UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary Di Carlo. (Source: UN)

According to information on the official website of the United Nations, speaking at the meeting, UN Deputy Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary Di Carlo said that the United Nations is witnessing extremely worrying developments and increasing tensions in the Middle East.

According to her, all parties involved in the conflict in Gaza need to refrain from statements and actions that escalate the situation, and welcome the initiative of Egypt, Qatar and the US to bring the parties towards a ceasefire, release hostages and facilitate access to humanitarian aid.

Speaking at the meeting, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Fu Tong said Beijing urged Washington to actively influence Israel and persuade it to stop killing civilians in the Gaza Strip.

For his part, Deputy Head of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy said that the Security Council should consider solutions that could help ease tensions in the Gaza Strip, including the option of conducting a joint inspection trip to this territory.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington's overarching goal in the Middle East is to "de-escalate", prevent any future attacks and avoid regional conflicts.

That goal, Washington says, should start with an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip.

In a development related to the situation in the Middle East, Reuters news agency on August 13 quoted three senior Iranian officials as saying that Tehran would withdraw its plan to retaliate against Israel if the country and the Hamas movement reached a ceasefire agreement by the end of the week.

One of the sources said Iran, along with allies such as Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, would launch a direct attack if ceasefire and hostage-release talks between Israel and Hamas failed or if they perceived Israel was dragging its feet on negotiations.

The sources did not specify how long Iran would allow talks to take place before taking action.

Iran has engaged in extensive talks with Western countries and the United States in recent days about tailoring its retaliation, officials said, following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah's No. 2 Fuad Shoukr.