Al-Sudani to Blinken: Preventing escalation in the region depends on stopping the aggression on Gaza

Iraq – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stressed, yesterday, Sunday, that preventing escalation in the region “depends only on stopping the aggression on Gaza and preventing its expansion to Lebanon.”

This came during a phone call received by the Iraqi Prime Minister from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to discuss regional and international developments, according to a statement issued by Al-Sudani’s media office and reported by the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Al-Sudani added, according to the statement, that preventing escalation in the region also depends on “deterring and curbing (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his government, preventing the Zionist occupation authorities from attacking the countries of the region, ending its repeated violations of international law and state sovereignty, and its attempts to spread the conflict and expand the scope of crises.”

During the call, the two sides also discussed “Iraq’s role in supporting international peace and stability, and preventing current events from continuing on a path of escalation,” according to the statement.

The statement quoted Blinken as saying that Washington wants Iraq to play a role “in controlling the situation in the region and preventing escalation from various parties, in continuation of its efforts to support regional stability and regional peace.”

This contact comes amid expectations of an escalation in mutual attacks between Iran and the Lebanese factions movement on the one hand, and Israel on the other, after Tel Aviv assassinated the prominent party leader Fouad Shukr last Tuesday, and the Palestinian factions movement and Iran accused it of assassinating the head of the movement’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on Wednesday.

Iran, the Lebanese factions movement, and the Palestinian factions movement have vowed to respond to the assassination of Haniyeh and Shukr, while international contacts and efforts to calm the situation continue, for fear of the conflict expanding in the region.

Tensions in the region have been escalating since October 7, 2023, against the backdrop of a war waged by Israel with American support on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in more than 130,000 Palestinian deaths and injuries, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing.

Anatolia