Blinken visits Cyprus to discuss Middle East crisis
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will meet with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulidis at the Larnaka Airport in Cyprus on Sunday.
The meeting will focus on the Israel-Hamas war and the potential of opening a humanitarian corridor to Gaza by sea.
Blinken’s visit to Cyprus was kept strictly confidential for security reasons. His aircraft landed at Larnaca airport at around 2 p.m. on Sunday.
The US Secretary of State has visited different parts of the region and is expected in Ankara, Turkey later on Sunday, where a protest demonstration is underway.
Earlier on Sunday, the US Secretary of State visited the occupied West Bank and met with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, while on Saturday Blinken rebuffed calls for a ceasefire from Arab officials after appealing, unsuccessfully, to Israel for more limited pauses to the fighting a day earlier.
On Sunday’s meeting in the West Bank, Abbas told Blinken there should be an immediate ceasefire and that aid should be allowed into Gaza, according to spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh.
Blinken said the United States was committed to getting aid into Gaza and restoring essential services there, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a readout of the meeting.
“The Secretary also expressed the commitment of the United States to working toward the realization of the Palestinians’ legitimate aspirations for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Miller said.
[Kathimerini/Cyrpus Mail]
