Blinken Starts MENA Trip, Proposal To Hamas 'Extraordinarily Generous'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has started another visit to the Middle East, holding talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah in Riyadh. Blinken will hold talks with his counterparts from Qatar, Egypt, the UAE, Turkey and Jordan, as will French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne, who is also in Saudi Arabia. Blinken is then expected to visit Israel later in the week.

• Wires carrying comments from Blinken saying that Hamas has in front of them a proposal that is "extraordinarily generous". Says that Hamas "needs to decide, and it needs to decide quickly."
• Hamas representatives are due in Cairo today to discuss the latest proposal. WSJ reportsthat under the latest offer, "Israel, which helped create the proposal, according to Egyptian officials, would commit to entering longer-term discussions once Hamas releases a first group of 20 hostages over the truce period—a formulation designed to overcome the militant group’s reluctance to release any hostages without any prospect of ending the war."
• This comes after US President Joe Biden held aphone call with PM Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend. While Biden "reaffirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security" following Iran's missile/drone attack, the White House readout said that "The leaders discussed Rafah and the President reiterated his clear position.". Biden has previouslycalled for a feasible plan for how any Israeli ground offensive in the southern Gaza city would not risk huge civilian casualties.