By Athena Papakosta

Anthony Blinken returned to the Middle East for a fourth tour in three months amid intensifying efforts to prevent the ongoing Israel-Hamas war from spilling over into the wider region.

Attacks between Israel and Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah, increasing attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis against merchant ships in the Red Sea, and strikes by Iranian paramilitary groups against US bases in Iraq are dynamiting the situation.

Yesterday, Sunday, Israel admitted that Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets and destroyed a strategically important air base in the north of the country. As foreign media report, the fact that the Shiite organization managed such a blow proves its strength, with Israeli officials acknowledging that Hezbollah will prove a more difficult enemy than the Sunni Hamas if the current long-distance exchange of fire develops into a new, parallel one. conflict.

American officials are concerned that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahuperhaps, is considering the expansion of the war in Lebanon and the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, from the first stop of his tour, Jordan, where he had a meeting with King Abdullah, reiterated that “we want to do everything to make sure that there will be no escalation and to avoid an endless cycle of violence.”

From his side, the monarch of Jordan warned of the disastrous consequences of continued Israeli military operations and conveyed to the US Secretary of State that Washington could play an important role in pressuring Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

After Jordan, the US secretary of state went to Qatar – which had played a mediator role in the truce reached between Israel and Hamas last November.

There he met with the country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani and the country’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin al-Thani.

“The Israel-Hamas conflict can easily become metastatic, causing even more insecurity and even more pain,” said Mr. Blinken, recalling that since the first day of the war, the United States has been working to prevent the spread of the conflict.

The United States secretary of state also said that with all the leaders he met with in recent days “we share a common belief in ensuring that the conflict does not spread” while noting that at each stop on his new tour he discussed what the each country to do when the Israel-Hamas conflict ends in order to provide the guarantees and incentives needed to “build a safer and more stable and more peaceful future in the region”.

In fact, just days before visiting Israel, Anthony Blinken also stressed that he will tell Israeli officials that it is “imperative” that they do more to protect civilians in Gaza and, looking ahead to the next day, made it clear that “displaced Palestinians must to be able to return to their homes.”