U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has travelled to Israel this Sunday for the ninth time since the beginning of the genocide. On Monday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Defence Minister Yoav Galant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Tel Aviv, and Blinken has shown their “urgency” to reach an agreement: "It is a decisive moment, surely the best, perhaps the last, to bring the hostages home, to achieve a lasting cease-fire and peace and security."
In his meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken said that this has accepted the "transition proposal" put forward by the United States last week in the Doha negotiations and that now "the next important step is for HAMAS to say yes". “The parties, with the help of mediators, have to join the United States, Egypt and Qatar and complete a process that allows a clear understanding of how they will implement the commitments they have made under this agreement,” said Blinken.
Press adviser to the head of the Hamas political office, Taher Al-Nono, responded after Blinken’s statements and stated that they are “anti-reality”. HAMAS has denounced the draft agreements proposed by the United States. United States In June and July they were approved by them and rejected by Netanyahu, while the Israeli Prime Minister has been accused of imposing new conditions. The Axios media reported that Hamas said that with the American proposal the Israeli forces would control the "Netzarim corridor", which divides Gaza from north to south, the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphia corridor, located on the border with Egypt, according to the Al Yazira media. The Palestinian organisation states that the previous proposals contain its two main demands: the complete ceasefire and the total withdrawal of the army from the Palestinian territories. "Without a total truce, we will not accept any agreement. Blinken’s statements are part of the trend towards occupation and cover crimes,” said the Palestinian press advisor.
Hezbollah’s oath of revenge and Iran’s “legal right to punish the aggressor”
In recent weeks, the international community led by the United States has made every effort to reach an agreement in the Gaza Strip. Blinken has shown the “urgency” of reaching an agreement in the regional context. On 31 July Israel killed HAMAS leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran, and one day earlier Hezbollah's chief military officer killed Fuad Shukr in a bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. The Shia group, an ally of Iran, swore revenge and intensified the attacks, according to La Vanguardia.
Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has offered a press conference in which he said that, although he has advocated a truce, it has nothing to do with "Iran's legal right to punish the aggressor". "We underline Iran's legal right to exercise its rights, to punish the aggressor and to create a deterrent against a terrorist regime. We will do so at the right time,” said Kanaani. The Iranian spokesman said that "punishing the aggressor is an act that helps peace" and that "there will be no direct contacts" with Israel.
Kanaani has stated that Iran is not seeking to "increase insecurity in the region" and has underlined the responsibility of the United States and Israel in the search for a cease-fire. “The US Government must demonstrate whether these negotiations are a political manoeuvre to achieve its goals and whether the time-consuming Zionist regime wants to continue the massacre of the Palestinian people, or whether it really creates the conditions for a ceasefire,” said the Iranian spokesman.
New meeting in Cairo
It is expected that Blinken will go to Egypt on Tuesday and that the meetings that are missing to complete the negotiations will resume on Wednesday or Thursday in Cairo, according to the note elDiario.es. Although Blinken has said that Netanyahu has accepted the "transition proposal", there are discrepancies between Hamas and Israel. Hamas considers that Netanyahu “bears the absolute responsibility for frustrating the efforts” of the mediators and the Israeli Prime Minister has stated that HAMAS “did not send any representatives” to the talks in Doha and that the pressure should be directed at Hamas and Yahya Sinwar, the current leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, “not the Israeli Government”. HAMAS has denounced that the United States is changing the conditions of a previous proposal, rather than Netanyahu, to "portray the main obstacle to the agreement" of the Islamist group, according to Al Jazeera.
Since 7 October, nearly 40,000 people have died and nearly 92,000 have been injured in Palestine, according to Public data.
A Palestinian state, two states or none. These are some of the solutions that are represented when referring to the conflict in Palestine. The State of Palestine may consist of the current Gaza and the West Bank, or it may be just Area A of the West Bank – an area controlled... [+]