LOC01:02
22:02 GMT
CAIRO, March 21 (KUNA) -- US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said there is a consensus between his country and the Arab partners on the urgency of durable ceasefire in Gaza Strip and the delivery of relief aid.
There is no room for more suffering for the population in Gaza, he said at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry following his meeting with six Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Thursday.
The meeting showed consensus on the dire need of ceasefire, release of all hostages and creating the conditions for scaling up the relief effort in Gaza, he pointed out.
Secretary Blinken noted that his country is in talks with Egypt, Qatar and Israel in this connection.
He urged the Palestinian Hamas movement to respond positively to the outcomes of the talks being held in Doha, capital of Qatar, to bridge the gaps in the positions of Hamas and Israel.
The participants in the meeting agreed that the humanitarian aid being shipped from Cyprus to Gaza cannot replace the via land routes, he stated.
Asked on the Israeli threats to launch a ground offensive on Rafah city in southwest Gaza, he said the situation is very serious since more than one million people are backed in this small area.
Secretary Blinken regretted that continued bloodshed in Gaza, saying the deaths among children and innocent people are unimaginable.
On his part, the Egyptian minister said urged the Israeli occupation forces to refrain from any military operation in Rafah, saying that such an offensive would lead to dire humanitarian consequences and could lead to expansion of the scope of the conflict.
Egypt is against any attempt to liquidate the Palestine question through forced evacuation of the Palestinians from their own land, Shoukry reaffirmed.
He highlighted the need of realizing the two-state vision for solving the conflict through establishment of an independent Palestinian state pursuant to the UN-recognized points of reference.
The humanitarian disaster in Gaza in unprecedented with nearly 32,000 Palestinian martyrs, he said, urging Israel to remove the obstacles facing the delivery of aid to the civilian population in Gaza.
Echoing Blinken's remarks, Shoukry said there is a US-Arab consensus on continued coordination to deescalate the conflict and increasing the humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians in Gaza.
Secretary Blinken has met the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as well as Secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization on the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. (pickup previous)
mm.gb