Blinken sees 'concrete steps forward' as he ends Middle East trip

Washington [US], January 12: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said the war in Gaza "is not escalating" as he wrapped up a Middle East tour aimed at preventing the fighting between Israel and Hamas - now in its fourth month - from spiralling into a wider regional conflict.
"I don't think the conflict is escalating. There are lots of danger points. We're trying to deal with each of them," he told reporters before leaving Cairo, the final stop in his tour of the region.
He said he had come away with a "number of concrete steps forward." "First, an agreement by Israel to have the United Nations send an assessment team to the north of Gaza to look at the conditions that would be necessary to start to get people moving back [from southern Gaza] to the north," he said.
"Second, we have a commitment from the Palestinian Authority to pursue meaningful reform," he added.
Blinken also said there is an agreement among countries in the region to work together and to coordinate efforts, both for Gaza and longer-term peace and stability in the region.
"There's a path that brings Israel's needs and desires for integration in the region and genuine security with, as well, Palestinian aspirations for a state of their own." According to him, Israel's normalization with powers in the region and efforts toward a Palestinian state are the "single best way to isolate, to marginalize" Iran and its proxies, who have kept a high profile since the Gaza war erupted in October.
"And I think what we're finding, especially from all of our conversations on this trip, that you have to do both and you have to do it with regional coordination and a regional approach," Blinken said.
The US is seeking to avoid the conflict, which erupted following the October 7 attacks on Israel mounted by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, from spreading throughout the region, amid increasing attacks on the Lebanese-Israeli border and an Iran-allied militia's attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for an end to attacks by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on merchant ships in the Red Sea.
Blinken's tour of the Middle East was his fourth to the region in four months. It also took him to Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, the West Bank and Bahrain.
Source: Qatar Tribune