Blinken Says Path to Palestinian State can Isolate Iran

CAIRO, (Reuters): Offering a pathway to a Palestinian state is the best way to stabilize the wider region and isolate Iran and its proxies, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday, as he ended a frenetic regional tour over the Gaza war in Cairo.

Shuttling between Israel and Arab states, Blinken has been pushing for a way forward from the bloodshed in Gaza, even as the conflict threatens to spread further to Lebanon, Iraq and Red Sea shipping lanes.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Blinken said the region faced two paths, the first of which would see “Israel integrated, with security assurances and commitments from regional countries and as well from the United States, and a Palestinian state – at least a pathway to get to that state”.

“The other path is to continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, all backed by Iran,” he said.

“If you pursue the first path … that’s the single best way to isolate, to marginalise Iran and the proxies that are making so much trouble – for us and for pretty much everyone else in the region.”

Blinken’s visit came a day after Egypt and Jordan warned that Israel’s military campaign, which has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians according to Gaza’s health ministry, must not displace the strip’s 2.3 million people or end in an Israeli occupation.

Israel and its U.S. backers have insisted that this is not Israel’s plan, but Egypt has grown alarmed as more Gazans are driven towards its border with the enclave.