Blinken says US made 'strategic gains' in Middle East

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a speech at the Atlantic Council that Washington has made "strategic gains" in the Middle East.

“The balance of power in the Middle East is shifting dramatically and not in the way Hamas and its backers hoped or planned,” he said, adding that Hamas has been "dismantled" and Hezbollah "ravaged".

Blinken also suggested that the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli on 7 October aimed to derail Israel's normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia.

"The timing of Hamas' attack was no accident," Blinken said.

"Israel's growing integration in the region, the prospect of normalisation with Saudi Arabia, posed an existential threat to Hamas' power, its ambitions to dominate the Palestinian political landscape, its raison d'etre – which is the rejection of two states and the destruction of Israel."