NEW YORK: China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, has told the UN Security Council that the US has “seriously violated the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria and Iraq” by carrying out air strikes on both countries over the weekend, Al Jazeera reports.

“The United States says it does not seek to create conflicts in the Middle East or anywhere else, but in fact it is doing the opposite. The relevant military actions are undoubtedly causing new turbulence in the region and further intensifying conflicts,” he said.

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said that Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar is “moving from hideout to hideout” and “unable to communicate” with his entourage, AFP reports.

“He has now become a terrorist on the run from being the leader of Hamas” in the Palestinian territory, Gallant told a televised briefing, without elaborating on Sinwar’s presumed current location.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Saudi Arabia, his first stop in a wider tour of the Middle East as Washington tries to advance negotiations on a normalisation deal between the Kingdom and Israel, as well as make progress on talks for the governance of Gaza in the future, Reuters reports.

The top US diplomat’s fifth trip to the region since Hamas’s October 7 attack comes at a perilous moment.

Blinken is also set to visit Egypt, Qatar and Israel later this week and push to advance the Egyptian and Qatari-mediated conversations with Hamas to achieve a hostage deal.

In Riyadh, Blinken is expected to meet with the kingdom’s de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as his Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.