Blinken outlines framework for post-conflict Gaza in his final address

US Secretary of State talks up Biden administration’s legacy in the Middle East

Antony Blinken told the Atlantic Council in Washington on Tuesday that a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza was 'closer than it has ever been'. AFP

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday detailed a framework for the postwar governing of Gaza as he defended the Biden administration’s legacy in the Middle East.

It is a framework Mr Blinken first outlined in Tokyo in November 2023 and one he has frequently referred to over the course of his dozen trips to the Middle East since October 7.

“The principles included that Gaza never again be ruled by Hamas, or used as a platform for terrorism or other violent attacks, new Palestinian-led governments with Gaza united with the West Bank, under the Palestinian Authority, no Israeli military occupation of Gaza or reduction of Gaza's territory, no attempt after the conflict to besiege or block aid and no forcible displacement of Gaza population,” Mr Blinken said in his farewell address at the Atlantic Council in Washington on Tuesday.

Mr Blinken said his team will “hand off” the plan to the incoming Donald Trump administration. He also called on the Palestinian Authority to “invite international partners to help establish and run an interim administration with responsibility for key civil sectors in Gaza, like banking, water, energy, health and civil co-ordination with Israel”.

For months, President Joe Biden's administration has been working with Qatar and Egypt to broker an end to the conflict and the release of about 100 hostages held in Gaza.

As he sought to define the Biden administration's positive role in the region, Mr Blinken said a deal to end the war was “closer than it has ever been before”.

Critics note, however, that Mr Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff spent much of the last week in the region also trying to push the deal forward.

About 46,600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its retaliatory campaign in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. More than 109,000 people have been injured in what has been the bloodiest and most destructive war of the decades-long Israel-Palestine dispute.

While he focused the bulk of his address on Gaza, Mr Blinken highlighted other regional success stories. “The Assad regime has fallen and Tehran has retreated from Syria,” he said, referring to a recent blitz in the country that toppled former president Bashar Al Assad. “None of Assad's patrons, not Iran, not Russia, not Hezbollah, were in a position to save him this time – all were bogged down in crises of their own making, which the United States effectively exacerbated.”

This did not deter protesters from interrupting Mr Blinken's address three times, with demonstrators calling him “Bloody Blinken” and shouting “shame”, accusing the Biden administration of an inability or refusal to rein in Israel in Gaza.