Conflict and Peace

In a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Gallant, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin promised that an aircraft carrier already on its way to the Middle East would be speeded up. The US is also sending a nuclear submarine with guided missiles - the USS Georgia - to the region. The US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has been in the region for some time and will soon be joined by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which will carry advanced Joint Strike Fighter jets.

France is urging its citizens to leave Lebanon. An update on the French foreign ministry's website warns of "the risks of military escalation in the Middle East" and advises people to book another commercial flight to France "as soon as possible" while flights are still available. The ministry also reiterated its "urgent" advice against travelling to Lebanon.

Hamas's top political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in the Iranian capital Tehran, Hamas and Iranian state media reported early Wednesday morning (31 July). Haniyeh was killed in an attack on the house where he was staying, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said in a statement, according to international news agencies. One of his bodyguards was also killed in the attack. Hamas called it "a cowardly act that will not go unpunished".

A polio epidemic has broken out in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. This was feared after the polio virus was found in sewage samples earlier this month. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) top official, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said last week that an outbreak was only a matter of time.

In the lead-up to this year's NATO Summit in Washington D.C., it was uncertain whether Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov would meet. However, a last-minute announcement confirmed that they would, albeit not in a bilateral format, but with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Expectations were low, given disagreements over Azerbaijani demands for Armenia to change its constitution and the United States now apparently pushing its own vision for unblocking trade and communication in the region. Nonetheless, Blinken again emphasised that the two were close to reaching a deal. The foreign ministers issued identical scant three-paragraph statements which at least referred to a “historic agreement.”