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Blinken to Gallant: US stands with Israel against ‘threats by Iran, its proxies’

The U.S. secretary of state also told Israel not to make mistakes anymore and to enact changes “quickly” and sustainably “over time.”

Blinken Gallant
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 2024. Credit: Chuck Kennedy/U.S. State Department.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday that Washington supports “Israel’s security and made clear that the U.S. will stand with Israel against any threats by Iran and its proxies.”

The Islamic Republic has said that it will attack Israel directly, with experts divided on whether the threat is a bluff.

The U.S. secretary of state also told Gallant that the Jewish state must not make mistakes in the future and that it has to “quickly implement” changes and they “must be sustained over time.”

“Incidents such as the strike on World Central Kitchen workers must never reoccur,” Blinken said on the call, according to Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman.

A week ago, Miller said at a State Department press briefing that “while they were targeting those cars, they did not believe that it was a World Central Kitchen that was operating those vehicles at the time.”

Blinken both “welcomed Israel’s recent announcements of urgent steps to facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and to improve humanitarian deconfliction and coordination” and “emphasized that the United States expects Israel to quickly implement its commitments on humanitarian assistance and deconfliction and that those commitments must be sustained over time,” Miller said.

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