ISTANBUL (Reuters): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting the leaders of Turkey and Greece on Saturday at the start of a week-long trip aimed at calming tensions that have spiked across the Middle East since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October.
The Biden administration’s most senior diplomat began in Istanbul, meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, a strong critic of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. In the talks, Blinken “emphasized the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, secure the release of hostages, expand humanitarian assistance and reduce civilian casualties,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Blinken also stressed the need to work toward broader, lasting regional peace that ensures Israel’s security and advances the establishment of a Palestinian state, he said.Blinken and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had earlier discussed Gaza, plus Turkey’s process to ratify Sweden’s membership of the NATO military alliance, Turkey’s foreign ministry said.
US officials have been frustrated by the length of the process, but are confident Ankara will soon approve Sweden’s accession after it won the Turkish parliament’s backing last month, said a senior State Department official traveling with Blinken, speaking on condition of anonymity. United States lawmakers have held up the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until it signs off on Swedish membership.
Blinken later traveled to the island of Crete to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Fellow NATO member Greece is awaiting US Congress approval of a sale of F-35 fighter jets. “We’ll be discussing this issue. I think there will be positive developments,” Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis told Greek Skai television.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s tour will include Arab states, Israel and the occupied West Bank, where he will deliver a message that Washington does not want a regional escalation of the Gaza conflict. The United States official said Turkey has relationships with many parties in the conflict, a reference to its ties to US adversary Iran and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Unlike the United States, Turkey does not view Hamas as a terrorist group and hosts some of its members.
The war began when Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 22,700 Palestinians, according to Palestinian officials, and the conflict has spilled into the West Bank, Lebanon and Red Sea shipping lanes. Blinken also hopes to make progress in talks on how Gaza could be governed if and when Israel achieves its aim of eradicating Hamas.
Washington wants countries in the region, including Turkey, to play a role in reconstruction, governance and potentially security in the Gaza Strip, which has been run by Hamas since 2007, the official said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Istanbul late Friday for the first leg of a trip that includes visits to Israel and West Bank, along with five Arab states. Blinken’s fourth crisis tour since the start of the Israel-Hamas war three months ago comes with fears mounting that the conflict will engulf swathes of the Middle East.
Istanbul served as a base for Hamas political leaders until Hamas fighters raided Israel, killing around 1,140 people and triggering a reprisal offensive that the Gaza health ministry says has claimed 22,600 lives — most of them women and children. Turkiye asked the Hamas chiefs to leave after some were captured on video celebrating the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
Turkiye this week countered by detaining 34 people suspected of planning attacks against Palestinians and spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. Erdogan began to tone down his most strident comments after US President Joe Biden last month called the Turkish leader for the first time since the war broke out.
The call helped push along NATO member Turkiye’s glacial progress in accepting Sweden into the US-led defense organization in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine. A parliamentary committee approved Sweden’s application in late December.
Biden’s administration officially backs the sale, but has been unable to overcome resistance in Congress from lawmakers who express alarm about Turkiye’s position on Sweden and its human rights record, as well as past military standoffs with historic rival Greece. “We have made clear that we do not believe the sale… should be linked with Sweden’s NATO accession, but there are members of Congress who have a different opinion and they have linked the two,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said this week.
Blinken will travel to the Greek island of Crete on Saturday evening for talks with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Greece has fiercely resisted the United States jet sales because of its longstanding territorial disputes with Turkiye in the energy-rich eastern Mediterranean region.
