US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopes to advance efforts to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza as well as strengthen bilateral ties with Cairo when he visits Egypt amid concern about escalating Middle East tensions, Reuters reports.

The top US diplomat’s visit comes as the region remains on high alert due to risk of Gaza conflict expanding, particularly after group Hezbollah promised to retaliate against Israel, accusing it of detonating pagers across Lebanon.

Speaking at a regular briefing, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said it was too early to say whether the incident in Lebanon would affect Gaza ceasefire talks but said the US believed diplomacy was the way to reduce tensions.

In Blinken’s meetings with Egyptian officials, “squarely on the agenda is how we get a proposal that we think would secure agreement from both parties” to an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Miller said.

Blinken will not visit Israel on this trip, this will be the first time he has skipped a stop there.