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Meanwhile, as tensions in the Middle East escalate, Western officials have increased diplomatic consultations with countries in the region, including telephone conversations between the foreign ministers of the United States and Jordan and their leaders in Tehran in recent days.
The conversation between US President Joe Biden and King Abdullah II of Jordan took place on Monday, August 15.
According to a White House statement, the two leaders discussed ways to ease tensions in the region, including an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
A day earlier, Iranian President Massoud Badhishyan warned that Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh would not go unanswered during a meeting with Jordan’s foreign minister, who was on a rare visit to Tehran.
After the killings of Ismail Haniyeh and Fouad Shawkhar in Tehran and Beirut, the Islamic Republic authorities and Lebanon’s Hezbollah threatened to retaliate against Israel.
Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, died in an explosion at his residence in Tehran on the morning of Wednesday, August 10.
Just hours before him, Fuad Shekhar, the top military commander of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Beirut.
Israel has acknowledged responsibility for the killing of Fuad Sheikah but has yet to formally confirm or deny involvement in the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.
Fears of an intensification of conflict in the region have risen in recent days as authorities in the Islamic Republic have repeatedly pledged retaliation.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked all parties not to escalate tensions as he spoke about Washington’s intensive diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the Middle East.
Blinken spoke on Monday after meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, stressing the importance of a ceasefire in Gaza and calling on all parties to find a way to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and release the hostages.
Russia’s National Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu met and spoke with Iranian President Masoud Medveshian on Monday as he continued talks with officials from the Islamic Republic in Tehran.
In addition, according to Reuters, the foreign ministers of Italy and Iraq called for easing tensions in the Middle East in another call and expressed deep concern that the region was threatened by these tensions.
During the call, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein also stressed the need to establish a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
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