US doing 'everything it can' to avert an all-out war in the Middle East

The New Republic senior editor Alex Shephard says the United States is doing “everything it can to avert an all-out war” in the Middle East as tensions between Israel and Iran escalate. It comes as Iranian authorities have declared on Friday morning they shot down several drones from the sky over the cities of Isfahan and Tabriz on Friday. Israel's government and military are declining to confirm or deny if they carried out the strike. The United States has denied any involvement in Israel's attack on Iran Friday morning. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said US leaders, along with others at the G7 Summit, are focused on de-escalating tensions. Mr Shephard reacted to the US Secretary of State's comments claiming the remarks made were not surprising. “That was not a terrible surprising given the overall framing we’ve seen from the Secretary of State in the aftermath of these sort of tit-for-tat strikes that we’ve seen between Israel and Iran,” he said.