US warns Iran

  America’s top diplomat warned Iran against attacking U.S. troops in the Middle East. Speaking at what the Wall Street Journal described as a “tense” meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, State Secretary Antony Blinken said, “If Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake: We will defend our people, we will defend our security—swiftly and decisively.”

Blinken asked all 15 nations represented Tuesday to pressure Iran against escalation in the region. “Tell Iran, tell its proxies—in public, in private, through every means—do not open another front against Israel in this conflict; do not attack Israel’s partners,” he said. “Act as if the security and stability of the entire region and beyond is on the line,” he added, “because it is.”

Blinken also met with eight Middle East diplomats while in New York on Tuesday. Those included Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Libyan Acting Foreign Minister Taher al-Baour, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, UAE Minister of State Reem Al Hashimy, and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
 
The leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah met with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials in Beirut on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. According to a short statement the three released afterward, the three armed groups want to stop Israel’s “treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank,” and they hope somehow for what they called “a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine.”