US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the United States was “not aware of or involved in” the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, AFP reports.

“I can’t tell you what this means. I can tell you that the imperative of getting a ceasefire, the importance that that has for everyone, remains,” Blinken said, according to a transcript shared by his staff from an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.

Blinken, who is visiting Singapore, said a Gaza ceasefire is also key to preventing the conflict from spreading to the rest of the region.

“We’ve been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it’s the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it’s the Red Sea with the Huthis, whether it’s Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it,” Blinken told a forum in the city state.

“A big key to trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that we can move to a better place, is getting the ceasefire.”

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