Inside Blinken's whirlwind diplomatic mission to the Middle East: Reporter's notebook

On Thursday, Jan. 4, Secretary of State Antony Blinken embarked on week-long, 10-stop diplomatic mission — not only to rally support for humanitarian relief in Gaza and urge leaders to prevent the conflict from escalating in the region but also to deliver a blunt warning that Houthi aggression against global shipping in the Red Sea would be met with severe consequences.

As Israel continued to pound Hamas targets, and the Houthis threatened freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, Blinken's quest for an end to the conflict encountered what he called «difficult conversations» with stakeholders in the region — stretching from Turkey (or Türkiye as the country spells it), Greece, Jordan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Bahrain and Egypt.

Here is an inside look at what it's like:

The mission departed Joint Base Andrews just after 11 p.m. ET, flying through the night with a refueling stop Friday morning in Shannon, Ireland. While we waited for the plane to top off, I found a guest book signed on June 15, 1967 by former First lady Jaqueline Kennedy, 9-year-old Caroline Kennedy, and 6-year-old John F. Kennedy, Jr.

The plane refueled and then continued to Istanbul, Turkey arriving just before 7 p.m. on Jan. 5. U.S. Ambassador Jeff Flake, a former Republican senator from Arizona, greeted Blinken on the tarmac. We left the airport in a motorcade and checked into the hotel. Most of the U.S. press corps joined together for a group dinner at Sur Balik with several State Department aides before our coverage kicked off the next morning.

Blinken began his meetings Jan. 6 by driving across the Bosphorus River to the Asian side of Istanbul, where he met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and President Recep