Agencies-Gaza post
The New York Times reported that some Arab leaders called on US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, during his Middle East tour, for a concrete signal of support for the opening of consulates in Jerusalem and the desert area.
The newspaper noted that Blinken avoided making any promises about when the consulates would open, noting that the fate of the consulates already promised by the United States, one to serve Palestinians in Jerusalem and the other in Western Sahara, disputed between Morocco and the Polisario Front, has been suspended since the early days of the administration.
It emphasized that these two consulates were not noted in the Biden administration’s billion-dollar spending plan on items and security in American embassies and diplomatic complexes around the world in 2023, which may mean that they may not open before the end of next year and that this increased Blinken’s silence on this issue when it was brought up after meetings in Ramallah and Rabat.
According to the newspaper, “Algeria offered to send gas to European markets that relied on Russian energy, so Blinken must take care not to get involved in Algeria’s conflict with Morocco.”
