Blinken woos uneasy US allies in Saudi, Egypt to pressure Hamas

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday sought pressure against Hamas in talks with the leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, both eager to highlight their influence despite at times uneasy alliances with Washington.

Since Hamas militants' bloody 7 October assault on Israel, which has launched relentless air strikes on Gaza in retaliation, Blinken has toured seven Middle Eastern countries in support of Israel, where he will return Monday.

In Riyadh, Blinken was invited for a dawn closed-door meeting with oil-wealthy Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, 38-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is known to keep nocturnal hours even for high-level guests.

Blinken then flew to Cairo, where he said he had "a very good conversation" with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose administration has repeatedly brokered truces between Hamas and Israel.

Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, in 1979, and has been one of the top recipients of US assistance since.

Since the violence broke out, Saudi Arabia has put a hold on US-brokered talks on normalizing with Israel.

"Very productive," Blinken said when asked about the meeting with the Saudi prince, known by his initials MBS.

Blinken "highlighted the United States' unwavering focus on halting terrorist attacks by Hamas, securing the release of all hostages and preventing the conflict from spreading", State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Prince Mohammed in turn spoke of Saudi outreach "to calm the situation", the official Saudi Press Agency said — an effort that has involved a call to President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, whose Shiite clerical leadership openly supports Hamas and is a regional rival to Sunni Saudi Arabia.

The crown prince also reiterated the Gulf kingdom's condemnation of attacks on civilians while stressing the need for Palestinians to "obtain their legitimate rights and achieve just and lasting peace".

In his meeting with Blinken Sunday, Sisi said "Israel's response has gone beyond the right to self-defense and amounts to collective punishment", as the United Nations warned of worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

Seeking support

Prince Mohammed is a deeply controversial figure in the United States, where intelligence linked him to the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based Saudi journalist.

Riyadh denies this, blaming rogue operatives.

Biden once vowed to make the kingdom a pariah but visited last year, drawing protests at home when he shared a friendly fist-bump with Prince Mohammed.

Washington's relationship with Cairo has also been put in question recently.

Days before the Hamas attack, Ben Cardin, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, vowed to block some $235 million in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns.

Cairo has sought to work with Washington since the violence broke out, but is reportedly refusing to allow only foreigners, including US citizens, to get out of Gaza via the Rafah border crossing.

Egypt controls the entry and exit point. Other crossings are controlled by Israel.

As he departed Cairo, Blinken said he was confident "Rafah will be open" and that the US, the UN, Egypt, Israel and others were working on a "mechanism by which to get the assistance and to get it to people who need it".

There was no word on the US's calls on Egypt to take in refugees, which Sisi has rejected, citing fears that mass displacement would mean the "eradication of the Palestinian cause" and insisting Gazans "remain on their land".

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned Blinken on Friday that the displacement of Gazans would amount to a "second Nakba" — when over 760,000 Palestinians were expelled from their lands in the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Cairo has continued to push for diplomatic efforts, including by hosting a regional and international summit on "the future of the Palestinian cause", though it has not specified a date.

While Egypt openly rejects any proposal to settle Gazans in Sinai — previously occupied by Israel and the site of a multi-year fight against Islamist insurgents — analysts have pointed to Egypt's dire economic situation as a potential bargaining chip.

Egypt's currency has lost half its value in a year, under a crippling foreign debt bill and an economic crisis that analysts warn is only set to worsen.

Blinken has also visited Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which also recognise Israel, as well as Qatar, a US ally which has maintained ties with Hamas, which has an office in Doha.