US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his visit to the Middle East today (Monday), as the US and Egypt are pushing for a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization.
At the same time, Blinken continued to promote the American initiative for a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. He stated that an agreement is close to completion, but emphasized that Israel will be required to agree to promote the two-state solution.
At a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh today, Blinken said that there is an "extraordinarily generous" deal for Hamas on the table, and the terrorist organization needs to "needs to decide and it needs to decide quickly" if it is going to accept this deal.
"There really are two paths forward for the region as a whole. One – riven with division, with destruction, with violence, with permanent insecurity; the other – greater integration, greater security, greater peace. I think the meeting today shows that many more of us want to pursue that affirmative path, and I’m grateful to our colleagues from the GCC for working in partnership to advance in that direction." Blinken said.
From Riyadh, Blinken will travel to Jordan, and he will arrive in Israel tomorrow (Tuesday).