Austin says war escalation 'not inevitable' after Haniyeh's death

The US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, stated this Wednesday from the Philippines that the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East "is not inevitable", after the death of the leader of the Palestinian Islamic terrorist group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in a attack in Tehran, which the Iranian regime attributed to Israel.

"I maintain that war is not inevitable (...) There is room for diplomacy," Austin said in the Philippine bay of Subic, the former largest US naval base abroad, as part of an Asian tour.

The head of the Pentagon insisted, as he did the day before from Manila, that the US "does everything possible to avoid a major conflict" and its willingness to "lower the temperature" of tensions.

"What we said yesterday is that if Israel is attacked, in the past we defended it and it can be expected that we would do the same," he stressed, although he stressed that he trusts that diplomatic channels will prevail.

The Palestinian Islamic terrorist group Hamas confirmed this Wednesday the death of its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, where he was on an official visit, and blamed Israel for his death, threatening that "it will not go unpunished."

Haniyeh “died as a result of a treacherous Zionist raid,” a Hamas statement said, according to the Iranian Tasnim agency.

For the moment, the Israeli authorities have not referred to any attack in Tehran, nor the death of Haniyeh, who went to the Iranian capital yesterday for the inauguration of the country's new president, Masud Pezeshkian.

Austin is in the Philippines as part of a tour of Asia, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who accompanied the head of the Pentagon yesterday in Manila, is in Singapore this Wednesday. Aurora and EFE