Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in Jordan on Tuesday for his second stop on a Middle East tour to meet with top officials to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas, which is roiling the region and the political landscape of the United States.
The Biden administration is trying to increase pressure on Hamas to accept a deal that would result in a temporary cease-fire in the war in Gaza and the release of some of the hostages held there.
Mr. Blinken discussed the proposed deal at meetings in Saudi Arabia on Monday and again in Jordan on Tuesday. He planned to do the same in Israel on Wednesday, according to State Department officials. In Jordan, Mr. Blinken held separate meetings with Ayman Safadi, the foreign minister, and King Abdullah II in the early afternoon.
Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said Mr. Blinken and the Jordanian king discussed the cease-fire proposal along with Jordan’s humanitarian aid contributions to Gaza.
On his seventh trip to the Middle East since the war began last October, Mr. Blinken and his aides have been trying to work on a range of issues, including Israel’s continuing need for U.S. weapons, the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a plan for a political solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Later on Tuesday, Mr. Blinken met with Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations coordinator for Gaza, to discuss humanitarian aid needs in Gaza.
“This is a critical moment in making sure that everything that needs to be done is actually being done,” Mr. Blinken said at the start of the meeting.
In talks with Jordanian officials, Mr. Blinken was also expected to address issues around the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Biden administration has called for a more technocratic Palestinian Authority, which is considered by many Palestinians to be authoritarian and corrupt, in the hopes that it could help govern postwar Gaza — an idea that Israel’s government opposes. Jordanian officials have close ties with Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the authority, and other prominent Palestinians in the organization.
Source Agencies
