US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered keynote remarks on the Middle East at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. today (Tuesday), less than a week before he is set to leave office.
At the start of his remarks, Blinken said that "from the outset, the Biden Administration's goal in the Middle East was not to repeat the blunders of years past of trying to transform its governments or its societies, but rather to transform relations with, between, and among US partners in the region. But that's because we saw a more integrated region as more likely to be stable and secure, to deliver economic opportunity for its people, to find solutions to shared challenges, from pandemics and terrorism to infrastructure and energy needs. A more integrated region is also in a stronger position to prevent any one of its neighbors from dominating the others or any outside country from dominating the region."
"We moved swiftly to pursue this vision," he said, claiming that the administration "deepened and broadened the Abraham Accords."
"We spearheaded new coalitions like I2U2, bringing together India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States to tackle shared challenges. We announced a groundbreaking economic corridor between India and the Middle East," he said.
Blinken paused his remarks as a protester yelled that his "legacy will be genocide" and that he will be "forever known as Bloody Blinken."
After the protester was removed, the Secretary said that the administration acted to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to create a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. These efforts were delayed by the October 7 massacre committed by the Hamas terrorist organization.
"On October 7th, Hamas attacked Israel, unleashing the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust," he noted. "Hamas killed more than 1,200 men, women, and children, torturing, maiming, sexually assaulting many of its victims. The overwhelming majority of Hamas' victims were civilians. They included citizens from more than 30 countries, among them 46 Americans. Hamas also took more than 250 people hostage, including some 30 children and 12 Americans. Seven of those Americans remain hostage to this day."
"The timing of Hamas' attack was no accident," he said. "Israel's growing integration in the region, the prospect of normalization with Saudi Arabia, posed an existential threat to Hamas' power. its ambitions to dominate the Palestinian political landscape, its raison d'etre, which is the rejection of two states and the destruction of Israel."
"As notes recovered from meetings of Hamas' top officials would later reveal, Hamas sought to spark a regional war that would derail this agreement, knowing that doing so would inflict immense suffering on civilians on all sides, including the Palestinian people whose interests they claim to represent."
Blinken praised President Joe Biden's support for Israel and how he became "the first US President to travel Israel in wartime" to tell the Israeli people "you are not alone."
"Now, more than 15 months later, Hamas' military and governance capacity has been decimated and the masterminds behind the attack have been killed. Tehran is on its back foot. Its two missile attacks on Israel were thwarted by a coalition of regional partners that we assembled. Israel's response, which we played a central role in shaping, demolished Iran's air defenses, left Tehran's most sensitive military sites exposed and vulnerable, and sent a clear message of deterrence while at the same time avoiding a dangerous escalatory cycle. Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful proxy, is a shadow of its former self; its leadership eliminated, its terrorist infrastructure of tunnels and weapons manufacturing ravaged. In Lebanon, Hezbollah's forces have retreated north of the Litani River as part of a US-brokered ceasefire agreement," he said.
He further noted the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, one of Iran's crucial client states. "It's not just what we achieved, but also what we prevented," he said of the prospect of regional war. "The balance of power in the Middle East is shifting dramatically and not in the way that Hamas and its backers hoped or planned."
However, "the region remains rife with risks, from Syria's fragile political transition to Iran's desperation to restore its deterrence, with all that could imply for its nuclear ambitions, to the Houthis' ongoing attacks on Israel and international shipping."
Blinken claimed that in the Arab world, there is widespread doubt that the October 7 massacre happened while Israeli media does not report on the suffering in Gaza.
“The more people suffer, the less they feel empathy for the suffering of those on the other side,” he said. “Throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds, large majorities believe that October 7 didn’t happen, or if it did, that it was a legitimate attack on Israel’s military."
“In Israel, there is almost no reporting on the conditions in Gaza and what people there endure every day,” he added, saying that “this dehumanization is one of the greatest tragedies of the conflict."
He criticized the Palestinian Authority for its failure to condemn the October 7 massacre and wondered, "Where has been the condemnation against Hamas hiding among civilians? If worldwide communities had spoken differently, the situation could have been sorted much earlier."
Blinken noted that former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar admitted that Hamas' strategy was to cause greater civilian casualties in Gaza, but still accused Israel of not doing enough to protect civilians in Gaza.
He questioned whether the US pressured Israel too much or not enough and said that he does not have the answers to those questions, which will be up to history to decide.
According to him, "much of the heavy lifting" on a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia "is complete," including elements related to the US relationship with Saudi Arabia.
When asked about the efforts this week to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, Blinken said that an agreement is "right on the brink. It's closer than it's ever been before, but right now, as we sit here, we await final word from Hamas on its acceptance. Until we get that word, we'll remain on the brink."
"That could come any time. It could come in the hours ahead, it could come in the days ahead. That's what we're looking for. But what we've done over the last weeks and especially over the last days has put it right there. And the deal is there, it's ready to be fully and finally implemented. But right now, we've got to wait to get the final word from Hamas," Secretary Blinken said.