FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK – The United States delivered the message to Iran by both sending a second aircraft carrier and doubling its fighter jets in the region to around a hundred, and through private channels. “It’s not a provocation, it’s a deterrence: No one is doing anything that will expand this conflict or increase aggression against Israel from any direction,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated yesterday. Iran conveyed its response through “US allies” and the US UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Tor Wennesland: We do not want escalation, but “we must intervene” if Israel’s operation in Gaza continues.
The exchange of warnings continues on television. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who visited the political leader of Hamas in Qatar and the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera yesterday: “If the Zionist entity decides to invade the Gaza Strip, the resistance leaders will turn the occupying forces into a cemetery ” and the United States will suffer “significant damage.” And Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, in an interview with CBS: “The threat is real.” There is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of one “The second front in the north and of course Iran’s involvement. We have to prepare for all eventualities.” The generals express their concern that America could be drawn into the conflict, writes the New York Times.
China comes into play. Blinken had called his counterpart Wang Yi and asked him to use Beijing’s influence to de-escalate. But while Blinken has sought to curb Arab countries’ criticism of Israel, Wang told his Saudi counterpart that “Israel’s actions have already gone beyond self-defense and that it should heed the calls of the international community and the UN secretary,” according to People’s Republic reports “General and stop the collective punishment of the people of Gaza”; and to his Iranian counterpart that “the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian situation is that the right of the Palestinian people to a state has long been ignored.”
Blinken returns to Israel today “to share” what he “heard and learned” in three days in six Arab countries: “good ideas for moving forward, including how to provide aid to Palestinians in Gaza.” can, and for the future”, what remains for the USA are those of the two states. He stressed that these countries “condemn the actions of Hamas” and that all their interlocutors “are concerned and determined to prevent the conflict from spreading.” US diplomatic efforts are focused on the release of hostages held by Hamas, the creation of humanitarian corridors to Gaza (as well as the departure of Palestinians with dual citizenship) in the hope that this will help de-escalation.
Iran told the UN envoy it would try to help free the hostages, but there were “red lines”: the offensive in Gaza. But the White House has so far avoided talking about a ceasefire, which is also seen by Arab countries as crucial to de-escalation. The US government is not drawing red lines on Israel’s right to defend itself and ensure that an attack like Hamas’s “never happens again,” even as it now speaks more forcefully about protecting “innocent Palestinians” and ensuring water returned to part of the Gaza Strip and appointed David Satterfield as humanitarian envoy to Gaza. According to the Axios website, a possible Biden visit to Israel this week is also being discussed, but the White House has not confirmed it.