The United States is asking Turkiye and other allies that have ties with Iran to persuade it to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, Reuters quotes the US ambassador to Turkiye as saying.

Ambassador Jeff Flake made the comments as the region braces for possible attacks by Iran and its allies after the killing of senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

“We ask all of our allies that have any relations with Iran to prevail on them to de-escalate, and that includes Turkiye,” Flake said at a round-table with journalists in Istanbul as he comes to the end of his posting in Turkiye.

“They’re doing what they can to make sure that it doesn’t escalate,” he said of Washington’s Turkish interlocutors, adding that they “seem more confident than we are that it won’t escalate”.