Secretary of State Antony Blinken has returned from a seven-day trip in the Middle East, where he visited nine countries to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and the conflicts that threaten a wider regional war.
According to his spokesperson, Matt Miller, the Arab nations are ready to partner with the U.S. on short-term and long-term solutions for Palestinians in Gaza, but only if Israel is willing to get on board.
“We’ve traveled through to nine countries and met with leaders in each of those, and was able to secure agreements with all of these Arab partners, as well as with Turkey, that they were ready to have those conversations, they were ready to coordinate with the United States and they were ready to take real steps to improve the lives of the Palestinian people in Gaza and to look at how to rebuild Gaza and establish Palestinian-led governance in Gaza,” Miller told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Friday.
“But they were only willing to do that if they had a partner on the other side in Israel and if Israel was ready to take real concrete steps to establish an independent Palestinian state,” Miller continued.
Blinken traveled to Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and the West Bank to continue diplomatic discussions as tensions in the region have spiked surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.
The most recent trip was Blinken’s fourth visit to the region since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7 in a surprise attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages. In the months since, Israel has pursued a deadly and destructive counteroffensive that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all of the region’s population.
Miller said during the most recent trip, there “really was a difference” because the Arab partners they spoke with after the initial attacks were not ready to discuss the reconstruction, security and governance in Gaza, but now they are.
Blinken reportedly had a “very candid conversation” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli government officials about the partners the country would gain in the Arab world if it were to agree on the future of Gaza.
“But look, it’s going to require tough choices, and not just tough choices from Arab partners in the region, but really tough choices from Israel,” Miller said. “And so, the United States can’t make those tough choices for Israel. We can’t make those tough choices for any of these countries.”
Miller said the U.S. plans to play a leadership role in presenting its vision on the reconstruction of Gaza, and that Blinken will “continue to present” and “continue to press” in upcoming trips to the region in the next weeks and months.