U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged all parties in the Middle East not to take “escalatory actions” a day after Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated, Ednews reports citing CNN.

“Right now, the path that the region is on is toward more conflict, more violence, more suffering, more insecurity. And it is crucial that we break the cycle. And that starts with a ceasefire,” Blinken said.

“To get there, it requires all parties to stop taking any escalatory actions.”

Blinken said he couldn’t predict the effect of “any one event on what comes next,” but a “ceasefire to have an end to the conflict in Gaza to produce calm in the north, between Israel and Lebanon” was in the interest of everyone.

All parties need to find “reasons to come to an agreement, not to look for reasons to delay or say no to the agreement,” he said.

Blinken said he has been talking to his colleagues throughout the region over the last 24 hours and they were all focused on reaching a ceasefire.

He also expressed confidence that a deal could still be reached because it is “imperative that we do so.”

“It is urgent that all parties make the right choices in the days ahead,” he added.

Recall that the head of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran along with one of his bodyguards, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday.

Hamas announced that Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli raid on his residence in Tehran.

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian's swear-in ceremony on Tuesday.