(Reuters) – Arab ministers held talks with a Palestinian official in Cairo on Thursday to discuss efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and were due to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is seeking to secure a ceasefire of at least six weeks.
The ministers met with Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee general secretary Hussein al-Sheikh to discuss “efforts to stop the Israeli war against Gaza, the inevitability of achieving a ceasefire, and full access to aid,” the Egyptian foreign ministry’s spokesperson said.
Blinken was also due to meet with Sheikh – a confidant of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and an intermediary in contacts with Israel – along with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates’ state minister for international cooperation, according to an Egyptian foreign ministry note.
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.
They also discussed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel.
Blinken had also met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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