White House national security spokesman John Kirby has regarded Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “major obstacle” to reaching a ceasefire agreement in recent weeks.
During his appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Kirby reacted to a Wall Street Journal report that senior U.S. officials who have been hoping for a ceasefire and hostage release deal for months no longer expect Israel and Hamas to reach a deal before the end of President Biden’s term. The report quoted administration officials as saying that Hamas makes demands and “then refuses to say ‘yes’ after the U.S. and Israel agree to them.”
“It’s very clear to us that Mr. Sinwar remains the biggest obstacle to getting this deal done. And it’s certainly the case that he has done nothing in recent weeks that would demonstrate that he’s willing to pursue this deal in a good faith way. He’s the biggest obstacle, there’s no doubt about that,” Kirby said Sunday. “It’s very, very difficult to get him to say yes to things that he’s already said he wants. So it’s very, very difficult.”
“But as the president said the other day, everything is unrealistic until all of a sudden it doesn’t happen anymore. And we’re going to keep trying at it,” Kirby said. “And the idea that we’re just throwing up our hands and saying, ‘Well, it’s not going to happen before the end of the term,’ I can tell you the president is not in that place. That’s not where Jake Sullivan or Tony Blinken are. We still believe there’s a possibility of moving this forward, and we’re going to keep trying. It takes effort to get those hostages back home. We’re not going to give up on it.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during a daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Kirby reiterated the administration’s position that Israel has a right to defend itself, but acknowledged that some criticism of Israel’s handling of the conflict has also come from the Biden administration.
“They have every right to defend themselves. And we’re still providing them with the tools and capabilities to do that. But how they do it matters,” Kirby said. “President Biden has said so, Vice President Harris has said so to our Israeli counterparts. They need to do it as precisely and as discreetly as possible to avoid harm to civilian infrastructure and more importantly to civilian life. So that matters a lot to us.”
“Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream also asked Kirby to respond to his death. Hezbollah Commander Ibrahim AqeelWho were killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday.
Bream points to criticism of Trump administration Secretary of State Mike PompeoWho suggested to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that he was not grateful enough to Israel for taking out the man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans during the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, expressing fear of escalating the situation to Israeli officials after the attack.
A poster depicting Yahya Sinwar, the new political head of Hamas, in the Iranian capital Tehran on August 13, 2024. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Hezbollah identifies second top commander killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon
“Nobody, including Secretary Austin, is shedding tears over the death of Mr. Aqil, who has American blood on his hands. I think it’s better for the world that he’s no longer walking the planet. But that doesn’t mean we want to see an all-out war. Again, we don’t believe that’s in the best interests of the Israeli people,” Kirby said.
Aqeel was one of the Lebanon-based militant group’s top military officers, in charge of its elite forces, and had been on Washington’s wanted list for years.
Friday’s attack came at a time when the group has not yet recovered from an assault on Hezbollah’s communications installations last week. Thousands of pagers exploded simultaneouslyAccording to Hezbollah officials, the attack killed 12 people, most of them Hezbollah members, and injured thousands. Israel is suspected of being behind the attack, but it has not claimed responsibility.
Israeli security and rescue forces work at a site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
As Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel since October 2023, Kirby said the US has been “engaging in intense diplomacy here for months to try to prevent an escalation of the conflict.” Blue Line with Lebanon,
“We continue to believe that strong efforts must be made to work on this diplomacy and to stop this escalation and stabilize the situation,” Kirby said.
Kirby also defended the Biden administration’s approach to Iran, despite criticism from Republicans.
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“Iran is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world,” Kirby said. “And that’s partly, really largely, a result of what President Biden has done. There are six hundred sanctions in this administration alone, 60 sanctions regimes. So I don’t buy the argument that we somehow turned a blind eye and just gave them cash.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
