Arab leaders push for an Israel-Hamas cease-fire now; Blinken says counterproductive
Arab leaders decrying the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Israel-Hamas war pushed for an immediate ceasefire on Saturday even as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that such a move would be counterproductive and could encourage more violence by the militant group.
After an afternoon of talks with Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Qatari and Emirati diplomats and a senior Palestinian official, Blinken stood side by side at a line of podiums with his counterparts from Jordan and Egypt to discuss what he said was their shared desire to protect civilians in Gaza and improve aid flows to the besieged territory.
The dissonance in the messages was evident. Nonetheless, the joint news conference between ministers from the Arab world and the top diplomat from Israel's closest ally and numerous photo opportunities contrasted with Blinken's time in Tel Aviv on Friday, when he met alone with reporters after closed-door talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Arab ministers repeatedly called for the fighting to stop now and condemned Israel's war tactics.
"We cannot accept the justification as considered as the right of self-defense, collective punishment" of Palestinians in Gaza, Egypt's Sameh Shoukry said. "This cannot be a legitimate self-defence at all."
