US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan, on Saturday evening, the current "escalation" and developments on the Lebanese scene.

This came during a phone call received by Bin Farhan from Blinken, according to a statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry.

The statement said that the two ministers discussed during the call "the escalation in the region, the developments on the Lebanese scene, and the efforts being made in this regard," without providing any further details in this regard.

This contact coincides with growing fears of a regional war, especially in light of the genocide that Israel has been waging for nearly a year in the Gaza Strip, which it has recently expanded to include most of Lebanon, including the capital Beirut.

In addition to Tel Aviv's threats to respond to a missile attack launched by Tehran last Tuesday in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas's political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah's secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah.

In this context, the private Hebrew newspaper "Israel Hayom" said on Saturday evening that the Israeli army had raised the state of alert on all fronts, and was preparing for a major operation in Iran.

This coincided with the arrival of US Central Command Commander Michael Kurilla to Israel, on a visit that comes as part of discussions between Washington and Tel Aviv about the latter's response to the Iranian retaliatory attack, according to Israeli Army Radio.

Last Thursday, the US President revealed that there were discussions with Israeli officials about the possibility of Tel Aviv striking Iran's oil facilities.

Asked if the United States would send troops to help Israel do this, he said the United States was "already helping Israel," and stressed: "We will protect Israel."