Blinken to visit Mideast next week to push ceasefire plan

WASHINGTON (AFP): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit the Middle East next week to push a plan for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, the State Department announced Friday.

Blinken, who will be paying his eighth visit to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, will visit Israel and key US Arab partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar from Monday through Wednesday, the State Department said.

The United States has been pushing for Hamas to accept a plan laid out a week ago by President Joe Biden that would halt fighting for at least six months and free hostages seized by militants on October 7.

Blinken “will emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table, which is nearly identical to one Hamas endorsed last month,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

The top US diplomat “will discuss how the ceasefire proposal would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians. He will underscore that it would alleviate suffering in Gaza, enable a massive surge in humanitarian assistance and allow Palestinians to return to their neighborhoods,” he said.

Blinken will head to the region from France, where he has accompanied Biden for commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Allied landings in Normandy. He will then return Wednesday to join the president at the summit of the Group of Seven major industrial democracies in Italy.