A ceasefire to the war in Gaza and regional cooperation to repel Iranian strikes on Israel pave a way towards the unity of Mideast countries opposed to Iran, secretary of state Anthony Blinken said.
Speaking in his valedictory press conference days ahead of the second administration of Donald Trump, Blinken hoped the end of the 15-month war would pave the way for regional peace: "Leaders will have to summon the vision and the courage to do that."
"When (Israel) was attacked in an unprecedented way by Iran - hundreds of missiles, hundreds of drones - not only did we come to Israel's active defense for the first time ever, we brought other counties along to do that, including countries in the region."
Blinken was referring to an April 13 attack by Iran which was largely repelled with help from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
"Israel now sees powerfully what it stands to gain from greater integration in the region, including a common security architecture ... all can see this is a way to effectively isolate the troublemaker in the region, Iran."
Arab countries in the Persian Gulf are deeply opposed to what they see as Iranian encroachment via its armed religious proxies but largely ended confrontation with Tehran after a stalemated conflict in Yemen with the Iran-aligned Houthis.
The outgoing administration of Joe Biden hoped to build on Arab-Israeli normalization pacts from Trump's first term, but their push for a Saudi-Israeli deal stalled after Palestinian Hamas militants backed by Iran attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
