Antony Blinken’s Middle East tour looks ominous. While the Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe after three months of war between Israel and Hamas, which left nearly 23,000 dead according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian enclave, administered by Hamas, the specter of a regional conflict further darkens the trip of the American Secretary of State. During this tour of around ten countries, the fourth since the start of the war, on October 7, 2023, it will be difficult for Antony Blinken to draw a way out of the crisis and a plan for the ” next day “.
The urgency is to stop the worst-case scenario for the United States – a conflagration of all open fronts, in support of Hamas, by Iran and its allies within the “axis of resistance” to Israel , which would lead to a regional war. The confrontation has intensified, since the end of December 2023, in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq. The conflict in the Gaza Strip “could easily metastasize, causing even more insecurity and more suffering”warned Mr. Blinken from Qatar on Sunday January 7, expressing his determination to “prevent the conflict from spreading” throughout the Middle East.
In Crete on Saturday, between stops in Turkey and Greece, he expressed his particular concern about the risk of escalation on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Clashes have intensified between the Israeli army and Hezbollah since the assassination, in Beirut, of Saleh Al-Arouri, a senior Hamas executive, on January 2, in a strike attributed to the Jewish state. Carrying out the threats of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the Party of God fired, on Saturday morning, more than sixty rockets and missiles against an Israeli strategic base on Mount Meron, eight kilometers from the border.
The Israeli army confirmed on Sunday evening that this air surveillance base, nicknamed “the eyes of the state in the North” for its radars probing the airspaces in Lebanon and Syria, suffered significant damage.
Israel responded with strikes against Hezbollah targets, some thirty kilometers from the border. Antony Blinken stressed “the importance for Israelis to enjoy security in the North”calling for this challenge to be met by “diplomatic channels”. He has not planned a stopover in the Land of Cedar. It was the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, who relayed the call for de-escalation on Saturday.
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