Blinken urges Israel and Hezbollah to step back from conflict

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging both Israel and Hezbollah to step back from their intensifying conflict, saying that an all-out war would be disastrous for the region and its people.

In New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly, Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. was working on a plan to de-escalate tensions and allow tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese to return to homes they have had to evacuate in border areas.

“The best way to get that is not through war, not through escalation,” he said in an interview with CBS news. “It would be through a diplomatic agreement that has forces pulled back from the border, create a secure environment, people return home.”

U.S. officials say they are floating a number of ideas to calm the situation but they have not been specific. Some of those ideas may be discussed at a special U.N. Security Council meeting on Lebanon that France called for later Wednesday.

“What we’re focused on now, including with many partners here in New York at the U.N. General Assembly, the Arab world, Europeans and others, is a plan to de-escalate,” Blinken said. “If there were to be a full-scale war — which we don’t have and which we’re working to avoid — that’s actually not going to solve the problem.”