Some U.S. foreign policy experts believe that Mr. Campbell’s move to the State Department will help maintain momentum for some of Mr. Biden’s initiatives in the Indo Pacific. File
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U.S. President Joe Biden, on Wednesday, announced that he had nominated his Indo-Pacific policy chief Kurt Campbell for the Deputy Secretary of State position. The announcement, which was expected, will give Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team a renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific region in the face of competing strategic imperatives, such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in West Asia.

Mr. Campbell is the architect of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy and a strong proponent of the India-U.S. relationship, which he called “the most important bilateral relationship for the U.S.” in this century. Some U.S. foreign policy experts believe that Mr. Campbell’s move to the State Department will help maintain momentum for some of Mr. Biden’s initiatives in the Indo Pacific.

“As President Biden moves toward election campaign mode, he is likely to travel less to the Indo-Pacific region or embark on major new initiatives. The Biden administration has already made major moves in Asia,” said Lisa Curtis, who leads the Indo-Pacific program at the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS) and was the former senior director for South and Central Asia in the Trump administration’s National Security Council. Ms. Curtis cited initiatives like AUKUS – an Australia, U.K. and U.S. security partnership – Mr. Biden’s promotion of the Quad, and the first-ever trilateral summit between the U.S., Japan, and Korea trilateral summit.

“The focus in Asia next year will be to maintain the momentum of these initiatives and to carry through their implementation, and Kurt can do that from the State Department,” Ms. Curtis told The Hindu. Mr. Campbell, a long-time Asia and Pacific expert, has worked at the State Department before, where he was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2009-2013.

Mr. Blinken is expected to step down from his role after completing his term in January 2025. It is rare for a U.S. President to appoint someone as Secretary of State for more than four years.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday that the United States expects the Israel-Hamas war to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran, and they asserted that the Biden administration is prepared to respond if American personnel or armed forces become the target of any such hostilities.

“This is not what we want, not what we’re looking for. We don’t want escalation,” Mr. Blinken said. “We don’t want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we’re ready for it.”

Mr. Austin, echoing Mr. Blinken, said “what we’re seeing is a prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region.”

Israel-Hamas war, Day 17 LIVE updates

He said the U.S. has the right to self-defence “and we won’t hesitate to take the appropriate action.”

The warning from the high-ranking U.S. officials came as Israel’s military response to a deadly October 7 attack by Hamas on civilians in communities in southern Israel entered its third week.

Israeli warplanes struck targets across Gaza overnight and into Sunday, as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants as the war threatened to engulf more of the Middle East.

Israel has traded fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group on a near-daily basis since the war began, and tensions are soaring in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have battled militants in refugee camps and carried out two airstrikes in recent days.

The U.S. announced Sunday that non-essential staff at its embassy in Iraq should leave the country.

Mr. Blinken, who recently spent several days in the region, spoke of a “likelihood of escalation” while saying no one wants to see a second or third front to the hostilities between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza.

The secretary said he expects “escalation by Iranian proxies directed against our forces, directed against our personnel,” and added: “We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people and respond decisively if we need to.” Iran is an enemy of Israel.

Mr. Blinken, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” noted that additional military assets had been deployed to the region, including two aircraft carrier battle groups, “not to provoke, but to deter, to make clear that if anyone tries to do anything, we’re there.”

President Joe Biden, repeatedly has used one word to warn Israel’s enemies against trying to take advantage of the situation: “Don’t.”

Meanwhile, trucks loaded with food, water and other supplies that Palestinians living in Gaza desperately need continued to enter the enclave on Sunday after a key crossing at the border with Egypt was opened a day earlier to allow humanitarian assistance to begin flowing.

But Cindy McCain, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, said the situation in Gaza remained “catastrophic.” She said even more aid needs to be allowed in.

She said her organisation was able to feed 200,000 people dinner on Saturday “but that’s not enough. That’s a drop. We need secure and sustainable access in there, in that region, so we can feed people.”

Four hundred aid trucks were entering Gaza daily before the latest war, she said.

“This is a catastrophe happening and we just simply have to get these trucks in,” she said.

Mr. Biden, who was at his home on the Delaware coast, was briefed by his national security team on the latest developments, the White House said. Biden also discussed the situation during separate conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu talked about “the need to prevent escalation in the region and to work toward a durable peace in the Middle East,” the White House said. Israel has promised a military ground invasion of Gaza to destroy Hamas.

Mr. Biden also convened a call with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom to discuss the conflict. Among topics discussed, the White House said the leaders committed to working closely to keep the war from spreading, while seeking a political solution.

The State Department on Sunday ordered non-essential U.S. diplomats and their families at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and the U.S. consulate in Irbil to leave the country due to the heightened tensions. In an updated message to Americans in Iraq, the department said the security situation in Iraq made it impossible to carry out normal operations.

Austin and McCain spoke on ABC’s “This Week.”