The secretary of state appealed to the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt to tamp down anger over Israel’s retaliation and to assist in humanitarian aid
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the media in Cairo before boarding a flight to Jordan on Sunday. CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced stiff resistance from the Arab world’s most powerful strongmen on Sunday, trying to convince Egypt’s Abdel Fatah El-Sisi and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to embrace Washington’s view of the Israel-Hamas conflict, despite deep public sympathies for the Palestinian cause in the respective countries.
The crown prince also called for a halt in the “current escalation” in the conflict, a direct contradiction of U.S. policy, which has backed Israel to pursue its maximalist goal of eradicating Hamas., warned U.S. diplomats from using the phrases “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm” as the words did not comport with current U.S. policy.
Sisi, an authoritarian leader, has harshly cracked down on Islamists in Egypt. Still, Christian churches and religious leaders have frequently come under attack by Islamist extremists — and there are only a handful of Egyptian Jews left in the country. Tens of thousands of JewsWhile Sisi denounced Hamas’s assault on Israelis, he blamed Israel for driving Palestinians to desperation given the lack of progress toward a two-state solution.
That influence is a cornerstone of arguments in Cairo and in Washington for the continued provision of $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid to Egypt annually, despite the Sisi government’s abysmal human rights record. When Biden first came to office in 2021, pledging to put human rights at the center of his foreign policy, the bilateral relationship took a frostier turn.
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