U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is wrapping up a grueling Middle East tour in Turkey after only limited success in efforts to forge a regional consensus on how best to ease Gaza's civilian suffering as Israel intensifies its war against Hamas. Blinken met on Monday in the Turkish capital of Ankara with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan after a frantic weekend of travel that took him from Israel to Jordan, the occupied West Bank, Cyprus and Iraq to build support for the Biden administration’s proposal for “humanitarian pauses” to Israel’s relentless military campaign in Gaza. Blinken hopes that pauses in the war would allow for the release of hostages captured by Hamas and prevent the conflict from spreading regionally.
