Blinken begins Middle East tour: What chance of a ceasefire deal?
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00:00 Gaza's entire population is suffering from severe levels of acute food insecurity.
00:06 That from the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he begins a regional tour today
00:10 with Arab foreign ministers and a top Palestinian official in Cairo.
00:14 He continues to push for at least a pause in the fighting to try to get aid to those who
00:18 desperately need it amid the ongoing threat of an attack on the city of Rafa.
00:23 Well, International Affairs editor Philip Tell is joining me here on set now.
00:27 Philip, it's not Blinken's first visit to the region by any means, is it?
00:32 I mean, what chance really does he have of securing any kind of deal this time around?
00:36 Well, I imagine Antony Blinken's been saying to himself,
00:39 this is like climbing up a hill backwards with a huge weight on my shoulders,
00:42 but he's certainly going to carry on trying.
00:44 This is the sixth visit that he's made to the region since the attacks of the 7th of October.
00:50 And so far, still no sign of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip between
00:56 Hamas and the Israeli defence forces.
00:58 Still loads more misery for the civilian population there who've been displaced
01:04 and a lot of worry, as you were just saying, about increased levels of
01:08 starvation and food insecurity.
01:10 So I think after a visit to Saudi Arabia yesterday, where he has managed to
01:15 talk to the Saudi authorities, the US is pushing them to strike up
01:20 normalised relations with Israel.
01:23 There's been a pledge amongst the Saudis to send $40 million to UNRWA,
01:30 that's the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
01:33 These are the main points from yesterday.
01:35 Hamas saying that the proposals that Israel has put forward for that ceasefire are still
01:41 globally negative.
01:43 I'll come back to that in a minute.
01:44 Other points, yesterday Canada is to stop exporting arms to Israel.
01:49 And the Israeli defence minister is to visit, that's Yoav Galon,
01:53 is to visit Washington next week.
01:55 That's a visit that's been set up by Benjamin Netanyahu.
01:57 The relationship between him and Joe Biden is not particularly good right now.
02:02 He said that is out of respect for Joe Biden, that he's sending his foreign minister there
02:07 to talk to the US authorities, but still no real breakthrough on that ceasefire.
02:11 And even though Hamas has come up with a proposal that it should be for six weeks
02:17 and not an indefinite ceasefire, which is what it originally was calling for,
02:20 they're still blaming Israel for not coming up with equivalent points
02:25 that they can both move forward with.
02:27 So negotiations carrying on in Qatar right now between the different sides,
02:32 between Egypt, between Saudi Arabia, Hamas and representatives from the Israelis,
02:36 but still no real progress in trying to work out how and when that ceasefire is going to come into a phase.
02:41 Yeah, I mean, the US doesn't seem to be making much progress either,
02:44 does it, in talking to Israel directly.
02:46 Joe Biden's calls for a ceasefire appear to be largely falling on deaf ears.
02:51 Is there any sign at all at the moment, do you think,
02:53 that Israel may not launch its attack on Rafa?
02:56 Well, there's a differing of points here.
02:57 Now, the Israelis say they have to launch this offensive.
03:01 This is Benjamin Netanyahu basically saying,
03:03 "We have to launch this offensive because this is the only way we're going to wipe out Hamas completely.
03:07 There are still six battalions of Hamas which are in Rafa.
03:12 We will have to destroy those and also get hold of the last remaining leaders of Hamas
03:18 who are hiding underground.
03:20 The only way to do that is to send in ground forces.
03:22 But we will make sure that the civilian population is evacuated."
03:25 The US says, "No, no, we have to find another way of doing it
03:28 because you're going to risk too many lives by doing that."
03:30 Now, the big development over the past 24 hours is a report that Anthony Blinken,
03:35 or an interview that Anthony Blinken has done with a Saudi news agency,
03:39 where he's announced that the US for the first time has put forward a resolution
03:46 to the UN Security Council, which is going to be debated for an immediate ceasefire,
03:50 immediate, and also for opening up the borders to let more aid into the Gaza Strip.
03:55 Now, remember, up until now, the US has so far voted against a ceasefire three times
03:59 in the United Nations Security Council.
04:02 So this is also calling for the release of all of the hostages.
04:07 So that is quite a major development on the side of the US,
04:09 which I think shows the actual irritation that there is in Washington,
04:13 the growing frustration with Benjamin Netanyahu not agreeing to what the US is pushing for.
04:19 Just to illustrate that, for example, when they talked to each other on Monday,
04:23 the conversation between Benjamin Netanyahu on one side and Joe Biden on the other
04:28 was the first phone conversation between the two leaders for 32 days.
04:32 So that just goes to show that really they don't seem to have much to talk about.
04:36 And that's why the two men haven't been communicating with each other directly.
04:40 So there is some small progress, but we're still quite a long way off from any kind of concrete
04:46 ceasefire, immediate ceasefire, which is what the US is now calling for,
04:49 the letting in of humanitarian aid over the border from Rafa in southern Egypt and elsewhere
04:55 in the Gaza Strip to feed all those people who are suffering from starvation
05:00 and any movement towards liberating those 130 hostages.
05:04 And all of this while hunger increases and the death toll in Gaza mounts as well.
05:08 Well, those figures, Stuart, make pretty depressing and horrific reading.
05:13 If you look at them, 1.5 million people displaced in the Gaza Strip,
05:17 31,490 people killed. That's the latest figure given by Hamas sources.
05:24 And as you were just saying in your introduction,
05:27 100% in the Gaza Strip now suffering from food insecurity.
05:32 So there seems to be a feeling in the West Bank and I think, sorry, in Israel and also
05:40 in the United States that Benjamin Netanyahu is going to push ahead with this because he doesn't
05:45 want to give up right now because of the pressure he's under from his own far right coalition
05:52 to go ahead and destroy Hamas and also the threat hanging over him if he is no longer
05:57 prime minister with all these court cases that he could be facing.
06:02 So that also explains why he's being so intransigent towards the United States
06:06 and irritating Joe Biden so much.