April 29 (UPI) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for a cease-fire in the war between U.S. ally Israel and Hamas on Monday as President Joe Biden indicated the release of Israeli hostages remained the only stumbling block to a deal.
Blinken, who was meeting with Middle East regional leaders in Saudi Arabia, said a cease-fire was the best way to start relieving suffering in Gaza and move toward healing.
“We strongly support Israel to ensure whatever happened on Oct. 7 never happens again,” Blinken said at the World Economic Forum. “At the same time, we are determined to do everything we can to bring an end to the terrible human suffering that we are seeing every single day in Gaza.”
In calling for a cease-fire, Blinken added that Hamas has a deal on the table from Israel that he called “extraordinarily generous” and that their agreement is the last piece needed to reach a cease-fire agreement.
“The quickest way to bring this to an end is to get to a cease-fire and the release of hostages,” Blinken said, thanking Qatar and Egypt for their help in trying to broker a deal. “In this moment, the only thing standing in the way of the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas. They have to decide and have to decide quickly.”
The White House later said Biden had talked with Qatari leader Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and emphasized that “the release of hostages held by Hamas … is now the only obstacle to an immediate cease-fire and relief for the people of Gaza.”
Should a cease-fire be reached, Biden said the United States together with Egypt and Qatar “would work to ensure the full implementation of its terms.”
Blinken added that “measurable progress” had been made in the efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
Last week, the Pentagon said that construction of a pier in Gaza to bring aid to the Palestinian enclave by sea had begun and that humanitarian aid could be delivered there in early May.
Blinken said the United States has quietly worked to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, something that had appeared to move forward before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. He said that “intense work” had been done on normalization over the “past months.”
He stressed, though, that having a Palestinian state would play a key role in relieving regional tension. Blinken said it would send a powerful message to Iran and Hamas of those two things happened.
Blinken met with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday where he again stressed the United States opposition to the Israeli military moving into Rafah without a credible plan to move out about a million refugees there.