Blinken: Saudis are even more convinced now of the need for a Palestinian state

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Foreign Affairs magazine’s Daniel Kurtz-Phelan in an interview that Hamas has been more productive on getting a ceasefire and hostage release deal done.

“I think in this moment, Hamas, over the last couple of weeks, has reengaged in a more productive way on trying to get this over the finish line. And I think that’s because they’ve seen that the cavalry is not coming to the rescue,” Blinken said. “One of the things that they’ve tried to do throughout is to get a wider war, with Hezbollah coming in, with Iran coming in, with other Iranian-aligned proxies coming in. And that’s not happening, as we’ve seen, and that’s not happening because of the effective policies we pursued,” he added.

“From day one, we wanted to ensure, to the best of our ability, that there wouldn’t be a wider war, both because that would lead to more death and destruction and because it would only prolong Gaza. Now that there’s clarity, because of the way we’ve been able to work with Israel to effectively defend against unprecedented attacks from Iran in a way that Iran is on its heels, because we’ve been able to work with Israel now to get an effective ceasefire in Lebanon, but also a much-weakened Hezbollah so that it’s not coming in, Hamas has to contend with that, and I think that does offer the possibility of landing this,” Blinken stated.   (Read More)