The Capitals: Washington's waning political capital in West Asia delays aid into Gaza Strip

The first week of the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7 had US Secretary of State Antony Blinken dominating the news cycle. Blinken's shuttle diplomacy consisted of 10 stops across multiple West Asian capitals during the course of five days after Israel's retaliatory offence against Hamas in Gaza Strip stoked a rare humanitarian crisis in the region with thousands of lives lost and lifelines — food, water, power and medical supplies — stopped.

From Washington, this was a rare diplomatic overdrive, the kind not seen since Washington under Trump presidency signed the infamous "peace deal" with Taliban in Qatar's capital Doha in February 2020, which culminated with Taliban retaking Kabul in August 2021.

But yet again, Joe Biden, the current occupant of the White House had Washington's diplomatic setbacks in the foreground amid attempts to pass off his administration's mere attempts for a middle-ground between Israeli and Palestinian stakeholders as accomplishments.

Biden visited Israel on Wednesday but while he was still in the air, half of his West Asia visit was called off unilaterally from Jordanian capital Amman, where he was scheduled to be hosted at a four-way summit with King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine Authority and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

The summit will be held "when the decision to stop the war and put an end to these massacres has been taken", Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said, referring to a mass casualty event at a hospital in Gaza for which Israel and Hamas blamed each other but evidence released by Western intelligence agencies showed it was a botched attack against Israel from inside Gaza which ended up claiming hundreds of civilian lives. 

So the optics of Biden's West Asia visit showed him beside Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The balance that his administration had hoped to strike with a simultaneous top-leader summit between Biden and Arab Leaders fell flat. 

The result of Washington's failure to strike a balance between Israel and its Arab foes was a much-delayed and vastly limited response to the crisis of food, water and medical supplies that followed in the Gaza Strip following Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas in the blockaded region. 

The first aid truck entered Gaza via Egypt's Rafah crossing four days after the United States first said that "a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organisations to reach civilians in Gaza" could be executed. 

But just 20 trucks were allowed in, an amount aid workers said was insufficient to address the unprecedented humanitarian crisis. More than 200 trucks carrying 3,000 tonnes of aid have been waiting for days whose entry into Gaza remains uncertain amid raging war in the region.

Islamabad, Pakistan 

Pakistan's three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned to the capital Islamabad as he ended another stint in exile. At Islamabad airport, "the deposed prime minister and proclaimed offender" — as Pakistan's Dawn newspaper described him — signed legal documents pertaining to the appeals against the convictions he was jailed for when he left the country four years ago. 

He then flew to Lahore, where tens of thousands of supporters gathered at Minar-i-Pakistan, the place which holds significance as the one where Pakistan's existence was officially proclaimed before it came into being in 1947 after a bitter partition with India. 

In a speech there, he said he was forgiving all those who caused harm to him in the past.

"I have no intention to take revenge on anyone," he said in his televised speech.

But experts told WION that Sharif's arrival, right before country's much-delayed general elections in January 2023, suggests that he has made a 'deal' with the country's powerful military-intelligence nexus — collectively dubbed as establishment — for the revival of his political fortunes. 

That's all for The Capitals this week. See you next weekend.

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