Luke CAIRO, Sept. 17 — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Egypt on Wednesday, hoping to advance efforts for a Gaza ceasefire deal and strengthen bilateral ties with Cairo amid concerns about rising tensions in the Middle East.
The top US diplomat’s visit comes at a time when the region is on high alert over the risk of an expansion of the war in Gaza, especially after militant group Hezbollah vowed retaliation against Israel, which it accused of carrying out pager explosions across Lebanon on Tuesday .
At least 9 people were killed and around 3,000 injured in the incident. Israel refused to answer questions about the blast.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a regular briefing that it was too early to say whether the events in Lebanon would have an impact on the Gaza ceasefire talks, but said the United States believed diplomacy was the way to ease tensions.
Miller said that during Blinken’s meeting with Egyptian officials, “on the immediate agenda was how to present a proposal that we believe will secure an agreement between the two sides on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.”
For several weeks, US officials have said a new proposal would come soon for a deal that would include the release of Hamas hostages seized from Israel on October 7, 2023.
“We need to engage with the Egyptian government on a number of issues as it relates to the ceasefire proposal that we’re working on,” Miller said.
Blinken will not travel to Israel, the first time he has skipped a visit to Washington’s closest regional ally since the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a war in Gaza nearly a year ago.
Miller said this was because the purpose of the visit to Washington was to discuss bilateral issues with Egypt, and that the ceasefire proposal in Gaza that the United States and mediators were working on was not yet ready to be presented to Israel.
“Therefore, it would be premature to make such a proposal or engage in any other diplomatic activity,” he said.
Egypt, along with Qatar, has been a key mediator in US-led diplomacy to end the war by providing advice and counter-advice between Hamas and Israel. Washington is also counting on Cairo’s efforts to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza’s 2.3 million war-torn residents.
According to Israeli figures, Palestinian militants’ attacks on Israel last year killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Gaza says Israeli retaliatory attacks on Gaza have killed more than 41,000 people and left much of the territory devastated.
In its decades-long alliance with Egypt, Washington has provided billions of dollars in military aid despite allegations that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government has committed widespread abuses, including torture and enforced disappearances. The Egyptian government denies the charges.
In a sign of Cairo’s growing importance, Blinken last week waived human rights conditions on U.S. foreign military financing to Egypt and allowed the full $1.3 billion in financing to flow through for the first time since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Seth Binder, advocacy director at the Washington-based Center for Middle East Democracy, said the Biden administration has “completely abandoned any pretense that human rights are central to the relationship” after pledging to make human rights central to U.S.-Egypt relations.
