Blinken discusses Gaza aid with ruler of the Emirates

Antony J. Blinken, the US Secretary of State, met on Monday in Abu Dhabi with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the need to end the war between Israel and Gaza. not to spread across the region, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

Mr. Blinken emphasized the “continued American commitment to securing lasting regional peace that ensures Israel’s security and advances the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” the spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in a statement.

The Biden administration has insisted that Israel will help forge a realistic path to a Palestinian state, arguing that Israel’s longstanding security policies toward the Palestinians appear to have failed, as evidenced by the scale of Hamas’s deadly terrorist attacks on October 7. statehood is a long-standing policy goal of the United States, but efforts to achieve this had faded since the Obama administration.

The two officials also discussed the civil war in Sudan and “preventing further widespread harm among the civilian population” there, Mr. Miller said.

The New York Times reported in September that the Emirates had sent weapons to the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group fighting the regular army in Sudan, bringing the weapons into the country through a remote military air base across the border in Chad. Mr. Blinken said in December that the two warring armies and associated militias in Sudan were all committing war crimes.

The Emirates are one of the largest buyers of US weapons and are seen by the US government as a security partner, but the country and the Biden administration are at odds on several major security issues, including the Emirates’ role in the war in Sudan and the subsequent war. efforts to forge key military and economic partnerships with China.

After his stop in the Emirates, Mr Blinken flew to Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi ruler, at a luxury desert camp. Mr. Blinken and other aides to President Biden are trying to revive discussions about Saudi Arabia’s transition to normal diplomatic relations with Israel, hoping that such a move could prompt Israelis to agree to working towards the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Mr Blinken planned to visit Israel after his stop in the Saudi desert.