U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopes to advance efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and strengthen ties with Egypt when he visits Cairo on Wednesday, his spokesman said, amid concern about escalating Middle East tensions.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a joint news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Cairo. Javascript must be enabled in order to access C-SPAN videos. *This text was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Egypt for talks Thursday including efforts to try to find progress in achieving a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the war in Gaza. Blinken’s schedule includes meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi and Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.