State Dept: Nothing In Netanyahu Speech Made Us 'More Or Less Concerned' About Reaching Peace Deal

3 months ago

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was asked about Netanyahu's speech before Congress.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00And what was your take on Netanyahu's speech to Congress yesterday? Did it leave you with

00:04any concerns about his willingness to reach a deal?

00:06I don't have any overall take on his speech. Obviously, we'd heard many of the things that

00:10he said publicly yesterday. We've heard him say before in press conferences. And having been to

00:15the region with the Secretary eight times, I have heard many of the things that he said publicly.

00:19I've heard him say privately in meetings that we have held with him. But no, there was nothing in

00:25the speech that made us any more or less concerned about our chances to reach a ceasefire deal.

00:34Israel has continued to commit to us that they want to reach a ceasefire,

00:38and they have continued to join negotiations with the U.S., with Egypt, with Qatar,

00:42to try to reach an agreement. And as always, we're going to judge them by the actions that

00:46they take, not necessarily what they say in public.

00:50Okay. And then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today said he has still not been able

00:54to see much from Israel about its day-after planning once the war with Hamas ends,

00:59saying there's not a lot of detail he's been able to see from a plan from them.

01:02What's the latest on this? And are you satisfied with the pace at which the

01:06Israelis are putting this plan together?

01:08So that's accurate. They have not put forward a great deal of detail about plans for the day

01:12after. But we have been having conversations with them about this. And they are in a different place

01:16than they were several months ago when they hadn't really thought about a day after at all.

01:20And you heard the Secretary talk about the dangers of Israel not planning for a day after

01:24and what it would mean for the future of Gaza and what a security threat it would pose to the state

01:31of Israel and the people of Israel since then. We have been engaged in conversations with them,

01:35as well as with our Arab partners. There are ideas that we have put forward. There are ideas

01:39that our Arab partners have put forward. And there have been some ideas that Israel has put forward,

01:44not fully developed yet, not fully to the place where I think you could call them a proposal.

01:49But we are at the point where we're talking with them and they're putting forward some ideas.

01:53And it is important that they take the matter seriously, just as it's important everyone

01:57take the matter seriously. Because as you have heard the Secretary say, in the absence of

02:03realistic plans for the day after the conflict, you will either have Israel occupying Gaza,

02:11which we reject, they have said they don't want to do. You will have Hamas in charge,

02:15which obviously is not in the interest of Israel and clearly is also not in the interest of the

02:18region. Or you'll have chaos and anarchy, which is a breeding ground for terrorism, will hurt the

02:26interests of the Palestinian people in Gaza, make it harder for them to get food and water and

02:30civilian assistance. It really is not in anyone's interest. So we're going to continue to push them

02:36to engage seriously on these plans because they're critical,

02:39not just to the future of the Palestinian people, but to the future of Israel as well.

State Dept: Nothing In Netanyahu Speech Made Us 'More Or Less Concerned' About Reaching Peace Deal

Category

Transcript

Recommended