US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed Sunday on a new crisis tour of the Middle East as he seeks to push forward a proposal to halt the devastating conflict in return for the release of hostages.
Blinken's fifth trip to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack inside Israel comes days after the United States carried out retaliatory strikes against Iranian-linked targets in Iraq and Syria, the latest escalation of the conflict that President Joe Biden had initially sought to avoid.
