The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, embarks this Thursday on a new tour of the Middle East, in the hope of avoiding an expansion of the war in Gaza after the elimination in Lebanon of Hamas number two and deadly explosions in Iran.
The American Secretary of State will leave Washington this Thursday evening for this new diplomatic shuttle in the region, the fourth since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, with a stop planned on Israeli soil, an American official said Wednesday evening.
Tense context in Iran and Lebanon
No country has “an interest in an escalation”, declared Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for American diplomacy, criticized in the region for its unfailing support for Israel since the start of the strikes on Gaza.
Fears of seeing the war between Israel and Hamas ignite the entire Middle East have further increased since a fatal strike on Tuesday on Hamas number, Saleh Al-Arouri, in Lebanon, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and a double explosion which left 95 dead on Wednesday in Iran.
In Tehran, officials accused Israel of being behind the “assassination” of the senior Hamas official and the “attack” near the tomb of General Qassem Soleimani, former architect of Iranian operations in the Middle East. -East of which Iran marked the fourth anniversary of the death.
Escalation Fears
Israel has not commented on the allegations. In Washington, an official indicated that the strike against Saleh Al-Arouri was “Israeli”, while the State Department considered “absurd” the idea that the United States or Israel were linked to the explosions in Iran.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised “a severe response” to the explosions. And Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel against further escalation following the death of Saleh Al-Arouri, who is to be buried Thursday in the Palestinian camp of Shatila, in Beirut.
Since the start of this conflict, tensions have also increased in Syria and Iraq, where American bases have been targeted, but also in the Red Sea, where the Houthi rebels of Yemen are carrying out attacks to slow down maritime traffic in “support » in Gaza.