US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday called Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani saying that Washington desires for Baghdad to play a role in preventing escalation in the region.

Blinken’s call comes as the world is anticipating an Iranian attack on Israel in response to the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital last week.

The US Secretary of State expressed Washington’s desire for Iraq to “play a stabilizing role in the region, and to prevent escalation from different parties as a continuation of Iraq's efforts to support regional stability and peace,” read a statement from Sudani’s office.

According to the statement, Sudani told Blinken “the prevention of escalation in the region depends only on stopping the aggression against Gaza, and from its expansion into Lebanon.”

He added that peace in the region is contingent on Israel “being prevented from from attacking the countries of the region, and ending the repeated violations of international law and the sovereignty of states.”

Since Haniyeh's assassination, Iran has vowed a strong response, claiming that they are now committed to defend their honor as Haniyeh was a guest in their country.

Sources from pro-Iran Iraqi factions on Saturday told The New Region that that the response to Haniyeh’s assassination will be conducted by Iranian, Iraqi, Yemeni, Lebanese, Syrian, and Jordanian armed factions.

“The response will target Israel exclusively and will affect both its naval and ground interests,” a commander said, adding that despite the involvement of Iraqi factions, no attack will be conducted from Iraqi territory.

Haniyeh, who was attending a ceremony to celebrate the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was assassinated in Tehran on Wednesday in a bombing that targeted his residence north of Tehran. Iran said Israel assassinated Haniyeh with a remotely fired missile.

Iranian authorities have yet to reveal the results of an extensive investigation into the source of the attack on Haniyeh, Iraqi sources close to the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told The New Region.

"The response (to Haniyeh's assassination) is inevitable and legit," the commander said. "The planned attack will be on the heart of Israel and at sea, and will be larger than anyone expected."