PNN – US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has traveled to West Asia for the fifth time since the beginning of the Gaza war and claims to be trying to achieve a new ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and implement the prisoner exchange agreement. A mission whose success, according to analysts, seems difficult for various reasons.
According to the International group of Pakistan News Network, In the shadow of the continuation of military conflicts in the south of the Gaza Strip, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken started a new trip to the Middle East with the aim of achieving a ceasefire between the Zionist regime and the Palestinian resistance. This is his fifth trip to the region since the start of the Al-Aqsa storm operation on October 7.
This trip takes place while the United States has bombed more than 80 positions of resistance groups in Iraq and Syria and has also carried out attacks on the positions of Ansarullah in Yemen, including in Sana’a, the capital.
Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed newspaper published a report on this matter and wrote: “Blinken’s purpose of this periodic trip is to continue negotiations to reach an agreement for the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas and to reach a humanitarian ceasefire that will allow humanitarian aid to be sent to the civilians of Gaza.”
Blinken is expected to follow up on the ceasefire proposal presented at the Paris meeting held last month with US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials. The proposal based on a new ceasefire included a 6-week cessation of hostilities and the release of Israeli prisoners against Palestinian prisoners.
Within the framework of this trip, Blinken went to Riyadh yesterday and met with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman; The visit lasted “more than two hours” and went to Cairo today.
A senior US official said a key priority of Blinken’s trip was to “send a message directly to countries in the region that the US does not want to see an escalation of the conflict”. Regarding the reason for the frequent visits of the US Secretary of State to the region, he stated that “it is important to show up and say [your positions] in person”.
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Details of Egypt’s perspective on Gaza
Informed sources in Egypt about Egypt’s approach regarding Gaza told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that Egyptian officials will inform the American minister in Cairo of the details of their country’s vision regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip and ending this crisis, and their position regarding the military operations of the Israeli army. In the axis of Philadelphia and the borders of Egypt in the vicinity of Sinai, they will clearly explain.
At the same time, the visit of the US Secretary of State raises the question about his ability to achieve progress in the process of reaching a new ceasefire between the two warring parties.
In an interview with al-Arabi al-Jadeed, one of the leaders of Hamas, “Abdul Rahman Shaft” stated that the movement’s delayed response to the Paris proposal “is in the framework of completing internal and national consultations in order to achieve the best formula that realizes the rights of the Palestinian people, especially after all these heroics.”
Tel Aviv is unlikely to give in to Blinken’s pressure
The deputy of the Arab Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Mukhtar al-Ghabashi, considered the possibility of Blinken’s trip to achieve a ceasefire as unlikely and said: “This may happen in the Arab world!”
He explained: “It is possible that Blinken wants to put pressure on Israel to surrender to the demands of the international community, the urgent ruling of the International Court of Justice and the request for weak assistance from many countries in the world to stop the war in Gaza… but fact is that Blinken’s trips have always led to the escalation of conflicts. His four previous trips prove that, minutes after Blinken left Tel Aviv, Israel started unprecedented conflicts, and this is the danger of Blinken’s visit.”
He added: “Netanyahu constantly opposes, while the political and war camp and different factions in his government put forward contradictory positions about the priority of removing the prisoners from the Gaza Strip.” It is difficult to talk about the ability of the Netanyahu government to take an agreed position on the political stage.
On the other hand, the deputy of the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, Amr Hashem Rabi, also said that the reason for the instability of the ceasefire negotiations is due to the concerns of both sides. On the one hand, Israel is worried about the slogan it gave at the beginning of the war and has not been able to achieve it, and is in the situation of someone who has climbed to the top of a tree and cannot come down. On the other hand, he is worried about the international community and the reduction of support, the collapse of the cabinet and the opposition.