US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held a press conference in Israel Tuesday night following his meetings with Israeli and Palestinian Authority leaders.
"We had a very busy and certainly productive day in Jerusalem and Ramallah since arriving this morning," Blinkin began. "I travelled here at the request of President Biden, who asked me to come to pursue four basic objectives."
"First, to demonstrate the commitment of the United States to Israel's security. Second. to start to work toward greater stability and reduced tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Third, to support urgent humanitarian and reconstructionist assistance for Gaza to benefit the Palestinian people. And fourth, to continue to rebuild our relationship with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority," he said.
"Across the meetings that I've held so far, I've heard a shared recognition from all sides that steps need to be taken, work needs to be done, to address the underlying conditions that helped fuel this latest conflict. The cease-fire creates space to begin to take those steps. Attending to the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinians in Gaza and helping to rebuild is a key starting point," the Secretary of State declared.
"Leaders on both sides will need to chart a better course, starting by making improvements in the lives of the people of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. I'm convinced that if they do, they will find willing partners in both Israeli and Palestinian civil society," he said.
Addressing a question about the Biden Administration's intention to return to the Iran nuclear deal, Blinken said: "The US and Israel are absolutely united in the proposition Iran must never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon. We share exactly the same goal. It's no secret that we sometimes have our differences with regard to the best way to achieve that goal."
"We said that from day one, we would be keeping our closest allies and closest partners fully and contemporaneously informed of what we were going and where we were going. That's what we've done, and that's what we'll continue to do," he said.