Tough choices for Israel in US's Middle East vision

Source: BBC

Tough choices for Israel in US's Middle East vision

12 January 2024

By Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

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Here was the offer: The Arab leaders would support regional integration, including normalised relations with Israel, in exchange for an end to the Gaza War, and Israel's acceptance of a "clear path" to Palestinian political rights and a unified Palestinian state, comprising the West Bank and Gaza.

The plan, Blinken says, would have the additional benefit of isolating Iran and reducing what he said was its malign efforts to destablise the region through proxy actors like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthi movement.

The US secretary has acknowledged that adopting the American proposal would require some hard choices on the part of the Israelis, but he insisted that the promise of a durable regional peace was worth the effort.

"The other path," Blinken said, "is to continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, all backed by Iran."

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67949952