CAIRO, Egypt—US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Cairo on Wednesday to try to salvage efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza that have been further complicated by a wave of deadly blasts targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
On his 10th trip to the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza nearly a year ago, Blinken met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and was expected to hold a press conference with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
He is not scheduled to visit other Arab capitals or Israel.
According to the US State Department, the objective of his visit was to address negotiation efforts with Egyptian officials.
US officials said privately that they did not expect any breakthroughs at Wednesday’s talks in Cairo, though Blinken would seek to keep up the pressure for a deal between Israel and Hamas.
“He’ll be meeting with Egyptian officials about a number of things, but squarely on the agenda is how we get a proposal that we think would secure agreement from both parties,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Tuesday.
Miller declined to “put a timetable on when we would put that proposal forward,” saying Washington wanted “a proposal that’s going to get a yes”.
“It’s very important that we… stop the haggling back and forth.”
US sources say there are two key sticking points in the negotiations: the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border that Israel is refusing to withdraw from, and the details surrounding the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel after Hamas made fresh demands.
