US says it wants to ‘lower the temperature’ in Middle East

The United States is seeking to “lower the temperature” in the Middle East, the US ambassador to the UN said, after Iran rejected Western calls to refrain from retaliating against Israel over the assassination of the Hamas leader last month.

On Tuesday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the U.N. Security Council in New York that the United States wanted to “deter and defend against any future attack and avoid regional conflict.”

His comments come as the United States steps up efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Asked by a reporter whether reaching such a deal would help deter Iran from launching attacks on Israel, US President Joe Biden said: “That’s what I expect, but we’ll see.”

“We’ll see what Iran does and we’ll see what happens if there’s an attack, but I’m not giving up,” he said, stepping off his plane during a visit to New Orleans, Louisiana, on Tuesday.

A new round of ceasefire talks is scheduled for either Doha or Cairo on Thursday.

But Hamas official Ahmad Abdul Hadi reportedly said Hamas would not participate in the negotiations, according to reports in the New York Times and Sky News.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday postponed plans to travel to the Middle East to take part in negotiations on ending the war in Gaza.

International mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have pushed for a ceasefire deal that would see Israeli hostages released to their families and Palestinian civilians returned home.

Meanwhile, Washington has also approved a $20bn (£15.5bn) arms sale to Israel – the weapons will take years to reach Israel.

At the Security Council meeting in New York, Ms Thomas-Greenfield called for a ceasefire agreement to be finalised.

“A broader regional conflict is not inevitable,” she said.

“The overall goal of the United States remains to lower the temperature in the region, deter and defend against any future attack, and avoid regional conflict,” she added.

“It starts with finalizing an agreement for an immediate ceasefire with the release of hostages in Gaza. We must cross the finish line.”

But Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour accused the Security Council of not doing enough to stop Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

“Wake up. Stop making excuses. Stop imagining that you can reason with the Israeli government to stop killing civilians by the thousands, imposing starvation, torturing prisoners, colonizing and annexing our land, while appealing to them, calling on them, asking them to stop,” Mansour said.

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan claimed that Hamas was using civilians as human targets in Gaza.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 39,920 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Hundreds of people have also been killed in near-daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army across the Israeli-Lebanese border since the day after the conflict began.

Amid a wave of international diplomacy aimed at easing tensions, Iran said Monday rejected calls from the UK and other Western countries to refrain from any retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Israel, which has not claimed involvement in Haniyeh’s assassination, has placed its army on the highest alert level.

The United States has warned that it is preparing for “a significant series of attacks” by Iran or its proxies as early as this week, and has increased its military presence in the Middle East to help defend Israel.