US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called on Monday for urgent steps to restore calm between Israel and the Palestinians following high-level talks he held in Jerusalem after days of bloody escalation. .”
“We want to make sure that there is an environment where we can hopefully at some point create the conditions to start restoring a sense of security for both Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.
And Israel, where Blinken arrived on Monday, is his second stop after Cairo, where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri.
And the pace of violence between Palestinians and Israel continues to escalate as the arrival of the US Secretary of State preceded the killing of a Palestinian youth by Israeli army bullets in the south of the occupied West Bank, as confirmed by the Palestinian and Israeli sides.
On Friday, a Palestinian killed seven people, including a child, outside a Jewish synagogue in East Jerusalem after ten Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military operation in the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday that the army said was aimed at activists. “Islamic Jihad”.
The US administration condemned the “horrifying” attack in occupied East Jerusalem.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bullets since the beginning of this year in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 has risen to 35, according to AFP estimates based on official sources from both sides, including armed men, civilians and children.
In the evening, Blinken also met with his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, and will later meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Blinken confirmed that he and Netanyahu discussed maintaining the status quo at the Al-Aqsa mosque complex in East Jerusalem.
And the Noble Sanctuary, which includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque – the first of the two qibla and the third of the two sacred mosques after Mecca and Medina – is the holiest religious site for Muslims in what the Jews call the “Temple Mount” and represents their holiest religious place.
Blinken will also travel to Ramallah in the West Bank for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
During his press conference in Jerusalem, Blinken touched on the issue of Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
“We agree that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons,” he said.
“Just as Iran has long supported terrorists attacking Israelis and others, the (Iranian) regime is now providing drones that Russia uses to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians,” he added.
According to the US Secretary of State, “Russia, in turn, provides Iran with modern weapons.”
Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Iran of providing Russia with drones for the war in Ukraine, which Tehran vehemently denies.
Tehran admitted in November that it had provided several drones to Moscow, stressing that this was done before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February.
In addition, Israel accuses the Islamic Republic of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb, which Tehran denies.
The Jewish state claims that it seeks by all means to prevent Tehran from achieving this goal, as well as to counter Iranian influence in the Middle East.
Some experts are talking about a possible visit by Netanyahu to the White House in February.
– Discontent of Americans Observers believe that the freedom of maneuver available to the US Secretary of State remains limited.
Earlier Monday in Cairo, Blinken discussed with the Egyptian president “the reduction of tensions.”
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said they “discussed ongoing efforts to reduce tensions between Israelis and Palestinians,” highlighting Cairo’s “important” role in “promoting regional stability.”
However, US officials do not hide in private conversations their displeasure at the escalation and stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While little progress is expected on the de-escalation plan, Washington is eager to reconnect with Netanyahu, whose government, described as the most right-wing in Israel’s history, was sworn in late last year.
The official Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) confirmed Abbas’s meeting with US intelligence chief William Burns and their discussion of “dangerous developments and Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.”
However, the US embassy did not confirm the meeting to AFP.
On Saturday evening, Israel announced a series of measures to strip away the rights of so-called “families of terrorists”, such as abolishing social security, in parallel with making it easier for Israeli citizens to obtain permits to carry firearms.
The alert level of Israeli forces has been raised and the army has announced a reinforcement of its forces in the West Bank at a time when international calls for restraint have continued.
