CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed on Wednesday (Sep 18) to intensify Gaza peace talks in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at salvaging the negotiations.
Blinken’s visit to Cairo came hours after a wave of deadly blasts targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon that further complicated the Gaza talks.
This marks Blinken’s 10th trip to the Middle East since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip nearly a year ago. No other regional stops, including Israel, were on his itinerary.
Following the 90-minute meeting, Sisi’s office said the pair discussed “ways to intensify joint efforts between Egypt, the US and Qatar to make progress on ceasefire negotiations and the exchange of hostages and detainees”.
Sisi also called for “decisive intervention to remove obstacles to the entry of huge amounts of aid” to Gaza and “ending Israeli violations in the West Bank”, it said.
Violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the war broke out in Gaza, with Israel conducting large-scale raids in recent weeks.
Before the meeting, US officials said privately they did not expect any breakthroughs in Cairo, though Blinken would seek to keep up the pressure for a deal between Israel and Hamas.
“He’ll be meeting with Egyptian officials about a number of things, but squarely on the agenda is how we get a proposal that we think would secure agreement from both parties,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Tuesday.
Miller declined to “put a timetable on when we would put that proposal forward”, saying Washington wanted “a proposal that’s going to get a yes”.
“It’s very important that we … stop the haggling back and forth.”
Source: CNA
