Hamas

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US secretary of state in Tel Aviv to call for pauses in fighting to allow more aid to enter Gaza

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Tel Aviv to meet Israel’s war cabinet and urge it to show greater restraint in its campaign to destroy Hamas, starting by allowing more aid to enter Gaza and implementing humanitarian pauses.

Israel says it has Hamas surrounded in Gaza City and has shown no willingness to back a break in the fighting advocated by the US president, Joe Biden, let alone agree a ceasefire.

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Top Biden officials urge Congress to pass military aid for Israel and Ukraine

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In hearing interrupted by protesters, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin try to beat Republican attempts to kill $106bn package

The Biden administration took its quest for emergency military aid for Israel and Ukraine to Capitol Hill on Tuesday in an all-out effort to overcome House Republican attempts to decimate a $106bn package while cutting key parts of the White House’s domestic policy.

In a stormy session interrupted several times by demonstrators, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and defense secretary Lloyd Austin, told a Senate hearing that assistance to both countries was closely linked and should not be decoupled, as demanded by leading Republicans who are keen to back Israel but oppose any further help for Ukraine.

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US asks Qatar to ‘turn down the volume’ of Al Jazeera news coverage

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Secretary of state Antony Blinken made request of Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed during frantic trip to Doha

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has reportedly asked Qatar to moderate Al Jazeera’s coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas, amid concerns within the Biden administration that the channel is inflaming public opinion and heightening the risks of a wider conflict.

Blinken raised the satellite news channel’s coverage with the Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, according to the website Axios, which said the US’s top diplomat had disclosed the request in a meeting with US Jewish leaders.

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‘The next stage is coming’: Israel issues warning as residents flee Gaza assault

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US urges restraint amid bombing of civilian evacuation convoy that left a reported 70 people dead, including women and children

Desperate Gaza City residents fled south in cars and lorries, carts and on foot on Saturday, risking death by airstrikes on the road to escape the even greater threat of an imminent Israeli ground attack on the north of the besieged enclave.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told troops massed in southern Israel that “the next stage is coming”, in a video shared by his office. The Israeli military announced on Saturday evening that it was preparing “significant ground operations”.

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Blinken urges Israel to avoid civilian deaths and wants safe zones in Gaza

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Top US diplomat tours Arab states in effort to avoid wider war over expected Israeli invasion of Gaza Strip

The US’s most senior diplomat has urged Israel to take every possible precaution to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza as he called for the establishment in the territory of safe zones where shelter, food, water and medical supplies can be provided.

“We have urged the Israelis to use every possible precaution to avoid harm to civilians,” the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said. “We recognise many Palestinian families in Gaza are suffering through no fault of their own and that Palestinian civilians have lost their lives.”

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US to send more arms to Israel before expected Gaza invasion

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Ground forces are gathering near the border, as UN says that Gaza is dangerously close to running out of food and water

The US pledged to send more arms to Israel on Thursday ahead of an expected ground assault in Gaza against Hamas, as the UN warned food and water supplies were running dangerously low in the blockaded enclave.

As America’s top diplomat flew into Israel following Saturday’s surprise cross-border assault by Hamas, the UK announced it would send two navy ships and would begin surveillance flights in its own show of support.

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Hamas attacks on Israel had echoes of Nazi massacres, says Antony Blinken

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At press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, US secretary of state says America will always be by Israel’s side

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said the attacks by Hamas on Israel on Saturday had “harrowing echoes” of Nazi massacres, as he stood alongside the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem in an act of public solidarity.

Blinken, who is Jewish, vowed that the US would stand for ever alongside Israel, and said he would use his tour of the region to urge all parties, especially Hezbollah, not to broaden the conflict or open a second front.

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Serbia pulls some troops back from Kosovo border after warning from US

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Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, announces move after US threatens punitive measures over buildup of troops

Serbia has pulled some of its troops back from the Kosovo border after US warnings that it could face punitive measures for what the White House called an “unprecedented” buildup of Serbian troops and armour.

The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, announced he had ordered troops to be pulled back. In a statement to the Financial Times, he said any military action would be counterproductive, adding: “Serbia does not want war”.

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India-Canada row: Blinken calls on Delhi to cooperate in push for ‘accountability’ over killing

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Secretary of state says US takes ‘very, very seriously’ incidents of transnational repression amid dispute over killing of Sikh separatist in British Columbia

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has called on India to cooperate with Canada and ensure “accountability” over the killing of a Sikh separatist, after Ottawa accused Delhi of involvement.

Blinken said the United States has been in touch with both India, with which it has warming ties, and Canada, a close ally, after the two countries engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.

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Blinken unveils steps to tackle ‘global threat’ of synthetic drugs at UN summit

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US secretary of state announced the formation of an international coalition to address crisis that has ‘an immeasurable cost’

US diplomats at the UN general assembly in New York have unveiled steps aimed at tackling the proliferation of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs which the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, described as a “global threat”.

At a meeting on Monday, the most senior US diplomat announced the formation of an international coalition to address the crisis, saying that the US “may have been to some extent a canary in the coalmine when it comes to fentanyl, but alas, we are not alone”.

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Joe Biden calls for stable US-China relationship during south-east Asia tour

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The US president’s remarks came after after meeting in Vietnam with Communist party official to secure global supply chain

Joe Biden’s national security tour of south-east Asia reached Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, where the president called for stability in the US-China relationship against an increasingly complex diplomatic picture in the region for his country.

“I don’t want to contain China,” Biden said. “I just want to make sure that we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it’s all about.”

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‘Goal is destruction of Ukraine’: ex-defence minister warns west of Putin’s aim

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Oleksii Reznikov urges unity against Russia ‘to save this world from catastrophe of world war three’

Ukraine’s former defence minister has warned his western counterparts that negotiations with Moscow will not bring peace, and that Vladimir Putin remains determined to destroy Ukraine entirely and to “assimilate” its citizens into the Russian Federation.

In an article for the Guardian, Oleksii Reznikov says any “deal” with the Kremlin would not end the conflict. “Russia demands the recognition of the occupied territories of Ukraine as its territory in exchange for the end of the war,” he writes.

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Russian strike on crowded Ukraine market leaves at least 17 dead

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Moscow targets cities with missiles as US secretary of state Antony Blinken makes surprise visit to Kyiv

A Russian strike has hit a crowded market in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, killing at least 17 people, as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian officials said a further 32 people were wounded in the attack, one of Russia’s deadliest attacks in months, 12 miles (20km) from the frontlines in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

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Antony Blinken arrives in Ukraine for surprise visit

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US secretary of state expected to announce initial package of military aid for Kyiv of up to $200m

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit that is his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital.

He is expected to announce a new package of US assistance of $175m-$200m during the two-day visit, AP reported, with a larger package worth more than $1bn expected later this week, according to a senior state department official.

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China officials hit by US sanctions over ‘forced assimilation’ of children in Tibet

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Antony Blinken criticises China’s state boarding schools that ‘seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions’

The United States will impose visa sanctions on Chinese officials pursuing “forced assimilation” of children in Tibet, where UN experts say one million children have been separated from their families.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US would restrict visas to Chinese officials behind the policy of state boarding schools, in the latest in a series of US moves on Beijing that comes despite a resumption of high-level dialogue.

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Family of academic detained in Egypt accuse US of breaking pledge to help

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Salah Soltan, a US green card holder and critic of Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, claims he faces death in Cairo jail and urges Biden to act

A prominent Egyptian prisoner of conscience has told his family that he faces death in detention, spurring them to accuse the Biden administration of abandoning their father, despite previous promises on human rights.

In a letter smuggled out of prison, Salah Soltan, a US green card holder and Islamic jurisprudence scholar, said he felt “as if I stared death in the eyes while lying on the ground, paralysed and denied help and medicine for days,” after collapsing in his cell earlier this year following complaints of chest pains. His family say the letter was his first unsupervised contact in two and a half years.

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