Blinken on diplomatic push to prevent Gaza crisis spreading

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on his fourth trip to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on October 7, bidding to avoid the expansion of the conflict in the region and find a clear solution toward regional stability.

Blinken was due to meet Israeli leaders on Tuesday after talks with leaders from Türkiye and Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on ending the ongoing conflict.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Blinken said he had discussed the Middle East's future with regional leaders and reached agreements on a few objectives in their meetings.

"We agreed to work together and coordinate our efforts to help Gaza stabilize and recover, to chart a political path forward for Palestinians, and to work toward long-term peace, security and stability," Blinken said.

The Saudi crown prince stressed the importance of stopping the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, intensifying humanitarian action, and also the need to work to create conditions for restoring stability and a peace process to ensure that the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights and achieve just and lasting peace, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan stressed the need to work on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to protect civilians' lives, ensure the establishment of permanent and safe mechanisms for delivering humanitarian aid to the residents of the Strip without hindrance, and prevent their displacement.

It remains unknown how much the consensus reached by Blinken and other Arab leaders matters to Israeli leaders. Experts forecast Blinken would face challenges and difficulties due to the staunch U.S. support for Israel since Israel started its offensive in Gaza, after Hamas launched a surprise attack on October 7 in which around 1,200 people were killed and about 240 others abducted.

Since then more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict and most of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza displaced, according to the health authorities in Gaza.

Tensions in the region continued to rise on Monday with an Israeli air strike killing a top Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon, the latest in an escalating exchange of strikes along the border that have raised fears of the Gaza crisis spreading. Recent weeks have seen surging violence in the occupied West Bank, Syria and Iraq, and Houthi attacks from Yemen on Red Sea shipping lanes.

Those incidents mean relations between countries in the region have become more complicated, so Blinken's visit is mainly aimed at stabilizing relations between countries in the region, said Wang Jin, a Middle East expert at Northwest University of China, adding that all this shows it is in the interests of the U.S. to avoid escalation or even "getting out of control" of the ongoing Gaza conflict.

However, Wang pointed out that the U.S. has continued to offer military aid to Israel. The expert said that one of the best ways to prevent a spillover of the ongoing Gaza conflict would be to suspend or cut military aid to Israel and force it to suspend military operations in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.

Instead of doing so, the U.S. has maintained security protections and military assistance to Israel, seemingly in the hope of amplifying or inflaming the current conflict, Wang said.

It can be seen that there are certain contradictions in the Middle East strategy of the U.S., which brings more uncertainties to the regional situation, Wang said, adding that Blinken's trip cannot fundamentally resolve the conflict.

Daniel Levy, an analyst and president of the U.S./Middle East Project, told the Guardian that the U.S. efforts to influence Netanyahu had been broadly ineffectual so far.

"I think very early on Netanyahu felt he had the Americans where he wanted them and he hasn't looked back since, and the Americans haven't given him a reason to look back either," Levy said.

"It doesn't mean there hasn't been a bit of light turbulence, but the Americans have not been willing to do what it takes to move the dial at all."

(With input from Xinhua)