U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken is busy traveling between countries in the Middle East to prevent the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas from escalating, but the response from major countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt is said to be cold.
After meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on the 15th (local time), Secretary Blinken said, “(The meeting) was very productive,” but the reality reported by the Washington Post (WP) was different. The meeting was originally scheduled for the night of the 14th, but Crown Prince Muhammad did not show up, so Secretary Blinken had to wait for several hours and was only able to meet the next morning.
Crown Prince Muhammad also condemned Israel’s cut off of water, electricity, and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip when he met Minister Blinken and emphasized, “Israel’s military operations that have taken innocent lives must be stopped.” Seong Il-gwang, a professor at Korea University’s Middle East and Islam Center, explained, “Saudi Arabia, which claims to be the guardian of Islam’s holy sites, has no choice but to support Palestine while being conscious of Arab public opinion.”
Secretary Blinken received a kind of ‘admonishment’ in Egypt, which he visited on the same day. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi criticized Israel’s ground war plan during a meeting with Minister Blinken, saying, “Israel’s response is going beyond justifiable self-defense and is degenerating into ‘collective punishment’ against the residents of the Gaza Strip.”
In addition, in a speech given in Israel on the 12th, Secretary Blinken expressed anger toward Hamas by mentioning his Jewish ancestry, such as his grandfather fleeing the massacre of Jews and his parents being imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. ) He said he was Jewish, but he countered by saying, “I am an Egyptian who grew up with Jews as my neighbors,” and “Egyptian Jews have never been oppressed or targeted.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.