UK and US in diplomatic race to try to stop Israel-Hamas conflict engulfing the Middle East

The UK, led by the US, is staging a frantic diplomatic race with Middle Eastern leaders tonight to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict engulfing the region.

Rishi Sunak has held talks with King Abdullah of Jordan – a key player in diplomatic relations between the West and the Arab world – in Downing Street to discuss ways of preventing an escalation of the conflict to the West Bank and Lebanon.

The Prime Minister is due to hold further discussions with other Middle Eastern leaders in the coming days as Hezbollah escalated attacks on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

Iran’s foreign minister raised the prospect of the conflict spilling over to the wider region, with the regime’s Fars news agency quoting Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying: “If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told US broadcaster CBS that “there is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of a second front in the north and, of course, Iran’s involvement”.

Mr Sullivan added that the White House had held back channel talks with Tehran to warn it against aggravating tensions and allowing the conflict to spiral across the Middle East.

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The fears of a wider war were echoed by White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who told Fox News that the White House was worried about “a potential escalation or a widening of this conflict”

It comes as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken staged a frenetic whistle stop tour of the region, visiting seven countries in the region in an attempt to keep a lid on the crisis, amid increasing fears it could spill into other parts of the Middle East.

Mr Blinken met the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi late on Sunday, having met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh earlier in the day.

His shuttle diplomacy included meetings with with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority over the last five days.

Speaking to reporters before leaving Cairo for Tel Aviv, Mr Blinken insisted that “Israel has the right, indeed it has the obligation to defend itself against these attacks from Hamas and to try to do what it can to make sure that this never happens again.”

But he added: “The way that Israel does this matters. It needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity, taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians.”

His comments come after Egypt’s President el-Sissi said Israel’s “reaction went beyond the right to self-defence, turning into collective punishment for 2.3 million people in Gaza” according to Egypt’s state-run media.