WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Egypt on Sunday in his fourth trip to the region where he is expected to notch down Zionist-Palestinian tensions after an eruption of Israeli violence.
Blinken, who will travel Monday and Tuesday to Al-Quds and Ramallah, had long planned the visit to see the occupying regime’s new right-wing cabinet, but the trip takes on a new urgency after some of the worst violence in years.
Blinken will meet Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and call “broadly for steps to be taken to de-escalate tensions,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
The violence is also likely to figure in talks between Blinken and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose country’s traditional role as a Middle East mediator has helped him remain a key U.S. partner despite President Joe Biden’s criticism of his human rights record.
Experts questioned whether Blinken could achieve any breakthroughs.
“The absolute best they can do is to keep things stable to avoid another May 2021,” said Aaron David Miller, a veteran U.S. negotiator, referring to more than two weeks of fighting between the Zionist regime and Hamas resistance movement that ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.
Ghaith al-Omari, a former Palestinian official now at The Washington Institute, expected Blinken to repeat traditional U.S. positions rather than break new ground.
“The trip itself is the message,” he said.
“Blinken will ask Abbas to do more but it is not clear what they can do,” he said, referring to the Palestinians.
Blinken’s visit is part of an effort by the Biden administration to engage quickly with Netanyahu, who returned to office in late December leading the most right-wing cabinet in the occupying regime’s history.