Blinken Wraps Up Jerusalem Visit, Heads to Cairo, Amman  

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued his diplomatic tour of the Middle East on Wednesday, meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem before taking off for neighboring Egypt and Jordan. Blinken extended an invitation to Rivlin to meet President Joe Biden in Washington before the Israeli president leaves office next month, an offer Rivlin readily accepted. It will be the first meeting between a top Israeli official and President Biden since the latter entered the White House in January. Blinken on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as well as Jerusalem’s foreign and defense ministers, before traveling to Ramallah to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. During his stay, the secretary of state announced an imminent $40 million aid injection to Gaza and the PA in the wake of this month’s fighting between Israel and Hamas, and also promised to reopen the American consulate in Jerusalem in charge of diplomatic affairs with Palestinians, which was shuttered by former President Donald Trump.