The world is safer after Israel's killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, a top U.S. diplomat said Monday, describing the group's leader as a "brutal terrorist."

"The region, the world are safer without him," Antony Blinken said, even as he insisted that "diplomacy remains the best and only path to achieving greater stability in the Middle East" and vowed the United States would continue working "urgently" to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.