AMMAN, Aug 8: Britain's minister for development expressed concern on Thursday for refugees across the Middle East as regional tensions soar, warning that "the most vulnerable" would suffer first in an escalation.
Fears of military escalation that would pit Iran and its allied armed groups against Israel have grown since two high-profile killings blamed on Israel last week, as the Israel-Hamas war rages on in the Gaza Strip.
Minister Anneliese Dodds told AFP in an interview during a visit to Jordan that "currently, sadly, we are in a concerning situation geopolitically".
"We must see a de-escalation. It's in no one's interest to have an escalation of conflict," she added.
"Those who would suffer first would be those who are the most vulnerable in this region", Dodds said.
About 625,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan are registered with the United Nations, though Amman estimates at 1.3 million the number of Syrians who have fled to the neighbouring kingdom since war broke out in 2011.
Jordan also hosts 2.2 million registered Palestinian refugees.
In Jordan, "there are many Syrian refugees as well as Palestinian refugees... So it's been a very important visit for me to understand more about the situation and to convey that message around the need for de-escalation," Dodds said.
Iran has threatened a "harsh punishment" for the killing Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, in an attack in Tehran blamed on Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for it.
Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement has separately vowed retaliation for the Israeli killing of its military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut, just hours before Haniyeh's killing.
Israel said the strike that killed Shukr was a response to rocket fire that killed 12 children and teenagers in the annexed Golan Heights.
During her visit, Dodds said she had "seen the work that has been going on from Jordan... to try and tackle the concerning humanitarian situation in Gaza." —AFP
