The United States was “not aware of or involved in” the assassination of Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Wednesday.
“This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” Blinken mentioned, in keeping with a transcript shared by his workers from an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.
He added, nonetheless, that killing made a cease-fire in Gaza all of the extra “imperative.”
Speaking at a discussion board in Singapore he mentioned that reaching a ceasefire in Gaza “is the enduring imperative”.
“We’ve been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it’s the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it’s the Red Sea with the Houthis, whether it’s Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it,” Blinken mentioned.
“A big key to trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen and that we can move to a better place, is getting the cease-fire.”
Haniyeh was attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president when he was killed by an Israeli airstrike, Hamas mentioned Wednesday.
Hamas blamed Israel and vowed the “cowardly” killing of their veteran chief “will not go unanswered.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its Oct. 7 incursion of Israel, which sparked Tel Aviv’s genocidal struggle on Gaza.
The Oct. 7 incursion resulted within the deaths of 1,197 individuals, largely civilians, in keeping with an AFP tally primarily based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian resistance teams additionally seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are nonetheless held captive in Gaza, together with 39 the navy says are useless.
Israel’s brutal navy marketing campaign has killed almost 40,000 individuals in Gaza, in keeping with the Health Ministry.
Blinken mentioned attaining a cease-fire was “manifestly in the interests of the hostages and bringing them home, it’s manifestly in the interests of Palestinians who are suffering terribly every single day, children, women, men in Gaza.”
“… it’s profoundly in the interest of trying to put things on a better path not only in Gaza, but actually throughout the region, because so much is tied to what’s happening in Gaza right now,” he mentioned.
Source: www.dailysabah.com