French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said Monday that ceasefire talks in Gaza were progressing, joining U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Saudi Arabia in a diplomatic bid to ease the war between Israel and Hamas.
Séjourné is expected to hold talks in Riyadh with ministers from Arab and other Western countries, as well as with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
“Things are moving forward, but we must always be careful in these discussions and negotiations. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic and we need a ceasefire,” Séjourné told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of the World Economic Forum.
“We will discuss the hostages, the humanitarian situation and the ceasefire. Things are making progress, but we must always remain cautious in these discussions and negotiations.”
Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the first stop on a larger trip to the Middle East.
According to Israeli records, Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.
Israel responded by imposing a total siege on Gaza and then staging an air and ground attack that killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Palestinians have suffered acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine in a humanitarian crisis that has accompanied an Israeli military offensive that has demolished much of the impoverished Strip.
Blinken, speaking at the opening of a meeting with Gulf Arab states, said the most effective way to address the humanitarian crisis and create space for a more lasting solution is to reach a ceasefire that allows the release of hostages held by Hamas .
“We still need to provide more aid to Gaza and its surroundings… We need to find more efficiency,” he said.
In Riyadh, Blinken is expected to discuss with Arab foreign ministers what the government of the Gaza Strip will look like after the end of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to a senior State Department official.
Blinken is also expected to bring together Arab and European countries and discuss how Europe can help in reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip, which has been reduced to ruins by six months of Israeli bombing.
Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh said all sides must find a path to a two-state solution to the conflict, otherwise the Middle East risks another catastrophe.
“What we need to see is an irreversible path towards realizing a two-state solution… so that we don’t find ourselves in this situation again in a few years and drag the region and perhaps the whole world into even greater tension and put it in comparison risk global peace and security,” he said in Riyadh.
Israeli airstrikes on three houses in the southern Gaza city of Rafah have killed at least 20 Palestinians and wounded many others, medics said on Monday, as mediators from Egypt and Qatar were due to hold a new round of talks for the ceasefire with the leaders of Hamas Cairo.
Source: Terra
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