UN human rights chief to travel to Washington amid concerns over Middle East crisis

UN human rights chief to travel to Washington amid concerns over Middle East crisis

GENEVA, March 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights chief will travel ‌to Washington this month, he said ‌on Friday, but expressed doubt he could influence the ​development of the Middle East crisis amid mounting concerns.

Reuters

"I hope to go to Washington D.C. later this month, and we will ‌see what ⁠this will bring," UN human rights chief Volker Turk told reporters ⁠in Geneva.

"We have obviously been in touch, but to be honest, I don't think ​it's in ​any way meaningful ​in terms of ‌influencing the current trajectory," he added.

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Turk urged international actors to rapidly de-escalate the regional conflict, now into its seventh day after U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Israel said on Friday ‌it launched "broad-scale" air strikes ​on Iran's infrastructure. It ​also continued ​strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, ‌which are under an evacuation order.

Large ​booms rang ​out across Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel as Israeli defence ​systems attempted ‌to intercept an Iranian rocket volley ​on Friday morning.

(Reporting by Olivia Le ​PoidevinEditing by Ludwig Burger)

 

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