US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Türkiye for two days from Sunday as part of a Middle East tour amid the Hamas-Israel war, the State Department said.
Blinken was meeting with Arab counterparts in the Jordanian capital Amman on Saturday after visiting Israel the day before.
But he left Israel empty-handed on Friday after urging its leaders to do more to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s war to destroy Hamas.
In Türkiye, Blinken would “underscore the importance of protecting civilian lives in Israel and the Gaza Strip”, the US State Department said in a statement on Saturday.
He would also discuss “our shared commitment to facilitating the increased, sustained delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza” as well as ensuring Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza”.
He would also discuss ways to “stem violence, calm rhetoric, reduce regional tensions” as well as working towards a “durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East, to include the establishment of a Palestinian state”.__Daily Hurriyet