Notably, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been immensely critical of Israel's offensive in Gaza, calling the actions "crimes against humanity" and saying this weekend he was suspending communications with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Blinken has travelled to Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, Cyprus, and Iraq so far as part of his whirlwind diplomatic trip, news reports said

Earlier on Sunday, Blinken reached Iraq in an unannounced visit and held discussions with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani about the need to prevent the spillover of the Israel-Hamas conflict

The two leaders discussed the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, including in Iraq, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement

"In Iraq, I met with Prime Minister @MohamedShiato underscore that we must prevent the conflict from spreading. I urged him to hold accountable those responsible for attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq and discussed our work to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza," Blinken posted on X

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Blinken said his discussion with the prime minister was "good and productive", and added that he made clear that attacks by Iranian-backed militias against US personnel are "totally unacceptable"

Regarding the situation in Gaza, Blinken said negotiations on a humanitarian pause in the fighting are a "process," but that US and Israeli teams are meeting Sunday to "work through the specifics, the practicalities of these pauses"

"Israel has raised important questions about how humanitarian pauses would work. We've got to answer those questions. We're working on exactly that," the CNN quoted him