US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued his intensive diplomatic series in the Middle East in Jordan on Sunday, calling for a flare-up of the conflict in the Gaza Strip to be prevented at all costs and to prevent “an endless cycle of violence.”
In particular, Mr. Blinken, who arrived in Amman the evening before, is scheduled to hold meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah II and visit a World Food Program center in the Jordanian capital, according to a senior American official in his entourage.
During a brief speech on Saturday evening on the tarmac of Chania airport in Crete, Greece, he said: “We must ensure that the conflict does not spread.”
“One of the real concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon, and we want to do everything we can to ensure that there is no escalation,” he added.
The Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel, an attack portrayed as an initial response to Israel's elimination of number two Hamas near Beirut on Tuesday.
“We want to make sure that countries that think the same way use their connections, their influence and their relationships with some of the actors involved to keep control of things and make sure the conflict doesn't spread,” Mr. Blinken said , citing in particular the “vital role” Turkey can play in this regard, after discussing it with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Saturday.
The relentless war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas, which entered its fourth month on Sunday, is raising fears of overreach as violence increases not only on the Israel-Lebanese border but also in Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have claimed 22,600 lives, mostly civilians.
After an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7 that killed 1,140 people, mostly civilians, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, according to an AFP news agency count based on Israeli death tolls.