U.S. officials claim they had no advance notice about an early morning airstrike in Iran's capital that killed a top Hamas leader.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Channel News Asia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was "not aware of or involved in" what is being described as an assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Observers say there are fears that the shocking assassination, and where it was carried out, may have the potential to increase the spread of conflict throughout the Middle East.
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"It’s very hard to speculate, and I’ve learned over many years never to speculate on the impact one event may have on something else. So I can’t tell you what this means," Blinken said. "I can tell you that the imperative of getting a cease-fire, the importance that that has for everyone, remains. And we will continue to labor at that for as long as it takes to get there."
Haniyeh lived in Qatar, but was in Tehran attending the inauguration of Iran's new President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has accused Israel of carrying out the strike and vowed to retaliate.
While Blinken didn't mention how the U.S. might respond to any retaliatory actions from Iran, he said the U.S. remains steadfast on negotiating a cease-fire in Gaza and believes that is the best way to lower tensions in the region.
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"The best way to bring the temperature down everywhere, put us on a better path, is through a cease-fire in Gaza," Blinken said. "That will have, I think, important effects on other areas where you could see conflict — whether it’s in the north of Israel and Lebanon, whether it’s Iran, whether it’s in the Red Sea with the Houthis."
The alleged assassination came just hours after Israel said it carried out a bold and rare airstrike in Beirut killing a top Hezbollah commander and Iranian ally. Israel claimed the leader was behind a rocket attack that killed 12 people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
At least one woman and two children were killed in the Israeli strike in Lebanon, with at least a dozen others wounded, according to reports.
