Blinken reveals the discussion with Bakria, and signals the continuation of the negotiations

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave an in-depth interview to the “New York Times” this week and devoted long sections to what is happening in the Middle East. Blinken was asked about the ongoing fighting in Gaza, recalled the first days of the war when he arrived in Israel and was exposed to a massacre and also talked about the relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the shadow of the negotiations for a deal.”On October 6, we discussed normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. In fact, I was supposed to arrive in Saudi Arabia and Israel on October 10, which of course did not happen,” Blinken said. “The purpose of the trip was to discuss the Palestinian context of the entire normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel with the understanding that if there is normalization, it will also pave the way for the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

 

Blinken commented on his visit to Israel, days after October 7: “I was shocked by the horrors I saw that exceeded everything imaginable, we were determined then to do everything to make sure that October 7 would not happen again. At the same time, we also wanted to make sure that the war did not spread to other fronts, because That means more deaths and more destruction, and that the Israeli operations in Gaza will last longer.”

The US Secretary of State emphasized that the US also acted simultaneously to protect the residents of the Gaza Strip, and to provide them with the humanitarian aid they need. “We have been working on each of these fronts every day since then,” Blinken added. I think we are in a good place. Israel destroyed the military capabilities of Hamas.”

Blinken was asked if Israel is violating the laws of war in Gaza, and answered: “As you know, we have checked and continue to check it in depth. We issued the reports with our assessments.” He later described the actions taken by the US at the beginning of the war and emphasized that “from day one, the US did everything so that people would get what they needed to get by.”

The discussion in Kirya days after the massacre, and the threat

Blinken described his first visit to Israel after the massacre, and the discussion he had with his team for nine hours in Kirya in Tel Aviv, together with Prime Minister Netanyahu. “We argued for hours about the basic assumption that humanitarian aid should reach the Palestinians,” Blinken said. “But this debate arose from the fact that Israeli society in those days was completely traumatized.”

According to Blinken, “It was not just about the prime minister or a certain leader in Israel. It was an entire society that did not want aid to reach any Palestinian in the Gaza Strip. We discussed there for nine hours. Biden was supposed to arrive a few days later. During that debate I told the prime minister that I would call to the president and tell him not to come if the aid doesn’t start flowing.”

“I called the president to make sure he agreed with it, and he completely agreed. And we came to an agreement that the aid would initially be transferred from Rafah and then we expanded it to Kerem Shalom and other places,” Blinken said. He was later asked if Israel is meeting its commitment and added: “In the context of humanitarian aid, there were times when we thought they were not doing enough, so in recent times, together with Defense Minister Austin, we strongly pressed to take additional actions.”

Along with the criticism, the US Secretary of State also strongly attacked the world that has too quickly forgotten what happened on October 7. “One of the things that amazed me a little along the way was that despite all the obvious criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, we have heard almost nothing from anyone since October 7 about Hamas,” Blinken said. “Why wasn’t there a unanimous international statement that Hamas should lay down its weapons, release the abductees and surrender?”

Regarding the future of the fighting in Gaza and the ongoing negotiations, the American Secretary of State said: “We continue to believe that the fastest and most effective way is an agreement that will lead to a ceasefire and the return of the abductees home. The two main obstacles to this, and we were very close on several occasions, and we are still very close today, are related to what drives the Hamas”.

Blinken’s explanation: these are the obstacles in the negotiations

“First of all – every time there was an agreement between Israel and the US, and when the pressure on Israel increased – Hamas withdrew from the agreement on the ceasefire and the release of the abductees. And so there are times that what we say to Israel when we have disagreements is one thing and what we say or do in public may be another. To a significant extent we do this because with the publicity the chances of promoting a ceasefire and a hostage deal are getting further away.”

“Secondly – Hamas withdrew (from the negotiations) out of the belief that there would be a wider conflict, that Hezbollah would attack Israel, that Iran and other parties would attack Israel,” Blinken continued. “Hamas hoped that Israel would be ‘busy’ so that it could continue doing what it is doing. We worked very hard to ensure that this did not happen.”

Blinken was asked about the relationship with Netanyahu, and if he considered him a partner even though it was claimed that he torpedoed the deal in July. “This is not accurate,” explained the US Secretary of State. However, he also clarified that there were cases in which Israel took actions that made negotiations difficult: “But there was a rationale for these actions.” He also added that the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar also harmed the contacts: “Suddenly there is no one to decide, it is much more difficult to make a decision that way.”

“Normalization with Saudi Arabia? It could happen tomorrow”

Blinken was also asked if he feared that he might be perceived as someone who “oversees genocide” and denied it: “I look at the facts and draw conclusions from them – and my conclusions are clear. I think that even in the wake of this terrible suffering – the trauma of the Israeli population, the Palestinian population and many others – There is hope for a different and much better future.”

“First of all, we need to end the war in Gaza,” Blinken emphasized. “I believe that it will end and probably more or less under the conditions that we established in the outline that President Biden proposed and which received support in the world. Second, we need to ensure that the post-war plan will take place, we worked on it together with other countries in the region, including Arab countries. If we do not have the opportunity to start implementing the outline, we will pass same to the Trump administration and they will decide whether to move forward.”

In addition, Blinken said he sees a future for normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia and other countries. “We did all the work to prepare these plans. Normalization with Saudi Arabia – it could happen tomorrow based on the work we did, our investment, as soon as there is an end to the war in Gaza and an agreement on the future of the Palestinians. But it requires difficult decisions.”