Blinken Talks About Gaza’s Future in Assembly With Palestinian Authority Chief

Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, met on Wednesday with Mahmoud Abbas, the chief of the Palestinian Authority, to debate Israel’s warfare towards Hamas in Gaza and the position that the authority would possibly play there when the battle ebbs.

Mr. Blinken traveled in a convoy from Tel Aviv in Israel to Ramallah, the seat of the authority, within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution. The 2 males shook palms outdoors the authority’s headquarters and sat down for talks with their aides.

The Biden administration has stated it envisions a task for the Palestinian Authority in governing each the West Financial institution and Gaza. Hamas has run Gaza because it received elections within the tiny coastal strip in 2006 and violently drove out Fatah, the group now in control of the authority within the West Financial institution.

President Biden has additionally stated Israel should permit for the formation of a Palestinian state, arguing {that a} political answer is the one method out of the decades-old battle between Israelis and Palestinians. Mr. Blinken reiterated that view in a information convention in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after conferences with Israeli officers. He additionally stated Saudi Arabia — whose ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he met with on Monday — was nonetheless keen to contemplate establishing regular diplomatic relations with Israel, however provided that Israel agreed to concrete steps towards the institution of a free and impartial Palestine.

Of their assembly, Mr. Abbas informed Mr. Blinken that the Palestinians wouldn’t settle for what he referred to as Israeli plans to maintain Gaza separate from the West Financial institution, in accordance with Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official information company. “The Gaza Strip is part and parcel of the state of Palestine,” the company quoted him as saying.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and his right-wing authorities have rejected the notion of a Palestinian state, and Mr. Netanyahu said years ago that Israeli officers ought to assist a robust Hamas in Gaza so as to undermine the Palestinian Authority and the thought of a unified Palestine. He has additionally rejected any substantial position for the authority in Gaza.

After assembly with Mr. Abbas, Mr. Blinken deliberate to fly to Bahrain for extra talks on the warfare. The Bahrain cease was a last-minute addition to his multiday diplomatic mission throughout the jap Mediterranean and the Center East that started final Friday. Mr. Blinken plans to satisfy in Cairo later within the journey with the president of Egypt, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Mr. el-Sisi and Mr. Abbas are anticipated to be in Aqaba, Jordan, afterward Wednesday for a disaster management summit referred to as by King Abdullah II.

Adam Rasgon contributed reporting.