Blinken

October 24, 2024 9:53 AM

Blinken Urges End to Gaza War in High-Level Saudi Talks

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. The high-level meeting focused on efforts to end military operations in both regions and address their humanitarian consequences. The leaders also reviewed bilateral relations and discussed various regional developments of mutual interest. In a subsequent statement, the US State Department reported that Blinken emphasized the urgency of ending t...

August 20, 2024 5:36 PM

Egypt’s Sisi, Blinken discuss ways to move forward in Gaza ceasefire negotiations

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss ways to move forward in negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza, the Egyptian presidency said. Sisi warned of the risk of the Gaza war expanding regionally in a way "difficult to imagine". "The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stab...

August 20, 2024 10:13 AM

Blinken says Israel accepts Gaza proposal, urges Hamas to do same

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted a "bridging proposal" presented by Washington to tackle disagreements blocking a ceasefire deal in Gaza, and urged Hamas to do the same. Blinken spoke to journalists after a day of meetings with Israeli officials, including a 2-1/2-hour meeting with Netanyahu. The top U.S. diplomat had said earlier that this push was probably the best and possibly last opportunity for a deal. Talks in Q...

July 27, 2024 3:20 PM

Blinken criticises China’s ‘escalating actions’ at sea ahead of Wang meeting

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, shortly before meeting his Chinese counterpart on Saturday, urged Southeast Asian countries to help address challenges including Beijing's "escalating and unlawful actions" in the South China Sea. Blinken also called the civil war in Myanmar "heartbreaking" and stressed to foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) the need to work together to tackle issues like the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, North Korea's missile programm...

September 16, 2024 6:14 PM

US Secretary of State Blinken cautions Israel against further escalation of conflict with Lebanon

US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, during his meeting with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday (local time), underscored the importance of avoiding further escalation of the conflict, as tensions between Israel and Lebanon have further escalated the conflict in the Middle East. Secretary Blinken discussed ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and also spoke about the efforts to advance security, governance, and reconstruction in Gaza during a post-conflict period. "Sec...

April 29, 2024 4:21 PM

Blinken says ‘measurable progress’ on Gaza humanitarian situation

The United States has seen "measurable progress" in the humanitarian situation in Gaza over the past few weeks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday (April 29), but urged Israel to do more. Speaking at the opening of a US-Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Riyadh, Blinken said the most effective way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was to achieve a ceasefire. He also said Washington continued efforts to prevent the Gaza war from expanding. The country is the first...

April 29, 2024 11:08 AM

Blinken arrives in Saudi Arabia to discuss Israel normalization, post-war Gaza

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the first stop in a broader trip to the Middle East to discuss issues including the governance of Gaza once the war with Israel ends. The top U.S. diplomat heads to Israel later this week, where he is expected to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take the concrete and tangible steps U.S. President Joe Biden demanded this month to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. In Riyadh, Blinken is expe...