Secretary Antony J. Blinken Remarks to the Press
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State
Tel Aviv, Israel
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good evening, everyone. I came back to Israel as a friend, and to have candid conversations, as friends do.
We focused on the hostage negotiations, as I did as well in my conversations with Egyptian colleagues and the Qatari foreign minister yesterday. I also had a chance to meet with the hostage families again, and it’s hard to describe what they’re going through every single day. We made progress in the last couple of weeks on the hostage negotiations, closing gaps, but almost by definition when you get down to the last items, they tend to be the hardest. So there’s still a lot of work to be done, hard work to be done, but we’re determined to try to get it done.
We also talked about the imperative of surging and sustaining humanitarian assistance for the people in Gaza. A hundred percent of the population of Gaza is acutely food insecure. A hundred percent is in need of humanitarian assistance. Now, there have been some positive steps taken in recent days to improve the situation, but it’s not enough, and we talked about what needs to happen to get much more assistance to many more people more effectively.
We also talked about Rafah. We share Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas, which is responsible for the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. And we share the goal of ensuring Israel’s long-term security. As we’ve said, though, a major military ground operation in Rafah is not the way to do it. It risks killing more civilians, it risks wreaking greater havoc with the provision of humanitarian assistance, it risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing.
So we’re looking forward to having Israeli officials in Washington next week to talk about a different way of achieving these objectives, objectives that we share, of defeating Hamas and ensuring Israel’s long-term security. It really requires an integrated humanitarian, military, and political plan. And as I said, we’ll be talking about that next week, going through the details of what we see as the best way forward.
We also had an opportunity to talk about the longer-term trajectory, what needs to happen once the conflict in Gaza is over – conversations that I had with our Arab partners over the last couple of days and that we had here in Israel as well. We’re determined that Israel succeed in making sure it can defend itself, that October 7th never happens again, that it emerge from this strong, secure, integrated in the region, with a future of security and peace not only for Israelis but for Palestinians and for our other friends in the region. And we believe there’s a path forward to do that. We’ll be continuing to work to flesh out that path and to try to walk down it in the days and weeks ahead.
MR MILLER: Humeyra.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Questions?
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thank you. Can you give us an update on the ceasefire talks in Doha? What is the latest that you’ve heard from the negotiators? And also today, Israel has announced a land seizure of 800 hectares in the occupied West Bank, just when you are doing your visit here. What are your thoughts? Thank you.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So on the – on the negotiations, I can’t give you any more details, other than to say that we’re intensely engaged in them, working with the Qataris, working with the Egyptians, working with Israel. And we have teams in Doha. And as I said, we’ve gotten it down to a few remaining gaps, but the closer you get to the goal line, the harder that last yard is. So there are some hard issues to work through, but we’re determined to do everything we can to get there and to get people home. And the negotiators will be working intensely to see if we can get that done.
I hadn’t seen the news you referred to. But look, you know our views on settlement expansion. You know our views on everything from demolitions to evictions to other steps, unilateral steps that are taken, that make the already challenging prospect of two states even more distant. So I haven’t seen the specifics of this, but anyone taking steps that makes things more difficult, more challenging in this time, is something that we would have a problem with.
QUESTION: Just one final clarification. When you say we have teams, you mean U.S. has teams on the ground in Doha today? And can you just confirm the negotiations have begun, like they’ve been continuing this today?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I can’t – it’s – it should be going forward if not immediately now, certainly in the hours ahead.
MR MILLER: Michael Crowley.
QUESTION: Thank you. Can you tell us in practical terms what the U.S. was trying to achieve with the resolution that was put forward at the United Nations today?
And then on your conversations today, you described in broad strokes some themes that are familiar. I wonder whether you delivered or heard any messages today that are new and different from your past conversations here.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So on the resolution, which got very strong support but then was cynically vetoed by Russia and China, I think we were trying to show the international community a sense of urgency about getting a ceasefire tied to the release of hostages – something that everyone, including the countries that vetoed the resolution, should have been able to get behind. The resolution, of course, also condemned Hamas. It’s unimaginable why countries wouldn’t be able to do that.
But I think the fact that we got such a strong vote despite the veto by two of the permanent members of the Security Council, again, is evidence and demonstration of the commitment, the conviction, of countries around the world and notably on the Security Council to see about getting the ceasefire, getting the release of hostages now. That’s what the resolution said. That’s what it called for. And I think that it showed a strong commitment to that from many, many countries.
With regard to the conversations we had, look, this is an ongoing process. As I said, we really were focused on three things: the hostage negotiations, humanitarian assistance, and Rafah. And it was important that, again, we focused on all three things. We – I can’t – I’m not going to get into the details of what we discussed, but I think from my perspective at least these were important, candid conversations to have at a critical time on all three of those issues.
QUESTION: Did you warn Israel that it will be isolated if it doesn’t change its path?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Again, what I shared and I think what they’ve heard from President Biden as well directly is we have the same goals – the defeat of Hamas, Israel’s long-term security – but a major ground operation in Rafah is not, in our judgment, the way to achieve it. And we’ve been very clear about that.
But most important, we have a senior team coming to Washington next week. We’ll all be taking part in those discussions. We’ll be able to lay out for them in detail – I started to do that today, but it’s important that the teams with all the expertise lay out in detail how those goals can best be accomplished with an integrated humanitarian, military, and political plan. We’ll put all that on the table. Of course, we’ll hear from them too, and we’ll take it to next week.
Thanks.
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