During a press conference on Wednesday, State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked by a reporter about President Trump's request that the Lebanese government disarm Hezbollah.
00:00What's your name, sir? Joseph. Joseph. Hi there. Welcome aboard. Thank you. I wanted to ask on Gaza if you have any updates to provide on ceasefire talks or progress on that.
00:13Yes, we do. We we there's still negotiations. I'm not going to get into the details of what those are.
00:22And of course, last week, you'll recall that Secretary Rubio said that we are hopeful. He says, I mean, in the end, we're hoping they'll move to proximity talks.
00:32So obviously, it's a negotiating process that is underway and ongoing.
00:37He said it appears that generally the terms have been agreed to.
00:41But obviously, now you need to have talks about how to implement those terms.
00:46He noted, I should say now President Trump has noted that we want to have a ceasefire.
00:52He's noted that many times. We have to have peace.
00:55We want to get the hostages back and warned Hamas that it will only get worse if they don't agree to this arrangement.
01:03I mean, on Lebanon, Ambassador Barack was recently there and receiving a response to proposals and roadmaps for that country to disarm Hezbollah and implement certain reforms.
01:18Can you talk about any of the demands or asks that he made of the Lebanese government, specifically as it pertains to Hezbollah's weapons?
01:28Was there a timeline given?
01:31Has he warned that U.S. support could be withdrawn or reduced if the Lebanese government doesn't make any progress?
01:39Well, as you'll learn, if we see, we'll see you hopefully on occasion here, is that I won't speak about the nature of the specifics of what happens in a negotiation, what is asked for, what those conversations are.
01:50We do know, of course, that the ambassador and as, of course, our special envoy also has been very open about the fact that, and this was last week,
02:00that he was happy with the nature of the conversations and the commitment to disarm Hezbollah.
02:08I can also note on the same sort of issue when it comes to money that supports Hezbollah.
02:17The ambassador, Ambassador Barack, stated that stopping the flow of Hezbollah's finances, including through Al-Qaard al-Hassan, is a USA priority.
02:27We welcome Lebanon's recent efforts in that regard as well as a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done.
02:35The Lebanese government must abandon the pretense that Al-Qaard al-Hassan is an NGO under Lebanese law rather than what it is,
02:44which is a financial institution used by Hezbollah to subvert international sanctions regimes and undermine Lebanon's formal economy.
