VIENTIANE, Laos — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday (Oct 11) there was deep concern in Asia about the plight of people in Gaza and conflict in the Middle East and stressed Washington was doing everything in its power to prevent those from spreading.

Speaking in Laos after the East Asia Summit, Blinken said concerns about the Middle East came up in conversations with other leaders, during which he reiterated Washington was dedicated to diplomacy to control the situation in the face of what he called an Iranian-led axis of resistance.

"The intense focus of the United States, which has been the case going back a year, and doing just that, [is] preventing these conflicts from spreading. And we're working on that every day," Blinken told a press conference.

"We're working very hard through deterrence and through diplomacy to prevent that from happening. There's also obviously deep concern that we share about the plight of children, women, and men in Gaza, who for now a year have been caught in a terrible crossfire of Hamas' instigation."

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