Jordan’s foreign minister has called for pressure on Israel to end what he called the “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, as he met the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in London.
Blinken, who is still hoping Gaza peace talks can be revived, stopped over in the UK to brief leaders from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after he had been unable to meet them on his recent tour of the Middle East.
Deploring the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, Jordan’s Ayman Safadi told Blinken: “We do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop.”
He added: “We really stand at the brink of regional war now. The only path to save the region from that is for Israel to stop the aggressions on Gaza, on Lebanon, stop unilateral measures, illegal measures, in the West Bank, that is also pushing the situation to an abyss.”
On 13 October Blinken wrote jointly with the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, to Israel urging it to increase the number of aid trucks entering Gaza to 350 a day within 30 days, but since then on no day has the number of trucks exceeded 114.
Although Blinken claimed to have seen an improvement in the amount of aid during his trip to the Middle East, Arab diplomatic sources said the figures were nowhere near the level the Biden administration previously said in its letter would be requiredif Israel was not to face punishment including the potential stopping of US weapons transfers.
Separately, in talks with Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, Blinken said: “We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN security council resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along the border between Israel and Lebanon.”
Resolution 1701, approved in 2006 after an earlier war, calls for the disarmament of non-state groups in Lebanon – including Hezbollah, which in effect runs its own armed militia – and for a full Israeli withdrawal from the country.
Blinken said it was important so “people at both sides of the border can have the confidence to be able to return to their homes”.
His remarks stopped short of a call for an immediate ceasefire, the position adopted by the French, since the US believes that if Hezbollah can be weakened further the political deadlock that prevents the formation of a full government can be broken.
One precondition for a full implementation of 1701 is strengthening the official Lebanese armed forces. On Thursday at a conference in Paris, the international community promised to pay €200m (£165m) to strengthen the Lebanese army, in particular by recruiting soldiers. A further €800m was raised to help the humanitarian crisis.
Mikati said his government’s priority was reaching “a ceasefire and deterring the Israeli aggression”. He said there were more than 1.4 million people displaced from the areas being attacked by Israel. “Israel is also violating international law by attacking civilians, journalists and medical staff,” he said.
He added: “What is required is a real commitment from Israel to a ceasefire, because the previous experience regarding the American-French call, supported by the Arabs and the international community, for a ceasefire affected everyone’s credibility.”
Mikati was referring to a proposal for an initial 21-day truce agreed at the UN general assembly in the false belief that it had the support of the Israelis.