By EFE
31 Jul 2024, 17:07 PM EDT
BANGKOK – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States had no knowledge of and was not involved in the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
“This is something that we were not aware of or involved in. It is very difficult to speculate” on the impact of this assassination, Blinken told Channel News Asia during his visit to Singapore.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas confirmed on Wednesday the death of its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, where he was on an official visit, and blamed Israel for his murder, warning that “it will not go unpunished.”
The US foreign policy chief declined to comment on how the death of the Hamas leader could affect the Middle East conflict.
“I have learned over the years not to speculate about the impact one event may have on something else,” he said.
In line with what he had expressed hours earlier during a press conference, Blinken stressed the importance of reaching a ceasefire in the conflict and showed the US’s commitment to work on it for as long as necessary.
The US Secretary of State stressed that it is vitally important to help end the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and bring hostages home, including some Americans.
“One of the things we have been focusing on is making sure that the conflict that has emerged in Gaza does not spread,” he added.
Hours before Blinken’s comments, while on a tour of Asia, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, also on the Asian continent, argued from the Philippines that the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East “is not inevitable” despite Haniyeh’s death.