U.S Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has disclosed that plans to resolve the current situation in Gaza are in the pipeline.
This came as Blinken met with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Blinken arrived in Turkey on Monday, November 6, 2023, to discuss with the ongoing situation in Gaza, regional issues, and bilateral relations with Turkish officials.
Speaking to reporters at the airport before leaving Turkey, Blinken disclosed, “We discussed…efforts to significantly expand the humanitarian assistance to people in need, and efforts to prevent the conflict expanding to other parts of the region and what we can do to set the conditions for a durable, sustainable, lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians.”
“All of this is a work in progress,” Blinken said.
“We don’t obviously agree on everything, but there are common views on some of the imperatives of the moment that we’re working on together,” he added.
Blinken hopes that pauses in the war would allow for a surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the release of hostages captured by Hamas during the militants’ deadly October 7 incursion into southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians — while also preventing the conflict from spreading regionally.
“We’ve engaged the Israelis on steps that they can take to minimize civilian casualties,” Blinken said.
Additionally, Blinken revealed that Washington has made some good progress on humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
“We are working very aggressively on getting more humanitarian assistance in Gaza. And we have very concrete ways of doing that. And I think we’ll see in the days ahead that assistance can expand in significant ways.”
Antony Blinken
“We are very focused on the hostages held by Hamas, including the Americans, and we are doing everything possible to bring them home,” he added.
Blinken got a cold reception in the Turkish capital Ankara. He was not received by any high-level Turkish diplomat at the airport.
Just ahead of Blinken’s visit, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations. Erdogan has also lashed out at Netanyahu and has openly criticised the US for being complicit in crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.
Dozens of protesters gathered in front of Turkey’s Foreign Ministry where the country’s FM Hakan Fidan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken were holding talks.
The protesters accused the U.S of complicity in the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Earlier, police dispersed a group of students who marched toward the ministry chanting “Murderer Blinken, get out of Turkey”. It was the second day of protests denouncing Blinken’s visit to Turkey.
On Sunday, November 5, 2023, police fired tear gas and a water cannon as thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters tried to enter an air base used by US troops in southern Turkey. Several hundred protesters also marched to the U.S Embassy in Ankara.
U.S And Turkey Highlight Cooperation
U.S State Department Spokesman, Matthew Miller, noted in a statement that both Blinken and Fidan “emphasized the importance of the longstanding US-Turkish cooperation as NATO Allies and Euro-Atlantic security priorities including Sweden’s NATO accession.”
Blinken did not meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has been highly critical of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and an outlier among NATO allies in not expressing full support for Israel’s right to defend itself.
Turkish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Fidan had urged Blinken to prevent the targeting of civilians in Gaza and their forced displacement, and also pressed for a “full ceasefire.”
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