Sen. Angus King of Maine said the ongoing conflict in Gaza is fueling instability across the Middle East and warned that a U.S. retreat from the region could empower adversaries and derail fragile diplomatic progress.
During an eight-day trip to Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey that concluded last week, King witnessed how the Israel-Hamas war is stoking public anger and straining regional alliances. After meeting with a king, three prime ministers and three presidents, King called for sustained U.S. engagement, saying a resolution to the conflict is critical to restoring stability and advancing diplomacy.
“It is impeding the ability of Israel to normalize with these other countries because they all have to pay attention to the public opinion,” King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said Wednesday during a briefing with reporters. “A resolution of that conflict would substantially improve Israel’s prospects in the region.”
On Tuesday, at least 27 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire near an aid distribution site in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials and witnesses. It was the third such incident in three days. The Israeli military said troops fired “near a few individual suspects” who had strayed from a designated aid route, approached soldiers and ignored warning shots.
The shootings have followed the creation of aid distribution points inside Israeli military zones, a system backed by both Israel and the U.S. as a way to bypass Hamas. The United Nations, however, has rejected the new approach, saying it violates humanitarian principles.
King noted that while the violence has not directly spread to neighboring countries, it is fueling widespread public anger, particularly in Jordan, which has a large Palestinian population and growing support for Hamas. In Lebanon, officials are working to disarm Hezbollah along the southern border, but King said progress has stalled due to failure to fully comply with a border agreement reached last fall.
“Both sides would say it’s because of the other side,” the senator said of Israel and Lebanon. “But one of the principal things we heard in Lebanon was that Israel has held onto five hilltops – they call it the five points – that are within Lebanese territory, as strategic locations of Israeli force.”
The war in Gaza began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and saw around 250 others taken hostage. Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
King has been critical of Republican lawmakers for standing by as President Donald Trump pushes sweeping federal spending cuts and attempts to shrink the government workforce without congressional approval.
AID CUTS CREATING VOID
He has also condemned Trump’s foreign policy, particularly the rollback of U.S. foreign aid, warning that cuts to the State Department and assistance programs, or any reduction in military presence, could create a vacuum for Iran, Russia or China to exploit. During his trip to the Middle East, King said many regional leaders expressed concern over a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and rising instability in Iraq, where U.S. troop withdrawals come amid a renewed threat from ISIS.
“Everybody that we talked to was very receptive and indeed anxious to have continued U.S. engagement,” said King, who was joined on the trip by Sen. James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma. Both are members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “My concern, that I observed, was we’re diminishing our presence at a time when our presence is important.”
Iraq, which relies heavily on Iran for electricity, is now seeking to develop its own energy resources to reduce that dependency. Government officials told King they are eager to attract American investment to support that effort.
Meanwhile, Jordan is grappling with a severe water crisis. King said a key U.S.-funded desalination plant, vital to the country’s water supply, remains in limbo due to recent foreign aid cuts.
“The decision to abandon the various programs in those countries is a huge geopolitical mistake,” he said. “It would be a mistake for us to withdraw from the region at a time of change and at a time when events seem to be moving in our direction.”
