Jordan FM meets Abbas in Ramallah ahead of Blinken’s visit

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi in Ramallah following recent fighting between Israel and Hamas.

According to a statement from Abbas’s office, the two sides discussed ongoing diplomatic contacts between the PA, the United Nations, and the United States to collaborate on rebuilding Gaza following the fighting.

“Abbas stressed the need to intensify the efforts to rebuild what the [Israeli] occupation has destroyed in the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire must include an end to [Israeli] attacks and invasions” at Jerusalem’s holy sites and in the West Bank, Abbas’s office says.

According to the PA statement, Safadi says Gaza must be rebuilt and all sides must hasten in their pursuit of a political solution which ends Israeli rule over the Palestinians.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is scheduled to visit Ramallah later this afternoon, the highest-level American visit has since US President Joe Biden entered office in January.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met Abbas yesterday, before meeting al-Safadi on his return to Egypt.