Blinken met by Palestinian PM on arrival in WBank
(25 May 2021) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Ramallah on Tuesday to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as part of his regional tour to shore up last week’s cease-fire.
Earlier on Tuesday, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem where they gave a joint news briefing.
Blinken vowed to “rally international support” to aid Gaza following a devastating war there, while keeping any assistance out of the hands of its militant Hamas rulers.
Abbas heads the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank but whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power there in 2007.
Abbas, who called off the first Palestinian elections in 15 years last month when it appeared his fractured Fatah movement would suffer an embarrassing defeat, is seen by many Palestinians as having lost all legitimacy.
A crowd of worshippers at Al-Aqsa chanted against the Palestinian Authority and in support of Hamas on Friday.
But Abbas is still seen internationally as the representative of the Palestinian people and a key partner in the long-defunct peace process.
The Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella group led by Abbas, recognized Israel decades ago, and the Palestinian Authority maintains close security ties with Israel.
Blinken will also visit neighboring Egypt and Jordan, which have acted as mediators in the conflict.
Egypt succeeded in brokering the Gaza truce after the Biden administration pressed Israel to wind down its offensive.
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