Blinken says Asia concerned about spread of Middle East conflict
World
Blinken says Asia concerned about spread of Middle East conflict
VIENTIANE, Laos (Reuters) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday there was deep concern in Asia about the prospect of conflict spreading in the Middle East, as the U.N. chief called for everything possible to be done to avoid "all-out war" in Lebanon.
The conflict in the Middle East was a central issue during Friday's East Asia Summit in Laos, where Blinken said Washington was dedicated to using diplomacy to try to control the situation in the face of what he called an Iranian-led axis of resistance.
"The intense focus of the United States, which has been the case going back a year... (is) preventing these conflicts from spreading. And we're working on that every day," Blinken told a press conference.
"We're working very hard through deterrence and through diplomacy to prevent that from happening. There's also obviously deep concern that we share about the plight of children, women, and men in Gaza."
The US has stressed to Israel the importance of meeting the humanitarian needs of people in Gaza, Blinken said, adding it was in Israel's interest that people forced from their homes by hostilities in Lebanon are able to return.
The annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also included meetings with leaders and top diplomats from India, China, Japan, the United States, Russia, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, as well as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Friday's discussions included the war in Ukraine, Myanmar's civil war, climate change, tensions in the Taiwan Strait and concern about confrontations in the South China Sea, a key conduit for at least $3 trillion in annual ship-borne trade.
'ESCALATION AFTER ESCALATION'
Guterres condemned an attack by Israeli forces on a watchtower that wounded two U.N. peacemakers from Indonesia, an incident he said violated international law and must not be repeated.
He said any spread of fighting in the Middle East would have dramatically negative impacts on the whole world and called for maximum restraint from all sides.
"I have never seen in my time as Secretary-General any example of death and destruction as dramatic as what we are witnessing here," he told a press conference.
