On Thursday, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) and US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken met in Brazil. One of the main topics was the situation in Gaza, including an expected invasion of the border town of Rafah. – We hope to get a ceasefire in place. It is incredibly important that it happens, before something more dramatic happens. For example, the advance into Rafah, which both he and I are very skeptical about, says Eide to news right after the meeting. USA: – Rafah is “no go” – Do you understand it to mean that Rafah is the last straw that could break the bank for US support for Israel? – The US is very clear that it is a “no go”. It is not acceptable if Israel now also enters Rafah, replies the foreign minister. He points out that normally around 200,000 people live in Rafah, while there are now around 1.5 million Palestinians there. The reason is that they have sought refuge from harsh Israeli attacks in the rest of Gaza. – This means that there are people everywhere. They are on roofs, inside houses, in gardens, on the roads, in parks… It is therefore completely impossible to imagine a military operation such as we have seen further north in Gaza, without an even greater bloodbath than we have already seen, describes Eide. Both Eide and US President Joe Biden have previously warned Israel against invading Rafah. There was a large presence of both the media and security guards during the meeting between the two foreign ministers. Photo: Hilda Lishaugen Nyfløt / news Positive for Norwegian initiative The meeting takes place the day after Blinken agreed to the Norwegian-Egyptian initiative for a conference on the future of Palestine. Norway and Egypt, led by Eide, want to host a humanitarian conference. Initially, they will discuss emergency aid, and later the reconstruction of Gaza when the war one day ends. Eide and Blinken have discussed the Gaza war during the G20 meeting in Brazil. Here with David Cameron, the UK’s foreign minister, on Wednesday. Photo: Hilda Lishaugen Nyfløt / news – He fully supports it and says the USA will participate. He believes it is an important initiative and that someone must do this, says Eide about Blinken’s support. One of eight guest countries, the G20 is an international summit between 19 countries, the EU and the African Union (AU). Norway is not among the G20 countries, which account for around 80 per cent of the world’s value creation, 75 per cent of world trade and two thirds of the world’s population. But the host countries can invite other countries as guests. This year, Brazil has chosen to invite Norway as one of eight supporting countries, which will thus be able to participate in the meetings as well. The other guest countries are Egypt, Angola, Nigeria, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.
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Antony Blinken and Espen Barth Eide meet during the G20 in Brazil to discuss Gaza – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
