Transcripts For CSPAN State 20240703

The state Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller briefed reporters on the war ahead of secretary of state Antony Blinkens Upcoming Trip to israel. He takes questions about israels retaliation and the tone of the Israeli Government officials in response to the attacks by hamas. Both President Biden and secretary blinken have made it clear we stand ready to offer means of support to the government and the people of israel. The Security Assistance is on its way and will arrive in the coming days. The secretary has been working the phones with us foreign counterparts to ensure that anyone who was lines of communication with parties to israel should use the chow channels to say now is not the time to take advantage of the situation. The president has made that point clear, he has conveyed that point clearly and forcefully. It is one that secretary blinken has reiterated. Third the secretary has been focused on securing the release of all hostages held in gaza. There are countries that can deliver messages to hama. We have made it clear for hamas release all hostages immediately. Finally, i would like to announce that secretary blinken will be traveling to israel in the coming days to an and gauge our israeli partners about the situation on the ground and how we can continue to best support them in their fight against the terrorists will launch the horrific attacks. Our support for israel is unwavering. The secretary looks forward to meeting with senior leaders, and continue the discussions he and the president have been having with them since the initial one on saturday. In the coming days . Our expectation is that we will leave tomorrow and arrive in israel on thursday. Is he going to go anywhere else . I dont have any announcements to make. This is a trip where putting together, but we may have further announcements later this afternoon. So, Jake Sullivan at the white house said there are roughly 20 americans missing . Correct. The last number i had before coming out here was that there were 20 americans who remain unaccounted for. That is the number that has been moving around. You have one number and then some of the people who are unaccounted for unfortunately, you discover they are deceased. The number we are tracking is 20. And you have no idea of those 20 how many of them do their families believe that they are actually we dont have definitive information. It is likely there may be hostages who are u. S. Citizens held in gaza. Go ahead. Tell us something about what the secretarys message will be. It will be a message of solidarity, will he discuss the conflict and the maneuvers that israel is seeking. It will be a message of solidarity and support. He wants to hear from the leaders of israel. He wants to hear from them directly about the situation they are facing, about what they need, and how we can best support them, and to send a message to the government of israel, on the people that we are there to support them as they fight against these brutal terrorist attacks, at the talk about what additional assistance we can provide them. Can you talk a little bit about what engagement the state department has a trying to secure their release . I will not talk in more detail other than what i just said. The secretary has had around of calls. Youre probably seen them as we have been reading those calls out. He has delivered a message consistently with everyone in the region. If theres anything you can do to send a message to those who are holding, hostages, whether they be american citizens or others, you should send a message to hamas that they need to release the hostages immediately. What is the u. S. Telling the u. S. About a ground operation, given these u. S. Hostages . We understand israel was brutally attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself. It has a right to conduct operations to ensure the security of, its citizens the security of its nation. We are in communications with them about that. But those are decisions for israel to make. Do you have concerns that an operation would hamper any efforts to secure their release . Our point right now is that hamas ought to release all the hostages immediately. That is the effort we have been engaged in. I would not to speak like to speak beyond that. Engagements with hamas, are they being productive, are they acknowledging that they are Holding Americans right now . I will not speak to the details of those conversations. There are partners in the region playing a productive role and want to secure the release of hostages. In terms of details on those efforts i will not talk about them publicly. Who, from the u. S. , is leading those efforts . There are number of people in the u. S. Government. One, the secretary has been engaged in direct conversation with his counterparts. The u. S. Government is making available to israel, experts, and hostage negotiations, and recovery, including experts from the state department. I will not talk about those in detail. Those are private conversations. There are number of experts from across the government we will make available. There is public reporting that the talks involve a swab of women and children being held in hamas, being held in israeli jails. Can you comment on the contours, and if those negotiations are accurate . I will not talk about the conversations of those details other than we have made clear that hamas ought to release the prisoners immediately. That is our position, that is what we have advocated for. Separately, are there americans who are asking the state department to leave the region from israel or gaza . We have been in contact with a number of u. S. Citizens. A number who are longtime residents of israel, some who are dual citizens. Then there are americans who are there that are either visiting for business or tourism. We have been in contact with a number of americans through our embassy there. Some, who we have had to helps facilitate facilitate travel. The airport is still open. Flights are getting out of the airport in tel aviv. We have encouraged people to try to avail themselves of those options. We have been in conversations with various carriers to encourage them to consider resuming travel in and out of israel. Well continue doing that. I do have a few more on the region. A few generals have said there is no direct evidence linking iran to this hamas let attack. Is there any update on that . Can you elaborate on what the u. S. Would consider direct involvement by the iranians . We dont have information to suggest iran directed these attacks by hamas. Iran likely knew that hamas was Planning Operations against israel, but without the precise timing or scope of. What occurred. Iran has supported hamas with material and financial support. But we have not seen anything to suggest that they supported or were behind this attack. Ur experience our experience in these matters tell us it is premature to drawn conclusions. We will look at additional intelligence in the coming weeks and days to inform our thinking on this issue, including whether there was some in the iranian system what a clear sense of what was coming or contributed to aspects of the planning. If you allow me one more. The egyptians claimed to have issued warnings to the israelis, that was coming from gaza and hamas. Does the u. S. Have independent knowledge of those warnings being issued to israel or receiving them directly from the Egyptian Government . I will let israel speak to that. Go ahead. Direct knowledge, the timing of it, how much does it matter to the administration, given the materials, the military support, the millions of dollars being funneled in. I will say, first of all, i will not want to get ahead of what the assessment may find. We are in the early days, after these attacks. Our first focus has been on helping israel respond to these attacks, but we will examine all intelligence and collect new information, talk with our israeli partners about anything that they find. I will say, as we have made clear, is iran has supported hamas. Iran would not be what it would be today we without the material backing they have gone from iran. We do believe that iran, is at least complicit in these attacks, even if we dont have any evidence to show that they orchestrated them. Will there be any kind of response . I dont want to get into any specifics. I dont want to preview any actions. We have taken a number of action since the beginning of the administration to hold iran accountable for its malign activities, including its support for terrorism, including 400 sanctions we have imposed. Well take actions to hold iran accountable. I will not want to preview what those look like. Republicans about refreezing the 6 million in funds, to secure the release of the americans, is that under consideration . I think youre talking about the funds that come from iranian oil revenue, i have heard people say that could be used to fund malign activities. I want to give a clear response, if you would indulge me. Im going to read something here. Iran will have zero oil revenue to spend on any of these things. Let me say that again. Zero. 100 of the revenue iran receives from the sale of crude oil will be held in foreign accounts and can be used by iran only for humanitarian trade or bilateral trade in nonsanctioned goods and services. I will point out that is not a quote from anyone in this administration, but a quote from mike pompeo, delivered at the state department on november 2, 2018, when you establish the accounts that yielded this revenue that iran now has access to, with additional restrictions that we have imposed on them to ensure that they can only be used for humanitarian trade, not bilateral trade and nonsanctioned goods, only humanitarian purposes. We have ongoing mechanisms. With respect to what we may do in the future, we have an ability to freeze the funds. We have not made any decisions. It does not matter who said it. Whoever. Said it was wrong. If iran has a promise of money, they can use their own money that they have inside their own country knowing to do whatever with it. They can buy medicine, food, whatever, build a bridge they can do that. They know that they have 6 billion sitting right now. Whether secretary pompeo said it and said the money would only be used for that purpose, or whether you guys are saying yes, maybe that specific dollar without serial number or that euro with the serial number cannot be used to Fund Terrorism. The fact of the matter, you guys know this, it allows, it frees up money that iran has already inside its own country to use for other things, so they dont have to spend that money. On any nonsanctioned items. Let me say two things. The reason i read this quote as i have heard a fair bit of criticism about about this money, including from the person who said this in november 22. I thought it was fair to point out this money was first allowed to accrue into these accounts under the trump administration. You did there are number of people who have had a lot to say about this the last few days who conveniently forgot about that. Its important to remind the world. The second thing i will say, iran has always funded terrorism. They have always funded malign activities in the region. We have always taken action to hold them accountable. This money can only be used for humanitarian purpose, not assent has been spent a cent has been spent at this point. We have the ability to freeze it at any time. The criticism youre getting is this frees up money in iran that they can use for malign purposes, as you say. There is no evidence that that is accurate. We have seen so you say theres no evidence that iran has used the money over the course of the last month, month and a half, thence the money arrived since the money arrived in qatar to send to hamas, can he say that . Terrorism before the accounts were established during the trump administration, they funded terrorism after it was established in the trump administration, and they will no doubt the Fund Terrorism in the future, which is why we held them accountable. With respect to the money, it cannot be used for anything other than humanitarian purposes. We have strict oversight. If we see it being used for anything else we can shut it down immediately. Go ahead. Although the president does not call for string for the israelis call for the israelis to exercise restraint. The circulator to be upcoming, the ground invasion. The president mentioned israel had to abide by international law. Does that mean israel must end its cut off of water, electricity, food, and medicine to the people in gaza . I will say is the president made clear, israel has suffered from a brutal terrorist attack. Israel has the right to defend itself. It has a right to take action against the terrorists who launched this brutal attack and killed israeli civilians, american civilians, mothers, childrens, babies and kidnapped children. They are going to take action to respond to this terrorist attack and take action to secure their country. We support them. As the country president made clear, we encourage our allies and partners to act in strict accordance with international law. That is what democracies do. That is not what hamas did. Let me just finish. That is not what hamas in coming into israel and kidnapping and murdering innocent civilians. I understand. Hamas is a terrorist organization, they dont get the 4 billion from you, they dont have military aid in support. That is established. You are saying iran is a democracy, that up abides by international law. The cut off of water, electricity, and medicine, is considered a war crime. Do in the early days of israels response, israel had a right to conduct an aggressive response to the terrorism that has been committed against its citizens. We expect them to follow international law. We believe they will. We we will remain in close contact. They should not intentionally target civilians. Second, do you have any idea how many palestinians killed by israelis in the last few days . I have seen public reports. I am going to speak what to what the u. S. Government can verify. I will let israel speak to the number of Israeli Citizens it has killed. Has the president spoke about palestinian americans . I have no degree as to whether they are palestinian americans. I last question to you. The president said that hamas is motivated. Motivated totally by killing jews. Do you believe that is the case, that hamas soul motivation is to kill jews, no context, rate after rate . I am going to say, that is a bit of a surprising question, after what we saw hamas carry out this weekend. We hamas deliberately target Israeli Citizens, not just soldiers but women, children. We saw the images of hamas behaving in the most inhumane way possible. I think you. I have a question about the strike category dispatched to the area in the eastern matera mediterranean, now the second category may be on the way to israel. The question is, theres a number of question countries in the region trying to answer for. Is the u. S. Looking to get involved militarily, that could mean a catastrophe around regional conflict . We dont have any plans for military action at this moment. I will let the pentagon speak to this. As the president has made clear, he has ordered the pentagon to take these efforts to send a clear deterrent message to anyone who is considering entering this conflict, any entity who was hostile to israel to take note and to not take action. The connection between hamas and north korea, they have been engaging in arms training for some time. What are you concerned about with north koreas announcement of its support hamas of of hamas . We would be concerned about any country supporting hamas, whether financial, military. We do it first and foremost by giving israel what it needs to defend itself against the recent terrorist attack. The way we do it in this briefing room, you and i have had this conversation before, i call on people and they asked questions. Go ahead. Yesterday, secretary blinken related to his phone call with the prime minister, which included a cease fire. Was that the reason behind why she deleted the tweet . I am glad you asked the question, there has been misinformation. After the call with the foreign minister, we release the public readout that made it clear that the secretary had reiterated what we said publicly a number of times which is hamas should cease its violent activities against israel. The tweet did not capture that appropriately so we pulled that down. I have seen a lot of public conversation about this. You would have to be intentionally misunderstanding what our position is given the number of statements we have made about supporting israels right to defend itself, of supporting israel taking direct action against hamas. The secretary spoke to that publicly on sunday. The president has spoken to it forcefully. One more. A church or said its planning to take a mediator role in the ongoing palestinian and israeli tensions. What is the u. S. Offering . And what was discussed during the phone call . I will not speak to any potential mediation. With respect to the conversation that the secretary had. We released a readout about his conversation with the foreign minister. We made clear in the conversation as we have in all of our conversations that we will do anything we can to prevent parties from entering this conflict. Think you. I have two questions. One on hamas, and the other on syria. The iraqi officials and escalation including the leader of the iranian federal organization, he said that if the u. S. Will interfere [indiscernible chanting] the u. S. Will do whatever it can to defend itself. I will not speak to that. I will refer you to the pentagon. I have another question on syria. I have questions about iran. I know you are being specific about any u. S. Response to the complicity in these attacks what are you encouraging any of your partners to take action. Are you asking for countries to designate it as a terrorist organization who have not done so before we think other countries should say it is a terrorist organization. They finance terrorist activity. They have around the world for some time and we think other countries should take that step. Locks are you having specific conversations with your european learners, pushing them to make that move . I will not. We are going to continue to gather evidence and intelligence about it whether there was any direct involvement before taking any further steps. The european debate, they are talking about a freeze and development systems. Do you have any take on that . I believe they did reverse that. We have made it very clear that we do not have any grievance with the Palestinian People. As ive said on this podium we have supported steps to improve the livelihood, the did new it dignity of the Palestinian People. Excuse me. Excuse me. We supply humanitarian aid that goes directly to the Palestinian People to defend that benefits them. The secretary got into this over the weekend. There are two paths forward for the region, the path of stability and conflict and normalization of relations with israel. And then there is the path of death and destruction. It is hamas that favors that path. We dont have any quarrel with the Palestinian People. It is important to provide humanitarian aid that directly benefits them, not the terrorists who ultimately are going to be responsible for the loss of many palestinian lives. I am going to ask this is not this room is not a debate session it is questions and answers. Is the u. S. Reevaluating its alliance the support for hamas . I want to followup the question about u. S. Citizens. U. S. Citizens are having difficulty getting out of israel. A friend of mine, his wife and two of his friends are trying to get out. They have not heard back. Regarding going off of matt, the 6 billion, that money is fungible. I already answered the question about the money being fungible. I will repeat it again. But that is probably reductive. Give me the first question again. So with respect to cutter. The secretary is had conversations, we think they are playing a productive role and we will be partners of the u. S. We are asking of them to use any influence they have to keep any parties from coming into this conflict. The second question was . The second question is u. S. Citizens right. Look, we understand there are number of american citizens who want to leave israel and currently, it may be that there arent enough flights because some carriers have suspended travel. As i said, we have been in discussions with carriers urging them to consider whether they want to resume travel. There are still flights that are making it out of israel. Some flights, others operated by carriers in the region. We would encourage u. S. Citizens to try to take advantage of those flights. And if they do contact the embassy, we will seek to facilitate travel with any information that we have that can be helpful. Does the United States believe that the war between israel and hamas will be long . I am not going to speculate about the future. I had a question about think you, why has the Palestinian Authority of has not condemned the genocide of israel. What does that indicate . I will let every leader speak to themselves about why they make the statements they do. We have been clear about the horrific Violent Attacks that were committed against israel this weekend. Made clear what the u. S. s position is on this. Secondly, how is the Palestinian Authoritys official policy any different than what hamas did on october 7 . We oppose a policy and with respect to the aid we provide humanitarian organizations to the region, we comply with the act may prevent any u. S. Funds that aid in that regard. I dont have any evidence of that to speak to. Can you speak to figure out why everyone was blindsided . There will be a time to look at those questions about intelligence. The Israeli Government will take that seriously. I believe their focus is responding to these attacks. Our focus is helping support them, as they respond to those attacks and giving them the Security Assistance they need to do so effectively. Thats our focus now. There will be a time to answer those questions. If i may add, iran knew this was coming. At one point is a government open to reconsidering the course of action . Dont know what you mean by reverse course on iran . We imposed 400 sanctions on iran at the beginning of the administration because we have seen their support for terrorism. We have seen how the added conflict and instability to the region. Well continue to hold them accountable. You have warned embassies to not take advantage of the situation. Russia, president zelenskyy is saying that [indiscernible] do you agree with him . Is the country an example of is that ok in your book . Do you approve of that . I will say with respect to the first question, that the president was quite clear o n saturday when he spoke to this. He was clear when he spoke to this question earlier today. No one, in israel, should look to this moment to take advantage of the current conflict. I dont have anything to add to that question. With respect to the second question, as i said, it is hamas who launched these terrorist attacks against israel. Its hamas who brutalized Israeli Citizens. Israel has every right to respond forcefully to these attacks. It is what any country would do if they saw children being dragged away as hostages. If they saw children being slaughtered, if they saw people at a Music Festival being gunned down. Any country would respond forcefully. We were support support israels right to do that. They need to defend their country. Go ahead. Hamas told bbc that the group had direct we have seen those quotes, we dont have an independent information to verify. What will be the reaction . I will not speak to hypotheticals. The message was delivered clearly from the president , that no entity hostile should enter this conflict. The condemned finance ministers calling for wiping the palestinian village off the map, this week we heard the defense minister of israel declare he is fighting human animals in gaza, as israel cuts the gas, water and electricity. You have heard netanyahu declare that all hiding places will be turned to rubble on the enclave where are there where there are one million children. We have heard from the crude party, ask for 2. 0, a call for genocide and the ethnic cleansing of palestinians. You think of that rhetoric in light of your what do you think of that rhetoric in light of your condemnation . Number one, we expect that israel will conduct its operations according in accordance with international law. Number two there will be statements made over the course of the conflict. When we have disagreements we will make those known privately. Number three let me just speak number three, some of the questions im getting today, seem to ignore the fact that israel just had hundreds of its citizens killed, people who were taken hostage, and pretend that israel should not be able to conduct any kind of the genocide rhetoric 80 palestinian children have been killed, can you acknowledge that . Let me finish. Again babies you asked the question, let me answer. I will answer the previous question that was interrupted. Some of the questions seem to pretend that israel should not be able to conduct operations to defend itself and hold accountable the terrorists who killed civilians, that is not israels policy, that is not our policy, that is something that we vehemently disagree with. Israel has the right to secure his country the right the way any country does, to defend itself against terrorism, the whole terrorists accountable. I will say, ultimately, the Hamas Terrorists who launch these operations, there is no one who has more disregard for palestinian civilian life than those terrorists. Let me finish. Those terrorist launched this activity. Again. We have a lot of new people. Those terrorists launch this activity knowing there would be retaliation, knowing israel would have to defend itself, knowing that it would lead to the unfortunate loss of civilian life by palestinians and they did anyway. Go ahead. So baby killing is ok here . We always mourn the loss of civilian life. Its an unfortunate circumstance, every time it happens. As i said, the Hamas Terrorists who launched this terrorist attack knowing it would produce the loss of not just direct israeli lives, who they took in their incursions across the border, but also the loss of palestinian civilian lives. They ultimately they bear responsibility for those actions. Go ahead. Im going to i just i just did do that. Im going to i would ask you not to talk over colleagues. I just did. Go ahead. There was a bit of talking over you, go again. The latest u. S. Assessment on saudis position on the potential deal with israel, especially after the secretary spoke with his counterpart in saudi, where we are at . The secretary did speak somewhat on sunday when he was asked about it on the morning show. The point he made was very simple. There are opponents in the region of normalization. Hamas is important to normalization, hezbollah, iran, they seek to prevent normalization through these terrorist attacks. We believe that normalization between relations not just between israel and saudi arabia, but between israel and other countries in the region would help bring stability, peace, prosperity to the region. Its a path we will continue to pursue. The other path is the one outlined by hamas, which is death and destruction, it is the goal of watching these terrorist attacks. We will continue to pursue further normalization, which we believe brings stability to the region. Go ahead. Again i would ask you to stop putting words in my mouth. One quick question. It was very much appreciated by many countries. Has that been put on the back burner side . It continues to be our policy. Well continue to support it. The second one is, we had a lot of in pakistan, the u. S. Could have taken many actions against them. In my city, in one school we had 120 kids being slaughtered. More than several blasts of more than 100 people being dead. The u. S. Did not do Something Like that in afghanistan to settle things. Dont you think because of the u. S. Not condemning these things , the humanitarian impression around the world it should be little we always condemn acts of terrorism, anywhere they occur in the world. As you and i have discussed, we met recently with our pakistani counterparts to discuss how we can cruise our increase our terrorism cooperation. Antiterrorism cooperation. Today an article was published about the u. S. Interfering with these issues. That is absolutely not true. Our only goal in the south caucuses i n the relationship between armenia, is to ensure a lasting peace and stability and to ensure the humanitarian needs and rights of the people. [indiscernible] any details about that . I would refer you to the embassy for any further details on that question. I dont have specific readouts of a special envoy. Go ahead. A question on syria, in 72 hours, the attack, including the civilian structure, there are a lot of civilians as well, do you condemn the attacks of the turkish on syria . The u. S. Remains concerned about military activity in northern syria, the impact on the civilian population and infrastructure, and the impact on our operations to defeat isis. Our position has not changed. We call for deescalation of violence. It is crucial for all sides to maintain and respect cease fire zones and deescalate violent activity and work towards a political solution to the conflict. With that, we will wrap for the day. Thanks everyone. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more including charter communication. Charter is proud to be recognized as one of the proudest internet providers. Building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. 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