Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after arriving in Egypt on Thursday, continuing his sixth swing through the Middle East in pursuit of a temporary Gaza cease-fire that the United States is also seeking through a U.N. resolution.
Mr. Blinken will later join several Arab foreign ministers to discuss how Gaza could be governed and kept secure once Israel finishes its military campaign there.
Other attendees will include foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. The group will also discuss providing Gaza’s desperate population with more humanitarian aid and planning for the eventual aftermath of the war.
Mr. Blinken arrived from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where on Wednesday he told a Saudi-run news outlet about the U.S. effort at the United Nations. He also held a late-night meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in which he emphasized the Biden administration’s eventual goal of “the establishment of a future Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel,” the State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in a statement on Thursday.
Mr. Blinken and the crown prince also “continued discussions on achieving lasting regional peace and security, including through greater integration among countries in the region and enhanced bilateral cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Miller said.
That is a reference to discussions between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia about a possible deal in which the Gulf Arab state would establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel for the first time. In return the Saudis have asked the U.S. for security guarantees, arms sales and backing for a civil nuclear program. Such a deal would also likely require Israeli support for a path to Palestinian statehood.
Mr. Blinken plans to travel on to Israel, where he will discuss the potential Saudi normalization agreement as well as Israel’s war plans and ways to protect and deliver more aid to civilians there.
