US and EU diplomats are holding urgent discussions around the Middle East in a race to try to head off the threat of a full-blown regional war after Israel targeted Hizbollah and Hamas leaders in Beirut and Tehran.
Enrique Mora, one of the EU’s most senior diplomats, was holding critical talks with officials in Iran’s capital on Wednesday after the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which was blamed on Israel, as Brett McGurk, the White House’s top official in the Middle East, held discussions in Saudi Arabia.
The western diplomatic pressure comes as fears over a broader regional conflict soared as Iran and Hizbollah separately vowed to avenge the attacks.