Roundup: With Washington’s deep bias, Blinken’s Mideast visit unlikely to yield results: Egyptian experts

by Mahmoud Fouly
CAIRO, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) — As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken embarked on his 10th diplomatic mission to the Middle East since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Egyptian political experts expressed growing skepticism about the efficacy of U.S. mediation efforts.
Blinken’s latest visit to Cairo on Wednesday, notably excluding Israel from his itinerary, comes amid a backdrop of escalating regional tensions, including recent deadly explosions of communication devices in Lebanon attributed to Israel by Hezbollah.
“It’s imperative that all parties refrain from any actions that could escalate the conflict,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty. However, his words ring hollow to many regional observers.
“Blinken’s tours in the Middle East have not succeeded in reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas because of the bias of the United States,” said Tarek Fahmy, a political science professor at Cairo University, adding the United States is “a major complicit partner with Israel in the war in the Gaza Strip.”
The ongoing conflict, which began in October last year, has resulted in over 41,000 Palestinian deaths and more than 95,500 injuries, according to Gaza health authorities. Despite these staggering figures, a sustainable ceasefire remains elusive.
Maged Botros, a political science professor at Helwan University, suggested that internal political dynamics in both Israel and the United States are hampering effective diplomacy. “They are trying to pressure Israel, but they are unable to,” Botros said, pointing to the upcoming U.S. presidential elections as a factor weakening Washington’s leverage over Tel Aviv.
Some analysts, like Saeed Okasha from the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, argued that the U.S. strategy is more focused on containing the conflict than ending it. “The United States never aimed to cease fire permanently. Its ultimate goal was to prevent the war from expanding and turning into a regional war,” Okasha said.
The situation is further complicated by the political realities facing both Israel and Hamas. As Okasha noted, “neither Israel nor Hamas will agree to a ceasefire with the current conditions.”
For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accepting a comprehensive ceasefire could lead to the collapse of his government, while Hamas risks perceived defeat if it agrees to a temporary truce without clear guarantees, the analyst explained. ■