WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due Sunday in Egypt at the start of a Middle East trip on which he will look to use US influence to notch down Israeli-Palestinian tensions after an eruption of violence.
Blinken, who will travel Monday and Tuesday to Jerusalem and Ramallah, had long planned the visit to see Israel's new right-wing government, but the trip takes on a new urgency after some of the worst violence in years.
A Palestinian gunman on Friday killed seven people outside a synagogue in a settler neighborhood of east Jerusalem, and another attack followed on Saturday.
On Thursday, nine people were killed in an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in one of the deadliest such operations in years. Israel said it was targeting Islamic Jihad militants and also hit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire.
Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and call "broadly for steps to be taken to de-escalate tensions," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters as he condemned the "horrific" synagogue attack.
The violence is also likely to figure in talks between Blinken and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country's traditional role as a Middle East mediator has helped him remain a key US partner despite President Joe Biden's criticism of his human rights record.
The United States, with its close relationship to Israel, has historically taken a lead on Middle East diplomacy.
But experts questioned whether Blinken could achieve any breakthroughs.
"The absolute best they can do is to keep things stable to avoid another May 2021," said Aaron David Miller, a veteran US negotiator, referring to more than two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas that ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.
Ghaith Al-Omari, a former Palestinian official now at The Washington Institute, expected Blinken to repeat traditional US positions rather than break new ground.
"The trip itself is the message," he said.
"Blinken will ask Abbas to do more but it is not clear what they can do," he said, referring to the Palestinians.
