Arab ministers and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee general secretary Hussein al-Sheikh – a confidant of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and an intermediary in contacts with Israel – on Thursday (March 21) in Cairo, Egypt.
Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control of the occupied West Bank, could play a role in administering Gaza once fighting ends, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed strong opposition.
Blinken had already met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to discuss the negotiations to secure an immediate ceasefire in the war, now in its sixth month, and the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
The top U.S. diplomat is in Egypt after visiting Saudi Arabia a day earlier, as part of his latest Middle East tour.
(Reuters)