Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Baghdad and met with Prime Minister al-Sudani. The two conferred on the war between Israel and Gaza and “the need to prevent the conflict from spreading, including in Iraq”. According to a U.S. readout, Blinken called on “the prime minister to hold accountable those responsible for continuing attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq and fulfill Iraq’s commitments to protect all installations hosting U.S. personnel at the invitation of the Iraqi government”. During a press briefing, Blinken reaffirmed that “we’re not looking for conflict with Iran – we’ve made that very clear – but we’ll do what’s necessary to protect our personnel, be they military or civilian”.