CAIRO: Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Badr Abdelatty held a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Middle East. Abdelatty briefed his US counterpart on the discussions he held with the foreign ministers of Iran and Lebanon, as well as those of several European states, regarding the regional escalation, the recent Israeli assassinations, and the fallout, which threatens to expand the scope of the conflict in an unprecedented manner. The foreign minister stressed the necessity of all parties exercising self-restraint, sparing the region from the dangers of instability, and called on his US counterpart to pressure Israel into ceasing its aggression and engaging seriously in the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza. The two parties discussed the ceasefire negotiations and the Egyptian-Qatari-US efforts in this regard, agreeing to continue coordinating in order to reach a ceasefire agreement as soon as possible and defuse the crisis.