Both Iran and Israel should avoid escalating conflict, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday, in his most direct wording towards US ally Israel on the Middle East’s spiralling tensions.
“No one should escalate this conflict. We’ve been engaged in intense diplomacy with allies and partners, communicating that message directly to Iran. We communicated that message directly to Israel,” Blinken told reporters.
Iran has vowed a response after Israel was suspected of killing Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
US President Joe Biden has hinted at frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the assassination, which came just as he hoped to make progress in talks to reach a ceasefire in the 10-month Gaza war.
“Our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad. We will continue to defend Israel against attacks from terrorist groups or their sponsors, just as we’ll continue to defend our troops,” Blinken said.
“But everyone in the region should understand that further attacks only perpetuate conflict, instability, insecurity for everyone,” he added.
Blinken, speaking after talks with the Australian foreign and defence ministers at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland said the United States was working “intensely to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East and to prevent a spread of conflict”.
Blinken spoke earlier in the day by telephone to Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
Jordan – in a delicate spot with its large Palestinian population and peace treaty with Israel – played a key role in an earlier showdown in April in helping the United States shoot down Iranian missiles and drones, ensuring minimal damage in Israel.
Safadi on Sunday travelled to Tehran to discuss the situation. Blinken declined to answer directly on whether Jordan would again support action against an Iranian attack, saying only that US partners wanted an end to conflict.
“Further attacks only raise the risk of dangerous outcomes that no one can predict and no one can fully control,” Blinken said.
“It’s urgent that everyone in the region take stock of the situation, understand the risk of miscalculation and make decisions that will calm tensions, not exacerbate them.”
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World reacts to air strikes killing Hamas leader in Iran and Hezbollah commander in Beirut
World reacts to air strikes killing Hamas leader in Iran and Hezbollah commander in Beirut
On Monday, suspected pro-Iranian Shiite fighters wounded seven US staff in rocket fire on a base in western Iraq.
“Make no mistake, the United States will not tolerate attacks on our personnel in the region,” Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told the news conference in Annapolis.
The Biden administration, which has sent additional forces into the Middle East, had been hoping to focus not on an escalating crisis but on a ceasefire plan for Gaza.
Hamas on Tuesday named Yahya Sinwar, an alleged mastermind of the October 7 assault on Gaza who is believed to be hiding in tunnels, to be its new political chief to succeed the slain Haniyeh.
Blinken played down the impact of appointing a man on the top of Israel’s target list, saying Sinwar has always been “the primary decider.”
“This only underscores the fact that it is really on him to decide whether to move forward with a ceasefire that manifestly will help so many Palestinians in desperate need,” Blinken said.
Meanwhile, about a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have flown to a military base in the Middle East, as part of the Pentagon’s effort to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard US troops, according to a US official.
The F/A-18s and a E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft took off from the carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday, said the official.
The Navy jets’ land-based deployment is expected to be temporary, because a squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets is en route to the same base from their home station in Alaska. The roughly dozen F-22s are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements.
It is not clear how long all of the aircraft will remain together at the base, and that may depend on what – if anything – happens in the next few days.
The troop movements come as US officials released more details about the rocket attack that hit a military base in Iraq on Monday, injuring American personnel. Officials said five US service members and two contractors were injured when two rockets hit the base.
The officials said five of those injured were being treated at the al-Asad airbase and two were evacuated, but all seven are in stable condition. They did not provide details on who was evacuated.
The rocket attack is the latest in what has been an uptick in strikes on US forces by Iranian-backed militias. It comes as tensions across the Middle East are spiking but is not believed to be connected to the Hezbollah and Hamas killings.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
In recent weeks, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed launching attacks on bases housing US forces in Iraq and Syria after a lull of several months, following a strike on a base in Jordan in late January that killed three American soldiers and prompted a series of retaliatory US strikes.
Between October and January, an umbrella group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had regularly claimed attacks that it said were in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and were aimed at pushing US troops out of the region.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
