The United States Secretary of States Antony Blinken on Sunday declared that he wants to make sure the conflict in the Middle East “doesn’t spread”, as he held meetings in Turkey and Greece.
Blinken, on a new tour of the Middle East, met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Crete on Saturday, a few hours after a long meeting in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“One of the real concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon, and we want to do everything possible to make sure we see no escalation,” he told journalists in Crete after the meeting.
Washington’s top diplomat said it was in nobody’s interest to escalate the conflict or allow it to spread beyond Gaza.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas militants from Gaza after their lightning attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel since then has been carrying out a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza that have killed at least 22,722 people, according to the territory’s health ministry.
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Blinken’s fourth crisis tour of the three-month-old Gaza war comes as fears mount that the conflict could engulf swathes of the Middle East.
He was also set to address Greece’s concerns about the looming sale of US fighter jets to Ankara — Athens has fiercely contested the US jet sales because of longstanding territorial disputes with Turkey in the energy-rich eastern Mediterranean region.
The Greek government said the two sides agreed there would be “further positive steps in the field of defense cooperation in the coming period”.
Greece is seeking to purchase a batch of more advanced F-35 jets from the United States to counter the perceived Turkish threat.
Blinken also said that he spoke at length with Mitsotakis about attacks by Huthi rebels disrupting shipping lanes and impacting international commerce, driving the price of food and gas up.
The Huthis say they are targeting Israel and Israeli-linked vessels to push for a stop to the offensive in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas militants.
During more than an hour of talks with Erdogan earlier Saturday, Blinken “emphasised the need to prevent the conflict from spreading”, the US State Department said.
Blinken also pointed to the need to “work toward broader, lasting regional peace that ensures Israel’s security and advances the establishment of a Palestinian state”, it said.
A Turkish diplomatic source said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan pressed Blinken during a separate meeting for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza that could ensure the smooth delivery of aid.
The Turkish president has turned into one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of Washington’s support for Israel’s Gaza campaign.
Erdogan has compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, and accused the United States of sponsoring the “genocide” of Palestinians.
He has also rebuffed US pressure to cut off the suspected flow of funding to Hamas through Turkey, and defended the group as legitimately elected “liberators” fighting for their land.
The US State Department on Friday announced $10 million in rewards for information about five alleged Hamas foreign operatives — three of them believed to be based in Turkey — who are thought to be helping finance the Iran-backed group.