Sharjah 24 – AFP: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo Wednesday on a Mideast tour to shore up an Egypt-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
The US top diplomat already met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, to throw Washington's support behind the Friday truce that ended 11 days of heavy Israeli bombing of Gaza and rocket fire from the enclave into Israel.
After talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas at his headquarters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Blinken vowed to rebuild US relations with the Palestinians by reopening a consulate in Al Quds, as well as giving millions in aid for the war-battered Gaza Strip.
The announcements signalled a break with US policy under former president Donald Trump, who had shuttered the diplomatic mission for Palestinians in 2019 and slashed aid to the Palestinian Authority.
In the long term, Blinken evoked the "possibility of resuming the effort to achieve a two-state solution, which we continue to believe is the only way to truly assure Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state, and of course to give the Palestinians the state they're entitled to".
After meeting earlier Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he reiterated support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks by Gaza's Hamas rulers, adding that they must not benefit from the reconstruction aid.
On Wednesday, he met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin -- who Blinken thanked for his “longstanding efforts to promote coexistence, tolerance, and peace" -- before he headed to Cairo.
Blinken was later due later to fly on to Jordan, where half of the 10 million-strong population is of Palestinian origin, for talks with King Abdullah II.
Cairo has sent delegations to both Tel Aviv and Gaza to watch over the implementation of the ceasefire, and has also been coordinating international relief and reconstruction aid for the Palestinian territory, which has been under Israeli blockade for nearly 15 years.
US President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with his Egyptian counterpart on Monday for the second time in less than a week to discuss the relief effort.
Blinken said Wednesday the United Sates was in the process of providing more than $360 million in assistance to the Palestinian people, including $250 million announced in March and April.
On top of that, the administration intended to provide $75 million in additional aid to the Palestinians, as well as $5.5 million in immediate disaster assistance for Gaza, and nearly $33 million for an emergency humanitarian appeal by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
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