U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to Türkiye on Sunday after visiting Jordan and Israel amid outrage over the latter’s international law violations in the Gaza Strip.
Blinken met with Arab counterparts in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Saturday after visiting Israel the day before.
In Türkiye, Blinken would “underscore the importance of protecting civilian lives in Israel and the Gaza Strip,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement on Saturday.
He would also discuss “our shared commitment to facilitating the increased, sustained delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza” as well as ensuring Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza.”
He would also discuss ways to “stem violence, calm rhetoric, reduce regional tensions” and work toward a “durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East, to include the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
The nearly month-long conflict erupted when Hamas launched attacks across the border into Israel on Oct. 7.
Israeli officials say Hamas killed about 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages, including Israelis, foreigners and dual nationals.
Gaza’s health ministry says more than 9,400 people have been killed in Israeli bombardments, most of them children or women.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that he was breaking off all contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because of Israeli attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip.
In its statement, the State Department did not confirm a meeting between Blinken and Erdoğan, even though it appears likely, according to U.S. officials traveling with him.
The top U.S. diplomat in Ankara would also discuss Ukraine and the finalization of Sweden’s membership of NATO, long blocked by Türkiye, according to the same source.
Erdoğan recently submitted the protocol for Sweden’s accession to NATO to the Turkish Parliament after 17 months of deadlock, but the process has not yet been completed.
