U.S.-allied Arab states will press Secretary of State Antony Blinken for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza at a meeting of foreign ministers in Amman on Saturday (November 4), as Washington tries to persuade Israel to agree to temporary pauses to allow in aid.
The United States has dismissed growing international calls for a ceasefire but has sought to persuade Israel to accept localised pauses – an idea rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he met Blinken on Friday.
Blinken is on his second trip to the region since Israel and Hamas went to war on Oct. 7, when the Islamist militant Palestinian group raided Israel from Gaza, in a rampage Israel says killed 1,400 people, with more than 240 others taken hostage.
On Saturday, Blinken met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. On Thursday the Jordanian foreign ministry issued a statement saying Safadi will tell Blinken that Israel must end its war on Gaza where he said it was committing war crimes by bombing civilians and imposing a siege.
In the statement Safadi warned that Israel's unreadiness to end the war was pushing the region rapidly towards a regional war that threatened world peace.
(Reuters)
