During their conversation, both leaders reiterated their commitment to ensuring free and fair elections in the region….reports Asian Lite News
The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto on Saturday to discuss the ongoing political and security crisis in Haiti.
During their conversation, both leaders reiterated their commitment to ensuring free and fair elections in the region.
“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto to discuss the ongoing political and security crisis in Haiti. They underscored unwavering commitment to the deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission to support the Haitian National Police in creating the security conditions necessary to conduct free and fair elections,” US Department of State official spokesperson, Matthew Miller said in an official statement.
“Secretary Blinken also offered his appreciation for Kenya’s diplomatic work to support peace and security in the Horn of Africa,” he added.
This came after Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier warned of initiating a civil war and “genocide” unless Prime Minister Ariel Henry steps down from his post, reported Al Jazeera.
Jimmy Cherizier, also known as Barbecue, and other armed criminal gangs, who control large swathes of the country, launched a coordinated assault to remove the prime minister when he was out of the country last week.
Haitian PM Henry, who was supposed to step down in February, was in Puerto Rico, a United States territory, on Tuesday after the Dominican Republic refused permission for his plane to land.
Notably, the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, Al Jazeera reported.
“If Ariel Henry doesn’t resign, if the international community continues to support him, we’ll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide,” Cherizier, a 46-year-old former police officer who is under United Nations sanctions for human rights abuses, said.
“Either Haiti becomes a paradise or a hell for all of us. It’s out of the question for a small group of rich people living in big hotels to decide the fate of people living in working-class neighbourhoods,” he added.
On February 26, gangs opened fire on police outside the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, as dozens of employees and other workers fled the bullets, Al Jazeera reported.
Following the incident, the airport remained closed on Tuesday, along with schools and banks.
Prior to that, the gangs raided Haiti’s two largest prisons over the weekend, enabling thousands of prisoners to escape.
“Haiti is now under the control of the gangs. The government isn’t present,” said Michel St-Louis, 40, standing in front of a burned-down police station in the capital. “I’m hoping they can keep Henry out so whoever takes power can restore order.”
On March 3, the Haitian government declared a state of emergency after thousands of prisoners escaped from its largest prison, Haiti’s National Penitentiary, during a surge of gang violence that has upended the Caribbean nation for months.
Henry, who came to power under a deal agreed with the opposition following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, was supposed to step down in February so elections could be held, reported Al Jazeera. (ANI)
Blinken backs Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza and emphasised the significance of ensuring its security…reports Asian Lite News
Amid the ongoing military operations in Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said the best way for Israel to normalise regional ties and isolate Iran is to agree on a Palestinian state for the resolution of the conflict, The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday.
“One can have an integrated region with Israel–integrated with security assurances and commitments from regional countries, as well as from the United States–and a Palestinian state, or one can continue to see the terrorism, the nihilism, the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah–all backed by Iran,” Blinken said.
The Secretary of State made these remarks while addressing media persons in Egyptian capital, Cairo, as he wrapped up a week-long trip that also included visits with top officials in Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Bahrain.
“If you build that integration, if you bring Israel in, if you make the necessary commitments to security, and you move down the path to a Palestinian state, that’s the single best way to isolate, to marginalise Iran and the proxies,” Blinken said.
“The choice between these two paths is clear to many leaders in the region. It’s also the path that we fully intend to pursue with American diplomacy in the weeks and months ahead,” he added.
During his trip, Blinken focussed on the details specific to the war on Hamas, which broke out after terrorists crossed over into southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, last year, killing an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and sneaking back with about 250 hostages, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Blinken backed Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza and emphasised the significance of ensuring its security.
He also emphasised the importance of freeing the hostages and spoke of the US work on that effort with Egypt and Qatar, which are mediating release efforts.
Blinken, however, also took issue with the high fatality count in Gaza, based on Hamas assertions that over 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing military operations.
The fatality count, however, was quoted by Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians killed.
Israel has asserted that it has killed more than 8,000 Hamas combatants in Gaza.
Iran condemns ‘arbitrary’ US, UK strikes on Yemen rebels
Iran on Friday lambasted strikes in Yemen by US and British forces, saying that the attacks against Tehran-backed Houthi rebels were “arbitrary” and a “violation” of international law.
The overnight strikes followed weeks of missile and drone attacks by Houthi forces on vessels in the Red Sea, claiming to act in solidarity with Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement that Tehran “strongly condemned the military attacks of the United States and the United Kingdom this morning on several Yemeni cities.”
He said the strikes were “an arbitrary action, a clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen, and a violation of international laws and regulations.”
The United States and its allies said in a joint statement following the air strikes on Houthi targets that their goal “remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea.”
The attacks by the Houthis have disrupted traffic through the vital maritime route, with some companies suspending passage through the area.
Kanani warned that the attacks “will have no result other than fueling insecurity and instability in the region” as well as “diverting the world’s attention from the crimes” in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers.
The Iranian spokesman urged the international community to take action “to prevent the spread of war.”
The Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7 with attacks by Palestinian militants on southern Israel, resulting in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Iran, which supports Hamas financially and militarily, has hailed the attack but denied any involvement.
Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign that has killed more than 23,000 people in the besieged Gaza Strip, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
The Islamic republic has repeatedly warned of a widening conflict. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in November said the intensity of the war had rendered its expansion “inevitable.”
The Houthi rebels — part of the regional Tehran-aligned “axis of resistance” against Israel and its allies — seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014 and now control large swathes of the country.
Washington had said Iran was “deeply involved” in the Houthis’ maritime attacks, a claim Tehran has denied.
President Ebrahim Raisi has said Iran sees it as “its duty to support the resistance groups” but insisted that they “are independent in their opinion, decision and action.”
Secretary of State says Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the UAR and Turkey agreed to begin planning for the reconstruction and governance of Gaza once the war ends…reports Asian Lite News
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called on Israel to work with moderate Palestinians and neighboring countries on plans for postwar Gaza, saying they were willing to help rebuild and govern the territory but only if there is a “pathway to a Palestinian state.”
The US and Israel are united in the war against Hamas but sharply divided over Gaza’s future, with Washington and its Arab allies hoping to revive the long-moribund peace process, an idea that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners sharply oppose.
The war in Gaza is still raging, with no end in sight, and fueling a humanitarian catastrophe in the tiny coastal enclave. The fighting has also stoked escalating violence between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants that has raised fears of a wider conflict.
Speaking at a news conference after meeting with top Israeli leaders, Blinken said Israel “must stop taking steps that undercut the Palestinians’ ability to govern themselves effectively.”
Israel, he added “must be a partner of the Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people” and live “side by side in peace with Israel.” Settler violence, settlement expansion, home demolitions and evictions “all make it harder, not easier, for Israel to achieve lasting peace and security.”
US officials have called for the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take the reins in Gaza. Israeli leaders have rejected that idea but have not put forward a concrete plan beyond saying they will maintain open-ended military control over the territory.
Blinken has said that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey agreed to begin planning for the reconstruction and governance of Gaza once the war ends. The leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are set to meet Wednesday in Jordan’s southern Red Sea city of Aqaba.
The United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support for Israel’s offensive, has pressed it to shift to more precise operations targeting Hamas. But the pace of death and destruction has remained largely the same, with hundreds killed in recent days.
Israel has vowed to keep going until it destroys Hamas, which triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others, nearly half of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
The Israeli military says it has dismantled Hamas infrastructure in northern Gaza — where entire neighborhoods have been demolished — but is still battling small groups of militants. The offensive’s focus has shifted to the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza.
“The fighting will continue throughout 2024,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman.
Since the war began, Israel’s assault in Gaza has killed more than 23,200 Palestinians, roughly 1% of the territory’s population, and more than 58,000 people have been wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. About two-thirds of the dead are women and children. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
A strike late Monday hit a house in the central town of Deir al-Balah, killing the mother, three daughters and three small grandchildren of Jamal Naeim, a well-known dentist in Gaza. Outside the hospital, Naeim cradled a small bundle of white cloth containing all that remained of one of his adult daughters, Shaimaa, who was also a dentist.
“This is what we found of her, just the skin of her head and her hair,” he said, breaking into sobs. Naeim is the brother of Bassem Naeim, a political figure in Hamas, but is not a member of the group himself, residents said.
At least eight people were killed when a strike hit a five-story residential building in Rafah in southern Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinian Health officials said. Six of the bodies were taken to nearby Al-Kuwaiti Hospital and were counted by an Associated Press journalist. Two other corpses were transported to Youssef al-Najjar Hospital, also in Rafah, according to Dr. Sohaib al-Hams, who works at Al-Kuwaiti Hospital.
Monday was one of the deadliest days yet for Israeli troops in Gaza, with nine killed, according to the military. Six of them died in an accidental blast when forces were preparing a controlled demolition of a weapons production site in central Gaza, the military said.
It says 185 soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began in late October.
Nearly 85% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes by the fighting, and a quarter of its residents face starvation, with only a trickle of food, water, medicine and other supplies entering through an Israeli siege.
The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, warned that the fighting was severely hampering aid deliveries. Several warehouses, distribution centers, health facilities and shelters have been affected by the military’s evacuation orders, it said.
The present visit of Blinken is to defuse the heightened tensions in the northern border of Israel after Hezbollah has entered the war albeit in small measures….reports Asian Lite News
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on a whirlwind tour of the Middle East to defuse escalating tensions, has reached Amman the capital of Jordan.
This is the fifth visit of the US state secretary to the Middle eastern region including Israel ever since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 240.
The present visit of Blinken is to defuse the heightened tensions in the northern border of Israel after Hezbollah has entered the war albeit in small measures.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasarullah has in a televised address said that his organisation won’t sit idle after the killing of Hamas deputy political head Saleh Al-Arouri. This killing has heightened the tensions in the region and the US has passed on the communique to the Hezbollah that a full fledged war with Israel in northern Israel has the potential to spread into a major war, destabilising the region.
Blinken, during his visit, will be meeting leaders of all the Arabian countries and Israel to try and contain the war from getting escalated into a full-fledged one.
The top diplomats of US and Saudi Arabia discussed “all possible efforts to reduce the pace of escalation and ensure that the violence does not expand to avoid its dangerous repercussions on international peace and security,”
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan held discussions with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, DC to discuss the Israel-Hamas war, Arab News reported.
The meeting involved a comprehensive review of bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
“During the meeting, bilateral relations between the Kingdom and the United States were reviewed, and developments in the Gaza Strip and its surroundings were discussed, as well as regional issues of common interest,” according to a statement on SPA news agency, Arab News reported.
The officials discussed “all possible efforts to reduce the pace of escalation and ensure that the violence does not expand to avoid its dangerous repercussions on international peace and security,” the statement added.
Prince Faisal emphasised the necessity of creating conditions conducive to stability and the restoration of the peace process. He stressed the importance of ensuring that the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights.
Princess Reema bint Bandar, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, was present at the meeting.
In addition to the diplomatic discussions, Prince Faisal also gave an interview to American channel PBS. The interview covered the situation in Gaza, exploring potential paths forward from the violence, and highlighted Saudi Arabia’s role in the region, Arab News reported.
The US on Friday (local time) vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Gaza calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The resolution was put forward by the United Arab Emirates and backed by over 90 member states. Thirteen members of the UNSC voted in favour of the resolution, while the UK abstained from voting.
The US Deputy Representative at the UN, Robert Wood, stressed that the resolution is “divorced from reality” and “would not have moved the needle forward on the ground.”
“Unfortunately, nearly all of our recommendations were ignored. And the result of this rushed process was an imbalanced resolution that was divorced from reality and that would not move the needle forward on the ground in any concrete way. And so, we regretfully could not support it,” he said.
At least 17,487 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the revised official death toll stands at about 1,147, Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)
The Secretary said that he intended ti discuss about the hostage situation but declined to provide details about the “concrete steps” to better protect civilians…reports Asian Lite News
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday travelled to Israel for the third time since the ongoing war with the Hamas militant group began on October 7.
The top US diplomat, who traveled twice to Israel last month in the wake of the unprecedented attack, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials, reports CNN.
Addressing the media in Washington D.C. on Thursday before his departure, Blinken said he planned to talk to the Israeli government about “the ongoing campaign against the Hamas terrorist organization” and “steps that need to be taken to protect civilians”.
The Secretary said that he intended ti discuss about the hostage situation but declined to provide details about the “concrete steps” to better protect civilians.
When asked whether Israel has shown restraint in its offensive so far, he said this was “a crossfire of Hamas’ making”, CNN reported.
Blinken further condemned the militant group for “cynically and monstrously” using civilians as human shields and embedding its fighters within civilian infrastructure.
“When I see a Palestinian child, a boy or girl, pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building – that hits me in the gut as much as seeing a child in Israel or anywhere else,” he said.
“This is something that we have an obligation to respond to, and we will.”
Blinken also told the reporters that continued flow of that humanitarian aid and ongoing departure of civilians will also be a part of the discussions during his latest trip.
His last priority in Israel is to discuss “how we can set the conditions for a durable, sustainable peace; durable, sustainable security for Israelis and Palestinians alike”, the top diplomat noted.
Blinken reaffirmed that the US is also working closely with Israel to secure the release of the hostages taken by Hamas…reports Asian Lite News
Speaking after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said that he is “incredibly grateful” to be back in Israel, “in this incredibly difficult moment, for this nation, but in fact for the entire world.”
Blinken told a personal story as a Jew. He tells of his grandfather fleeing pogroms in Russia, and of his stepfather surviving concentration camps in the Holocaust, The Times of Israel reported.
“I understand on a personal level the harrowing echoes that Hamas’s massacres carry for Israeli Jews, indeed for Jews everywhere,” he added.
“I also come before you as a husband and father of young children. It’s impossible for me to look at the photos of families killed, such as the mother, father, and three small children murdered as they sheltered in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, and not think of my own children,” he said.
“This was just one of Hamas’s countless acts of terror in a litany of brutality and inhumanity that, yes, brings to mind the worst of ISIS,” Blinken added.
“Babies slaughtered, bodies desecrated, young people burned alive, women raped, parents executed in front of their children, children in front of their parents.”
“How are we even to understand this, to digest this?”
“And yet, at the same time that we’ve been shocked by the depravity of Hamas, we’ve also been inspired by the bravery of Israel’s citizens. The grandfather who drove over an hour to a Kibbutz under siege armed only with a pistol and rescued his kids and grandkids,” Blinken said.
“The mother who died shielding her teenage son with her body, giving her life to save his. Giving him life for a second time. The volunteer security teams on the kibbutzes who swiftly rallied to defend their friends and neighbours despite being heavily outnumbered.”
He also notes the “remarkable solidarity” of the Israeli people, the long lines of people giving blood, the reservists who flew home from abroad, the people who opened their homes to fellow citizens displaced from the south, The Times of Israel reported.
“The people of Israel have long and rightly prided themselves on their self-reliance, on their ability to defend themselves even when the odds are stacked against them,” Blinken continues.
“The message that I bring to Israel is this — you may be strong enough on your own to defend yourself, but as long as America exists, you will never, ever have to. We will always be there by your side,” he says.
“That’s the message that President Biden delivered to the Prime Minister from the moment that this crisis began.”
Blinken welcomes the creation of the national emergency government, and the “unity and resolve that it reflects across Israel’s society.”
“We are delivering on our word,” says Blinken.
The United States is working to ensure Israel has everything it needs to defend itself and its people. pic.twitter.com/HxjfyxDXgP
“Supplying ammunition interceptors to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome, along other defence materiel. The first shipments of US military support have already arrived in Israel, and more is on the way. As Israel’s defence needs evolve, we will work with Congress to make sure that they are met. And I can tell you there is overwhelming, overwhelming bipartisan support in our Congress for Israel’s security.”
Blinken repeats America’s “crystal clear” warning against any and all other actors — state or non-state — thinking of taking advantage of the crisis to attack Israel: “Don’t. The United States has Israel’s back.”
The US has deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Eastern Mediterranean, and bolstered the presence of US fighter aircraft in the region and provided Israel with other support, he says.
He affirms that the US is also working closely with Israel to secure the release of the hostages taken by Hamas, The Times of Israel reported.
He also added that the US is continually engaging in “intensive diplomacy throughout the region to prevent the conflict from spreading”.
Blinken criticises world leaders in the past for equivocating when it comes to terrorist attacks against Israel.
“There is no excuse, there is no justification for these atrocities,” he stressed. “This is, this must be, a moment for moral clarity.”
The failure to unambiguously condemn terrorism, he says, puts at risk people in Israel and everywhere, he said, noting that people from 36 countries were killed or are missing from the Hamas attacks.
“Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas — no region has escaped Hamas’ bloody reach. Anyone who wants peace and justice, must condemn Hamas’s reign of terror.”
“We know Hamas doesn’t represent the Palestinian people” or their legitimate aspirations.
“We know Hamas rules repressively and dedicates the resources it has to terror tunnels and rockets… We know Hamas does not stand for the future the Palestinians want for themselves and their children. Hamas has only one agenda — to destroy Israel and to murder Jews,” he says.
“No country can or would tolerate the slaughter of its citizens, or simply return to the conditions that allowed it to take place.
“Israel has the right, indeed the obligation, to defend itself and to ensure that this never happens again.”
Blinken repeats the exhortation that democracies must take every precaution to avoid causing civilian casualties.
“As the Prime Minister and I discussed, how Israel does this matters. We democracies distinguish ourselves from terrorists by striving for different standards even when it is difficult, and holding ourselves to account when we fall short. Our humanity, the value that we place on human life and human dignity, that’s what makes us who we are. And we count them among our greatest strengths. That is why it is so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. And that is why we mourn the loss of every innocent life — civilians of every faith, every nationality, who have been killed.”
The death toll continues to rise, he said. And among those, “at least 25 American citizens were killed,” Blinken said.
Again invoking his own family’s Holocaust experiences, Blinken concludes: “In this moment, where evil, hatred and madness have once more taken so many innocent lives, we must stand together, and resolve to confront what is worst among humanity with what is best. We must provide an alternative to the vision of violence and fear, nihilism and terror, presented by Hamas. That is what the US will do, standing with Israel, working together with its people and all those in this region who remain committed to the vision of a more peaceful, more integrated, more secure and more prosperous Middle East.”
Blinken will be the first top official from President Joe Biden’s administration to travel to the Jewish nation since the Hamas attack…reports Asian Lite News
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that he will travel to Israel on Wednesday “to engage with our Israeli partners directly about the situation on the ground” as the conflict with the Hamas militant group has continued for a fifth consecutive day.
In a post on X late Tuesday night, Blinken said: “Tomorrow, I will leave for Israel to engage with our Israeli partners directly about the situation on the ground and to discuss ways we can continue to support them in the fight against these terrorist attacks.
“Our support for Israel remains unwavering.”
Blinken will be the first top official from President Joe Biden’s administration to travel to the Jewish nation since the Hamas launched the unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
According to the State Department, Blinken “will also discuss measures to bolster Israel’s security and underscore the United States’ unwavering support for Israel’s right to defend itself”.
From Israel, he will travel to Jordan, where he will meet senior officials, it added.
So far, at least 14 Americans have been killed and some 20 others remain unaccounted for in the ensuing violence.
Niger has been engulfed in political chaos since late last month when President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in a coup d’etat by the presidential guard…reports Asian Lite News
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to Niger President Mohamed Bazoum and reiterated America’s calls for his release.
On his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) Blinken said that he spoke to Niger’s President to express our continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the current constitutional crisis.
“Spoke to Nigerien President Bazoum to express our continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the current constitutional crisis. The United States reiterates our call for the immediate release of him and his family,” he posted on the social media platform X.
Niger has been engulfed in political chaos since late last month when President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in a coup d’etat by the presidential guard.
The US had earlier also shown its concern towards the Niger situation. Niger junta is not ready for the diplomatic talks and rejected the proposals of the US, UN and regional organisations to resolve a problem brought on by a coup in the West African country, The New York Times reported.
After Niger rejected their proposals, the US warned the leaders of the junta in Niger for making it clear that there would be consequences if they didn’t return to the diplomatic path.
In a state briefing, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday that Acting Secretary Victoria Nuland met with leaders of the junta in Niger, making it clear that there would be consequences if they didn’t return to the diplomatic path.
Miller also added that there are hundreds of millions of dollars of US assistance at stake in Niger.
Miller was asked after the acting Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland’s meetings with the Junta Military members if there was any idea where things are going.
Replying to the question, Miller said, “Acting Secretary Nuland met yesterday with leaders of the junta and made clear that there was a diplomatic path forward for them if they would choose a return to constitutional order.”
“She also made clear that there would be consequences if they didn’t, that there are hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. assistance at stake,” Miller added.
Miller further informed that Nuland didn’t achieve any breakthroughs and it’s not at all clear that the Junta Military will choose the diplomatic path forward.
He also informed that Nuland also met with civil society leaders, leaders of NGOs while she was in Niger. (ANI)
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the first session of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI Photo)
Both the leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov briefly during which he is learnt to have “pressurised” the Russian minister on Ukraine, according to reports.
Both the leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting. This was the first highest level one-on-one contact between the two nations since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out a year ago.
South Africa Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor with Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and United Kingdom Foreign Secretary James Cleverly at the first session of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in New Delhi on Thursday. Russian Foregn Minister Sergey lavrov can also be seen on the extreme left. (ANI Photo)
Incidentally, the meeting took place a day after Blinken had said that he had no plans to either meet his Chinese or Russian counterparts, reports said.
Reports further said that Blinken is learnt to have put across the message that Russia should engage with Ukraine and adhere to its demands.
The US has expressed optimism that Russia will reverse its decision on Ukraine and engage with it diplomatically, which would lead towards peace.
However, reports quoting sources said that the brief encounter between Blinken and Lavrov may not exactly change the situation in the near future.
Meanwhile, Russian spokesperson Maria Zarkhova, while referring to the meeting between the two leaders, said: “US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked for ‘contact’ with foreign minister Lavrov, during the second session of G20 meet. They had ‘contact’, there were no talks or a full-fledged meeting.”
