MAY 19, 2024 Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meetings in Saudi Arabia and Israel

 MAY 19, 2024

Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Meetings in Saudi Arabia and Israel

Today in Jerusalem, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi, Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, and convened a modified U.S.-Israel Strategic Consultative Group (SCG) meeting to discuss the war in Gaza, including ongoing diplomacy to secure the release of all the hostages and our shared objective for the enduring defeat of Hamas. 

Mr. Sullivan arrived in Israel from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, where he held constructive meetings with the Crown Prince and Prime Minster of Saudi Arabia Mohamed bin Salman focused on a comprehensive vision for an integrated Middle East region. Mr. Sullivan briefed Prime Minister Netanyahu and his team on these meetings and the potential that may now be available for Israel, as well as the Palestinian people.

In Israel, during the modified SCG, Mr. Sullivan was briefed on Israeli military operations in Gaza, and the two sides discussed methods to ensure the defeat of Hamas while minimizing harm to civilians. Mr. Sullivan reiterated the President’s longstanding position on Rafah.

Mr. Sullivan proposed a series of concrete measures to ensure more aid surges into Gaza, including through all available crossings, and through the multinational humanitarian maritime corridor.  Mr. Sullivan and his counterparts also discussed steps to build a more effective deconfliction mechanism to ensure humanitarian workers can safely deliver aid to those in need and establish fixed corridors inside Gaza to ensure aid is able to reach all those in need throughout Gaza. 

Mr. Sullivan briefed on U.S. support for Israeli efforts to find and bring to justice Hamas’s leaders in Gaza, as well as discussions with Egypt to fully secure its border with Rafah and to secure the continued flow of humanitarian assistance through Kerem Shalom, even as talks proceed on reopening the Rafah crossing.  Mr. Sullivan reaffirmed the need for Israel to connect its military operations to a political strategy that can ensure the lasting defeat of Hamas, the release of all the hostages, and a better future for Gaza.

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