AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The Israeli attacks in Lebanon have sent diplomats scrambling to head off a wider war in the Middle East. That's something Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been worried about for much of the past year. NPR's Michele Kelemen is traveling with him in Cairo.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Secretary Blinken was just boarding his plane to Cairo when pagers started exploding in Lebanon. His trip was meant to focus on relations with Egypt, a key regional partner and a key player in cease-fire talks for Gaza. But Egypt's foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, warned that Israel's latest actions against Hezbollah threatened the whole region. He spoke through an interpreter.
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BADR ABDELATTY: (Through interpreter) Any unilateral actions towards the escalation must be condemned and is totally rejected, and it does not encourage any stability. Such dangerous escalation can lead to what we have warned from before, which is moving to the edge of a comprehensive regional war.
KELEMEN: A comprehensive regional war, he warned - Secretary Blinken has been trying to prevent that for months now, arguing that if Israel and Hamas can reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, then things would quiet down in Northern Israel and Lebanon. But he says the Gaza cease-fire talks have been challenging and take time.
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ANTONY BLINKEN: Time and again, we've seen that in the intervening time, you might have an event, an incident, something that makes the process more difficult, that threatens to slow it, stop it, derail it.
KELEMEN: Blinken pointed to the recent killing by Hamas of six hostages, including an American, as one example of an incident that has derailed the talks on a cease-fire and hostage release. He stopped short of directly criticizing Israel for the attacks in Lebanon, which have overshadowed this, his 10th trip to the region since last October.
He didn't explain why he's not going to Israel this time around, though he sounds frustrated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not shown political will to get a Gaza deal done. Blinken says the U.S. has put forward some ideas to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas.
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BLINKEN: They are clearly resolvable. But the key ingredient to getting a resolution of these outstanding issues is political will. That's what we're both looking for going forward. That's what's so imperative if we're going to get the cease-fire across the finish line.
KELEMEN: His Egyptian counterpart was more downbeat, predicting that the Israeli attacks in Lebanon will set back efforts to reach a deal in Gaza. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Cairo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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