Amid warnings of a full scale war, Biden administration dispatches envoy to Middle East Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY
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WASHINGTON – The Biden administration dispatched a top State Department diplomat to the Middle East immediately to try to de-escalate the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday.
President Joe Biden faces growing pressure to help stem the violence and heightened international alarm over the spiraling death toll. The United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, warned on Wednesday that the situation is escalating toward full scale war.
More than 80 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, including 17 children and seven women, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and another 480 people have been wounded. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that seized power in Gaza in 2007, acknowledged that a top commander and several o
We are deeply engaged across the board, from the State Department to the White House, Blinken said.
Biden has not nominated an ambassador to Israel, and the Trump administration closed the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, which had served as the White House s main channel of communication to the Palestinians.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not answer questions Wednesday about whether the administration will reopen that diplomatic facility. She said Biden would nominate a qualified, experienced ambassador to Israel in the coming weeks, and the administration has made 25 high-level calls on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 10 of which took place yesterday.
The two big moves in early US Middle East policy
Three months is a very short time, especially in the life of a new administration scrambling to fill positions, review policy, and launch initiatives. And although the incoming administration’s priorities are largely domestic and in the foreign policy arena, their priorities are on global issues like climate change and fighting COVID or otherwise on China and Asia Middle East policy has seen important movement, particularly on Iran and Afghanistan.
The decision to find a pathway back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran was signaled loudly during the campaign, and it has translated into indirect talks in Vienna. Predictably, Iran has been testing the new administration with limited escalations in various theaters, partly to take the measure of the new president, and partly as a way to gain leverage in the negotiations. Despite their wide differences, the American and Iranian “administrations” both h
J Street Goes on Offense, Carefully
AT THE J STREET ANNUAL CONFERENCE on April 20th, Sen. Elizabeth Warren took the virtual stage and called for the United States to take “immediate steps” to push for peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine. “If we’re serious about arresting settlement expansion and helping move the parties toward a two-state solution, then it would be irresponsible not to consider all of the tools we have at our disposal,” she said. “One of those is restricting military aid from being used in the occupied territories.”
While there was no audience to applaud, the conference’s virtual chat lit up with approval. “We love aid restrictions!” wrote one attendee. “She’s got a plan for American pressure to end the occupation!” said another. In a session that evening, Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Alan Lowenthal, and Ro Khanna, as well as conference headliner Sen. Bernie Sanders, all echoed Warren’s appeal, calling for the US to ensure that i
The two big moves in early US Middle East policy
Three months is a very short time, especially in the life of a new administration scrambling to fill positions, review policy, and launch initiatives. And although the incoming administration’s priorities are largely domestic and in the foreign policy arena, their priorities are on global issues like climate change and fighting COVID or otherwise on China and Asia Middle East policy has seen important movement, particularly on Iran and Afghanistan.
The decision to find a pathway back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran was signaled loudly during the campaign, and it has translated into indirect talks in Vienna. Predictably, Iran has been testing the new administration with limited escalations in various theaters, partly to take the measure of the new president, and partly as a way to gain leverage in the negotiations. Despite their wide differences, the American and Iranian “administrations” both h