Category Archives: Antony Blinken

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

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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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US and EU launch twin diplomatic mission to calm tensions in Middle East

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Escalation of violence comes as US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Europe’s Josep Borrell begin tours of the region

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The most senior diplomats from the US and the EU launched a dual diplomatic offensive in the Middle East on Saturday aimed at calming tensions that threaten chaos and wider conflict across the region.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, began a five-day tour of the region with meetings in Turkey and the EU’s most senior diplomat Josep Borrell, visited the Lebanese capital Beirut.

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Israel tries to appease US with proposals for Gaza as Blinken heads to Middle East

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Washington wants concessions from the Netanyahu administration, as critics say plans lack detail or commitment

Israeli officials are scrambling to head off mounting frustration in Washington in the run-up to a potentially difficult meeting between the top US diplomat and Benjamin Netanyahu by offering a series of policy proposals on Gaza that critics say lack detail or commitment.

The US has offered staunch support to Israel since the outbreak of its war with Hamas three months ago but is anxious to secure some concessions from Netanyahu to lower regional tensions and help avert a wider conflict in the Middle East.

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Biden administration again bypasses Congress for weapons sale to Israel

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Antony Blinken tells Congress he made second emergency determination covering $147.5m sale for equipment

For the second time this month the Biden administration is bypassing Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel as Israel continues to prosecute its war against Hamas in Gaza under increasing international criticism.

The state department said on Friday that the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had told Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5m sale for equipment, including fuses, chargers and primers, that is needed to make the 155mm shells that Israel has already purchased function.

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US-Mexico border talks yield ‘important agreements’ on rail and bridge crossings

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Two countries agree to enhance efforts to tackle human smuggling, poverty and violence and promote legal ‘pathways’

US and Mexican officials have hailed the success of talks held on Wednesday aimed at curbing historically high unauthorized immigration across their shared, 2,000-mile border that risks becoming a humanitarian disaster and an election year political crisis for Joe Biden.

After the closed-door meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Mexican foreign minister, Alicia Bárcena, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, hailed what he described as “important agreements”.

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US imposes visa bans on Israeli settlers responsible for West Bank violence

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‘We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more,’ Antony Blinken says during announcement

In a rare punitive move against Israel, the US has announced it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in recent attacks on Palestinians in theWest Bank.

The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced the decision on Tuesday after warning Israel last week that Joe Biden’s administration would be taking action over the attacks. Blinken did not announce individual visa bans, but officials said those would be coming this week and could affect dozens of settlers and their families.

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‘Planet Earth is big enough for two’: Biden and Xi meet for first time in a year

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US and Chinese presidents meet in San Francisco to discuss the economy, climate, military relations and Taiwan

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in California on Wednesday, exchanging handshakes and smiles as they embarked on face-to-face dialogues that both sides hope will stabilise US-China relations.

The US president opened his remarks by saying that tensions between the two countries should “not veer into conflict”.

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UK withdraws some embassy staff from Lebanon and tells nationals to leave

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Foreign Office says situation has ‘potential to deteriorate quickly’ after Israeli and Hezbollah forces clash

The Foreign Office has withdrawn some embassy staff from Lebanon and is advising British nationals to leave the country while they still can amid increasing concern about violence and unrest connected to the conflict in Gaza.

“Events in Lebanon are fast moving. The situation has potential to deteriorate quickly and with no warning,” the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement, which advised Britons in Lebanon to register with the embassy and make plans to leave while possible.

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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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