A State Department spokesperson said on Monday that, at what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called a “critical moment” for the Middle East, the United States has been pressuring other nations through its diplomatic engagements to tell Iran that escalation in the region is not in their interest.
The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh last week in Tehran, Iran, sparked threats of retaliation against Israel and increased fears that the Gaza conflict was escalating into a larger Middle East war.
Although Israeli officials have not taken responsibility for the killing, Iran has blamed Israel and threatened to “punish” it. Iran supports both the Lebanese organisation Hezbollah, whose senior military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut last week, and Hamas, which is at war with Israel in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden met on Monday in the Situation Room of the White House with members of his national security team, including Blinken, to discuss the most recent developments in the Middle East.
Blinken discussed Middle East tensions earlier on Monday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
One of the points of the engagements that we have had is to urge countries to pass messages to Iran and urge countries to make clear to Iran that it is very much not in their interests to escalate this conflict, that it is very much not in their interest to launch another attack on Israel,” said Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the State Department.
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