US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken continues his diplomatic tour of the Middle East in Jordan today, seeking to ensure that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip does not spread and that “an endless cycle of violence” is avoided.

Blinken, who arrived in Amman last Saturday night, will hold talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and visit the World Food Program (WFP) center, a senior US official close to the minister said.

In his brief statement last night from Chania airport in Crete after his meeting with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos MitsotakisBlinken stressed that “we must ensure that the conflict does not spread.”

“One of the real concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon, and we want to do everything possible to ensure that there is no escalation,” he added.

Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel yesterday, an attack it described as a “first response” to the death of Hamas’s second-in-command, Saleh al-Aruri, in a strike blamed on Israel in Beirut on Tuesday.

“We want to make sure that like-minded countries use their ties, their influence, their relationships with some of the actors involved to keep things under control, to make sure that the conflict doesn’t escalate,” he noted. the American minister. He even referred to the “vital” role that Turkey can play in this direction, after meeting yesterday in Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Blinken, whose country is Israel’s key political and military ally, insists it is “imperative” to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza, “reduce civilian casualties, work towards a lasting regional peace and move towards the creation of a Palestinian state.”

The aftermath of the war — the rebuilding and governance of Gaza — will also be at the center of the US secretary of state’s talks with his Arab partners, although at this stage they are calling for a ceasefire first.

After Jordan, Blinken will go to Qatar, which played a role as a mediator in the truce agreed in mid-November between Israel and Hamas.

Blinken will finish his day in Abu Dhabi before visiting Saudi Arabia and Israel, where he expects, as he said, the talks “will not be easy.”

The war between Israel and Hamas erupted after the Palestinian movement’s unprecedented attack on October 7, which claimed the lives of around 1,140 people.

Since then, Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 22,722 people, most of them women and children.