The top US diplomat, making his fourth such trip since the start of the conflict, says the border between Israel and Lebanon is ‘one of the real concerns’.
Washington’s top diplomat Antony Blinken said Saturday 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.
Blinken 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 Agence France-Presse 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.
In Greece, Blinken was also set to address Greece’s concerns about the looming sale of US fighter aircraft to Ankara – Athens has fiercely contested the sales because of long-standing territorial disputes with Turkey in the energy-rich eastern Mediterranean region.
He also said he spoke at length with Mitsotakis about attacks by Houthi rebels disrupting shipping lanes and impacting international commerce, driving the price of food and gas up.
