Blinken calls on 'all parties' in Middle East to 'stop escalatory actions'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday urged “all parties” in the Middle East to stop “escalatory actions” and achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, after Hamas’s political leader was killed in a strike in Tehran that Iran blamed on Israel.

The strike that killed Ismail Haniyeh came just hours after Israel said it had killed a top Hezbollah commander in a retaliatory strike on the Lebanese capital Beirut.

The killings took place as regional tensions were already inflamed by the war in Gaza, a conflict that has drawn in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Israel has declined to comment on the Tehran strike.

Speaking in the Mongolian capital, top US diplomat Blinken warned the Middle East was on a path “toward more conflict, more violence, more suffering, more insecurity, and it is crucial that we break this cycle”.

“That starts with a ceasefire that we’ve been working on,” Blinken told reporters alongside his local counterpart.

“And to get there, it also first requires all parties to talk, to stop taking any escalatory actions, it requires them to find reasons to come to an agreement,” he said.

As he did on Wednesday in Singapore, Blinken did not comment directly on the death of the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement.

He also declined to speculate on the impact that Haniyeh’s killing could have on a potential ceasefire in Gaza, which the United States has been spearheading along with Egypt and Qatar.