2024-01-07 05:01:00
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, met this Saturday in Turkey with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then traveled to Greece, where he met with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on the first day of his new tour of the Middle East to talk about the war in the Gaza Strip, which threatens to expand throughout the region after increasing tension between Israel and Hezbollah.
Meeting with Erdogan
The US State Department indicated in a statement that Blinken emphasized to Erdogan the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, to increase humanitarian aid, reduce civilian casualties, guarantee the release of hostages, work for lasting regional peace and move towards the creation of a Palestinian State.
Blinken also called for ending Sweden’s NATO accession process, which still needs agreement from Turkey and Hungary. In December, the Foreign Relations Committee of the Turkish Parliament approved the protocol for this country’s accession to the military alliance, promoted in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but this must be approved by the majority of deputies to put an end to a saga of almost 20 months. Turkey reproaches Sweden for its alleged permissiveness towards Kurdish activists refugees in its territory, whom it considers terrorists.
A stop in Greece
After the meeting, Blinken traveled to the Greek island of Crete, where he met with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with whom he also discussed the war in the Middle East. “We are mainly focused on preventing the spread of the conflict in Gaza. One of the biggest concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon,” Blinken said after the meeting that marked the end of the first day of his tour.
“It is clear that Israel does not want an escalation, but it must defend itself,” said the head of US diplomacy, referring to the situation in northern Israel, which maintains crossfire with the Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon. “We want to make sure that countries in the region use the ties and relationships that they have to make sure that we don’t see an escalation,” he added.
The Lebanese-Israeli border
This Saturday the tension between Israel and Hezbollah intensified, within the framework of what the Shiite group calls its first phase of response to the assassination of Hamas number two, Saleh al Arouri, in Beirut. The movement announced in a statement that five of its fighters were killed by Israeli attacks. “Israel launched continuous attacks against southern Lebanon, mainly against homes and land, using airstrikes and artillery shells, including white phosphorus shells,” the letter stated.
Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for at least five attacks, including against a concentration of Israeli Army infantry soldiers near the Honen barracks. This offensive is in addition to the 62 projectiles launched hours earlier against one of the main intelligence centers in northern Israel.
For its part, the Israeli Army explained in a statement that they responded to the actions from Lebanon without victims among their ranks, while they attacked two military complexes of the Shiite group, which contained important assets of the organization in the south of the Mediterranean country.
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