
For months, top United States officials have repeatedly said that President Joe Biden does not want to see Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip escalate into a wider conflict in the Middle East.
That was the central message US Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed this week as he made his fourth visit to the region since the war began. His trip came in the shadow of Israeli attacks in Lebanon and attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on vessels in the Red Sea.