United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, speaking with Senator Mitt Romney on Saturday at a conference at the John McCain Institute in Arizona, laid the blame for the situation in Gaza on Hamas and stated that the onus was on the terror organization for advancing the proposed hostage deal
"We await to see whether, in effect, [Hamas] can take 'yes' for an answer on the ceasefire and release the hostages. And the reality in this moment is the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas."
Blinken continued, "In the meantime, even as we are doing that, we are working every single day, the president is working every single day, to make sure that we are doing what we can so that the people in Gaza who are caught in a crossfire of Hamas's is making, get the help, the assistance, the support they need."
The American secretary of state also warned Israel that the US would not be able to support a military operation in Rafah, claiming that the damage it would cause would be "beyond what is acceptable.”
Israel-Saudi Normalization
He also discussed normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, mentioning that he was scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia on October 10 to discuss burgeoning normalization plans.
Normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia must include moving forward on the Palestinian state, he told the audience.
He highlighted that the central role of Israeli-Saudi normalization was to isolate Iran diplomatically and prevent them from increasing their influence.
Blinken explained that there are already signs of the power and influence cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia could achieve.
After Iran fired over 300 drones and missiles at Israel, Israel was able to defend itself not only because of its excellent air defenses but also because of "the President's ability to rally at short notice a collection of countries to help that damage was not done."
He called this the "Embryonic possibilities Israel has for integration with a regional security architecture which could keep the peace for years to come."
The only way to achieve this was through ending the war as quickly as possible, which was only possible through a hostage deal.