Blinken Arrives in Israel for Meetings, Condemns Terror Attacks

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Monday afternoon after spending about 24 hours in Egypt. He was greeted at Ben-Gurion airport near Tel Aviv by Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. Cohen thanked Blinken for his condemnations of the weekend attacks in Jerusalem and emphasized the importance of the alliance between Israel and the United States, according to a statement from his office. He also spoke with him about the importance of the joint fight against the Iranian nuclear program and discussed the importance of expanding the Abraham Accords to other Arab countries.

Blinken noted in his remarks upon arrival that it is “the responsibility of everyone to take steps to calm tensions rather than inflame them. That is the only way to halt the rising tide of violence that has taken too many lives, too many Israelis, too many Palestinians.” He also condemned the terror attack in Jerusalem on Friday night, saying: “To take an innocent life in an act of terrorism is always a heinous crime, but to target people outside their place of worship is especially shocking. We condemn it in the strongest terms. We condemn all those who celebrate these and any other acts of terrorism that take civilian lives no matter who the victim is or what they believe.”

Blinken will first meet Netanyahu and then Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday in Jerusalem; he also is scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a visit to Ramallah in the West Bank on Tuesday.

Among the issues that Blinken and Netanyahu reportedly will discuss is the nearly non-existent nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers.

The visit comes a day after Iran announced that a mysterious drone attack targeted an weapons factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.