The leaders of six Arab countries asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this Saturday for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip, and urged him to convince Israel of this, but the main American diplomat noted that the cessation now would only allow the Islamist group Hamas to regroup and attack Israel again.
In a rare public disagreement at a news conference in Amman, the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt, alongside Blinken, repeatedly pushed for a cessation of hostilities, saying the deaths of thousands of civilians could not be justified as self-defense.
"Arab countries ask for an immediate ceasefire and to stop this war and the murder of innocent civilians and the destruction it causes and we refuse to classify it as self-defense," argued the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman al Safadi, in a press conference he offered. in Amman with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shukri, and Blinken.
Blinken is on his second trip to the region since Israel and Hamas went to war on October 7, when the Palestinian Islamist group attacked Israel from Gaza, in an armed raid that Tel Aviv said killed 1,400 people and more than 240 were taken hostage.
Health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza say more than 9,250 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since then. The Israeli army has begun a continuous bombardment of the strip, imposed a siege and launched a military ground incursion. This has sparked global alarm over the humanitarian conditions in the enclave, where food, water, fuel and medicine are scarce and medical services are on the brink of collapse.
The rising number of civilian deaths in Gaza has intensified international calls for a ceasefire, but Washington, like Israel, has so far dismissed them, even as it has tried to persuade Israel to agree to localized pauses. The idea has been rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu after he met with Blinken on Friday.
"A ceasefire now would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7," Blinken repeated in front of his Arab counterparts. "No nation, none of us would accept that... That is why it is important to reaffirm Israel's right and its obligation to defend itself."
His Jordanian counterpart, Al Safadi, for his part, denounced that Israel was committing war crimes. Likewise, he recalled that the Arab position also calls for the delivery of humanitarian aid and ways to put an end to "the dangerous deterioration that threatens the security of the region." "The responsibility of the international community is always to seek the cessation of hostilities, not to promote the continuation of violence," Egyptian Minister Shukri said at the same press conference.
Washington has been talking to Israel, Arab states and international organizations about the future of Gaza, but both Shukri and Al Safadi appeared reluctant to openly discuss those talks to ensure the focus remains on the need for a ceasefire.
"What will happen next? How can we even consider what will happen in Gaza when we don't know what kind of Gaza will be left" after this war, Safadi said.
However, Blinken assured that the United States and Arab states agreed that the Hamas-controlled status quo in Gaza cannot continue. He also said that he had discussed with his Arab counterparts how to chart a better path toward a two-state solution.
Arab states are also concerned about the risk of the conflict spreading to the region. Both Lebanon's Hizbullah and Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militias have launched attacks against Israel since October 7, while Tehran-backed Iraqi Shiite militias have been firing on US forces in Iraq and Syria.
