Amman

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Monday defended the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees as a "lifeline of hope and dignity" and called for a surge of aid into Gaza.

During a visit to Jordan's Wihdat refugee camp in the capital Amman, Guterres said it would be "cruel and incomprehensible" to halt UNRWA's vital services to Palestinian refugees across the region.

Türkiye has urged Iran and Pakistan to show restraint and called them to resolve their differences through dialogue and cooperation after the two neighboring countries hit targets on each other's soil in the context of anti-terror combat.

The situation in the wider region and the evolving bilateral relationship between Greece and the US will be at the heart of the contacts between Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on February 9.

Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis is set to embark on a working visit to Jordan on Monday, with his destination being the kingdom's capital, Amman.

Crete will be US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's second of nine stops in his whirlwind trip, mainly to the Middle East, from Jan. 4-11.

Blinken will hold talks with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the latter's family hometown of Hania Saturday, having visited Istanbul Friday.

The actions undertaken by Cypriot diplomacy have intensified recently, while the need to create a humanitarian corridor to deal with the dramatic situation in the Gaza Strip is being seriously discussed. The planned sea corridor, in which Cyprus seeks a central role, was the main issue discussed by Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos on his recent trip to Amman, Jordan and Ramallah.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Türkiye for two days from Sunday as part of a Middle East tour amid the Hamas-Israel war, the State Department said.

Blinken was meeting with Arab counterparts in the Jordanian capital Amman on Saturday after visiting Israel the day before.

The Israeli army reported night fighting and intense airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. Gaza City was previously declared under complete siege as part of the military operation against Hamas, which began after the October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,400 people.

According to the Palestinian side, the victims of the Israeli attacks exceed 9 thousand people.

Thirteen individuals, including Greeks and members of their families, were rescued and airlifted from Sudan on Wednesday, arriving in Amman, Jordan on German flights.

One of the rescued individuals was the Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of Nubia, Savvas.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced the evacuation of ten more Greeks from Sudan Tuesday.

The ten boarded German planes and have arrived in Amman, Jordan.