US Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt on Tuesday for his 10th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began nearly a year ago, this one aimed partly at refining a proposal to present to Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire deal and release of hostages.
Unlike in recent mediating missions, America’s top diplomat this time is travelling without optimistic projections from the Biden administration of an expected breakthrough in the troubled negotiations.
Notably, Blinken has no public plans to go to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this trip. The Israeli leader’s fiery public statements – such as his declaration that Israel would accept only “total victory” when Blinken was last in the region in June – and some other demands have complicated earlier diplomacy.
Blinken is going to Egypt for talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and others, in a trip billed as focused both on American-Egyptian relations and Gaza consultations with Egypt.
The tamped-down US approach to Middle East diplomacy follows months in which US President Joe Biden and his officials publicly talked up an agreement to end the war in Gaza as being just within reach, hoping to build pressure on Netanyahu’s far-right government and Hamas to seal a deal.