U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday met with Jordanian King Abdullah in Amman, the second stop of his most extensive Middle East tour yet as Israel prepares for a sweeping ground offensive in Gaza, and he urged people in Gaza city to evacuate to the south.
His demand, which the United Nations said would be impossible to carry out “without devastating humanitarian consequences”, comes a day after Blinken visited Israel and held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the conflict.
U.S. President Joe Biden dispatched his top diplomat to the region, engulfed in its most serious escalation in years, following an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants who rampaged through Israeli towns killing 1,200 Israelis.
Blinken has expanded his trip from Israel and Jordan to include all of the Gulf Arab countries and Egypt, making it his largest tour of the region since taking office in January 2021.
