2024-01-18T05:09:04+00:00
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/ US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who has made almost continuous trips since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, was forced to delay his return from Switzerland due to a plane malfunction.
Blinken, who spent a day and a half in the mountain resort of Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum, was unable to leave Zurich due to what an American official described as a “serious malfunction” in the plane due to an oxygen leak.
Another plane was sent to return Blinken, who left Davos for Zurich on a helicopter, while his aides returned to Washington on a commercial flight.
The US Secretary of State relies on a fleet of obsolete aircraft to travel, while Congress refrains from funding new aircraft for government trips.
Blinken made four trips to the Middle East, during which he sometimes visited more than one country in one day, since the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on October 7 on the Hebrew state, which responded with a devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip.