Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman to discuss the fallout from Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, especially repercussions in the occupied West Bank.
The secretary’s trip to Jordan, located along much of Israel’s eastern border, comes after Blinken spent time meeting with Israeli officials as well as people directly impacted by the attack and war, which has killed more than 1,300 Israelis and at least 27 Americans.
Blinken also met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whom President Joe Biden has been in touch with since the crisis erupted. The Jordanian leader has served as a key mediator in Middle East-related negotiations over several decades.
Blinken and Abdullah II discussed “the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. They also talked about “efforts to secure the release of all hostages and prevent the conflict from widening.”
Blinken “underscored that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination and discussed ways to address the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza while Israel conducts legitimate security operations to defend itself from terrorists,” it said.
Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority, which partially administers the West Bank. His Fatah movement is a rival of Hamas, which controls Gaza.
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White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday that the message that Blinken intends to convey to Abbas is to try keep calm in the West Bank because it’s in the interest of both Israel and the Palestinians.
“Things have remained relatively quiet on the West Bank throughout the eruption of this conflict across the border into Gaza, and we hope it stays that way,” Finer said. “And I believe that President Abbas and Secretary Blinken will discuss how that can be best done, what support we can offer to the Palestinian Authority as they continue to help provide security in the West Bank.”
Abbas is under pressure from Palestinians because of the Israeli and Egyptian blockade on the Gaza Strip and the Israeli government’s response to Hamas’ attack. The Israeli military on Friday ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate south, raising fears a potential ground assault may be imminent.
While Blinken met with Israeli officials on Thursday, King Abdullah II spoke with Abbas separately and discussed “ways to stop the all-out aggression against our Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” according to the Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA).
During their conversation, Abbas called for an immediate end to aggression toward Palestinians and the need to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza as well as water and electricity in the enclave. The news agency said Abbas called for political action to end Israel’s occupation but also said that on both sides of the conflict, civilians, prisoners and detainees should be released.
Abbas reaffirmed his belief that the Palestinian Liberation Organization is the legitimate group representing all Palestinians; not Hamas, a reminder of how opposed to each other the two groups are.
“We emphasize the policy of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which renounce violence and adheres to international legitimacy, peaceful popular resistance, and political action as a path to achieving our national goals of freedom and independence, leading to ending the occupation and embodying the independence of our Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders,” Abbas said in a statement.
It’s unclear how much influence Abbas might have under the current circumstances, as the PLO and Hamas have largely been adversaries for nearly two decades, with Hamas dismissing all agreements between the PLO and Israel.
In a 2006 election, the secular Fatah party of which Abbas serves as chairman lost its majority in the Palestinian territories to Hamas. Hamas took violent control of Gaza in 2007 and, since then, there has been ongoing conflict between Hamas and the PLO.
Meanwhile, Blinken, who has been addressing concerns about civilians based in Gaza, said Thursday that he and Netanyahu had discussed “possibilities for safe passage for civilians who want to leave or get out of the way in Gaza.”
“That’s a conversation a discussion that we will pursue in the coming days, including with some of the countries that we’ll be visiting,” he said.
After traveling to Jordan, Blinken is expected to also visit with leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Qatar..