Blinken: Military operations in Rafah are not possible/difficult issues remain in the negotiations

Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is in the occupied Palestinian territories, added on Friday local time: “A large military ground operation is not possible. This attack has the risk of killing many civilians.”

The US Secretary of State emphasized: “We look forward to meeting Israeli officials in Washington next week to discuss the details and the best way forward in this regard.” We are determined that Israel succeeds in defending itself and integrates with its security in the region.”

He said: We will continue to work on a future with security and peace, not only for the Israelis, but also for the Palestinians and our other friends in the region.

The US foreign minister said at the Tel Aviv airport: We believe there is a way to do this.

Blinken said he could not provide details about the ongoing ceasefire talks held in Doha, but added: “We are heavily involved in these negotiations along with the Qataris, Egyptians and Israel.” We’ve narrowed it down to a few points, but the closer we get to the finish line, the harder the remaining distance gets; So there are some tough issues that need to be resolved.

According to the spokesperson of the US State Department, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has emphasized the need to protect the civilians of Gaza in a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement on Friday local time that Blinken also emphasized the need to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza through land and sea routes.

Blinken discussed efforts to reach an agreement for a ceasefire of at least six weeks that would guarantee the release of prisoners and increase humanitarian aid.

The resolution proposed by the United States on Gaza was presented at the United Nations Security Council meeting on Friday, and Russia, China and Algeria voted against it. Since a resolution needs 9 out of 15 votes of the members of the Security Council without the veto of the permanent members, the American resolution could not be approved and it was vetoed by the negative votes of China and Russia, the permanent members of the Security Council.

On the resolution proposed by the US, 11 countries out of 15 member countries of the Security Council voted in favor, three countries voted against and one country abstained.

The three countries that voted against included two permanent members of the Security Council, Russia and China, and one non-permanent member of the Security Council, Algeria, who voted against it. The country of Guyana also abstained from voting on this resolution from the non-permanent members of the Security Council.

On October 15, 1402, on October 7, 2023, the Palestinian resistance groups launched a surprise operation called “Al-Aqsa Storm” from Gaza (southern Palestine) against the positions of the Israeli regime. On November 24, 2023, a four-day temporary ceasefire was established between Israel and Hamas, or a pause for the exchange of prisoners between Hamas and Israel.

This pause in the war continued for 7 days and finally on the morning of Friday, December 10, 2023, the temporary ceasefire ended and the Israeli regime resumed attacks on Gaza. In order to retaliate for the surprise attacks of the “Al-Aqsa storm” and to compensate for its failure and stop the resistance operations, this regime has closed all the crossings of the Gaza Strip and is bombarding this area.

Negotiations to re-establish a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of prisoners with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt and the participation of the United States have not yet reached a conclusion. US President Joe Biden had predicted that before the holy month of Ramadan, Hamas and Israel would reach an agreement for a new round of ceasefire, but this prediction did not come true.

Now, considering the disastrous situation in Gaza and the successive warnings of the United Nations about this region on the one hand, and the threat of the Israeli regime to attack Rafah on the other hand, which can turn the crisis in Gaza into an indescribable disaster, efforts to Prevention of this disaster continues.

Source: IRNA