The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubiohas met this Sunday with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahuin his office in Jerusalem, at the beginning of his first tour in the Middle East. Netanyahu has confirmed that the US and Israel “have a common strategy.” “We talk about Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and we will work to ensure that vision will come true,” says AFP.
In addition, Rubio has loaded against Iran, which he considers “the greatest source of instability in the region”, and has expressed his deep rejection that the country will develop as a nuclear power: “There can never be a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Iran who It can be kept immune to the pressure and the action. That can never happen ».
On his first visit as head of American diplomacy, Rubio has traveled to Tel Aviv to defend the proposal of the US president, Donald Trump, about expelling the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and taking the Control of the territory to develop a “a riviera of the Middle East.”
The meeting between Rubio and Netanyahu happens within the framework of the first part of the agreement between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel. The Islamist group has released this Saturday to three Israeli hostagesas stipulated, making deaf ears to the threat of Trump that demanded the liberation of all the Israelis in captivity, otherwise, it was going to unleash the “hell” in Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, has responded with the liberation of 369 Palestinian prisoners.
Looking at the end of the first phase of the truce agreement, there are still six hostages that are believed to be alive. “The agreement stipulates that these six must leave Gaza on February 22 and March 1,” reports the ABC correspondent in Istanbul, Mikel Ayestaran. However, it emphasizes that the United States works to “be able to advance the date.”
It is expected, therefore, that next week the negotiations in Doha (Catar) begin for the second part of the high the fire between Israel and Hamas.
The US Secretary of State plans to visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where harsh conversations are expected on Monday, a key actor in Trump’s regional strategy, collects AFP.
Rubio points out that Washington is open to new proposals, although sentence that for now “the only plan is Trump’s.” On the other hand, the different regional actors, who frontally reject the proposal, are working to launch an alternative initiative. Rubio has said that he believes that the Arab states were “working in good faith,” but insists that the Islamist group should not have any role in the future: “Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force … they must be eliminated », Collects AFP.
The conflict in the Middle East hardened after Hamas to Israel’s attacks on October 7, 2023 that caused the death of 1,211 Israeli and around 250 hostages, mostly civilians, according to the official Israeli figures.
On the contrary, the response in the form of Israeli offensive has left at least 48,264 dead in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Ministry of Health controlled by Hamas that the United Nations considers reliable, collects AFP.
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