Blinken Pushes for Gaza Cease-Fire With Visits to Egypt and Qatar

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, continuing his diplomatic tour of the Middle East, was in Egypt on Tuesday to push for a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas.

In Egypt, and then in Qatar, Mr. Blinken would be pressing Hamas leadership through intermediaries to continue talks on a deal to secure a truce and free the remaining hostages in Gaza, a senior administration official said.

Negotiations were expected to resume in Egypt this week, after two days of high-level talks in Qatar ended on Friday without an immediate breakthrough. On Monday, Mr. Blinken discussed the deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem.

In Egypt, Mr. Blinken met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt at his summer palace in El Alamein, and with the foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty. Later in the day he was heading to Doha, Qatar, to hold talks with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the country’s emir.

In a statement following the meeting with Mr. el-Sisi, the Egyptian president’s office said the Egyptian leader was “keen to stress that the time has come to end the ongoing war” and shared Mr. Blinken’s concerns for the potential for violence to spread in the region. Mr. el-Sisi insisted that any cease-fire proposal would need to be followed by a “broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution.”

Mr. Blinken said Mr. Netanyahu had accepted a Biden administration proposal to bridge some remaining differences with Hamas in order to advance a deal, although Israeli and Hamas officials have expressed skepticism that a breakthrough was near. During meetings with the Israelis, Mr. Blinken emphasized that this was “maybe the last opportunity” to secure a cease-fire agreement.