ISTANBUL, Jan  5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

arrived in Turkey on Friday to start his fourth Middle East crisis tour since
the start of the Israel-Hamas war three months ago.

The top American diplomat will visit Israel, the Palestinian Authority base
in the West Bank and five Arab countries -- Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates, the State Department said.

Blinken will hold talks in Istanbul on Saturday with his Turkish
counterpart Hakan Fidan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the Muslim
world's harshest critics of US support for Israel in the war.

"We don't expect every conversation on this trip to be easy. There are
obviously tough issues facing the region and difficult choices ahead," State
Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

"But the secretary believes it is the responsibility of the United States
of America to lead diplomatic efforts to tackle those challenges head on," he
said.

Blinken has used previous trips to try to stop the war spreading. But he
returns to a region that has seen attacks in or from Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen,
Syria and Iran.

A strike inside Lebanon widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel
killed a top Hamas leader on Tuesday. Iran-backed Huthi rebels have been firing
on ships in the Red Sea in avowed solidarity with Gaza.

Iran was in turn hit Wednesday by one of the deadliest attacks since its
1979 Islamic revolution, with twin blasts killing at least 84 people gathered
to commemorate a slain Revolutionary Guards general.

Tehran initially blamed Israel and the United States, although the Islamic
State group later claimed responsibility.

- Mounting toll -

President Joe Biden's administration has provided crucial support for
Israel since the October 7 attack, when Hamas fighters streamed across the
border and killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP
tally based on Israeli figures.

The United States has twice exercised its veto at the UN Security Council
against ceasefire calls, drawing outrage in the Arab world, and just days ago
Blinken for the second time bypassed Congress to rush weapons to Israel.

But Biden has also voiced exasperation at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
as he pursues a relentless retaliatory offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip,
much of which has been reduced to rubble.

More than 22,600 people in Gaza have died, mostly civilians, according to
the Hamas-run health ministry. The vast majority of residents of the
impoverished and blockaded territory have been forced from their homes.

The Biden administration has taken credit for coaxing Israel on several aid
issues, including allowing limited gas and commercial trucks to enter.

Another US concern has been calls by far-right members of Netanyahu's
cabinet for Palestinians to be encouraged to leave the Gaza Strip.

Blinken is also likely to press Israel to stop blocking the transfer of tax
revenue to the Palestinian Authority, a longstanding arrangement that is
opposed by Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

Washington sees a future in the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian Authority,
whose ruling Fatah faction is a rival of Hamas. But Netanyahu has long sought
to weaken the semi-autonomous body and opposes the eventual creation of a
Palestinian state.

- Turkey-Greece balance -

Blinken will pay a brief visit Saturday to Greece, which is jittery about
an expected US sale of advanced F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, its historic
adversary.

The Biden administration is expected to offer the jets once Turkey gives a
long-delayed approval to NATO membership for Sweden. The Scandinavian nation
sought to enter the Western military alliance following Russia's invasion of
Ukraine.

NATO requires unanimity and Erdogan had used his leverage to press for
concessions, including action by Sweden against Kurdish militants opposed to
Ankara.

Turkey's parliament is moving ahead on ratification. Turkey last year
allowed the entry into NATO of Finland, which had launched a joint membership
bid with Sweden.