'What Is Meant By That?': State Department Spokesperson Pressed On Witkoff 'Alternative Options' In Gaza Statement

Forbes Breaking News

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott was asked about U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff's statement upon withdrawing from Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha, Qatar.

Transcript

00:00Just to clarify, now when the envoy says we will consider alternative options to free

00:08the hostages and so on, what is meant by that? Because we have seen that only through negotiations

00:15were the hostages released in the past. So what other alternatives the U.S. could be thinking

00:22about? Well, I refer you to my previous response. I'm not going to expand upon what the special

00:27on the way I said. Okay, so one other thing. You also say that Hamas has broken the ceasefire.

00:33It was, in fact, the Israeli prime minister who broke the ceasefire on the 18th of March,

00:40this past March and so on. And I said, at least from what we hear by the interlocutors and so on,

00:48that Hamas has been more than willing to get submitted many concessions and so on. So what

00:53is required of Hamas so the ceasefire can take effect as far as the United States is concerned?

01:00Well, look, there has been conversations on this. I will not go into details of what those private

01:04diplomatic conversations have been. But what I can say is it is clear now from our perspective

01:08that Hamas does not appear to be coordinated nor acting in good faith. We have approached these

01:13conversations with good faith, as has been evident by our comments from this podium and other places.

01:17And it is clear now that Hamas has not been acting that way.

01:21And lastly, just lastly, according to news reports and so on, the sticking point was actually

01:30the actual entry of aid to Gaza. They apparently did not agree on that. Is that really what drove,

01:39finally, or what forced the United States team to pull out? Or because they want to maintain

01:46this GHF method of allowing aid into Gaza?

01:50Look, what I can say is what spokesperson Bruce spoke to just on Tuesday, that discussions of the

01:55humanitarian situation in Gaza were part of this. And our effort was to try to get those humanitarian

01:59corridors in there. That has been a clear effort by this administration, as spokesperson Bruce described.

02:06And again, to reiterate, we are seeing aid being delivered despite the actions of Hamas here. And

02:12those 90 million meals are to be applauded in terms of that effort. Of course, it will never be

02:17enough until we see an end to this conflict. But the entity that is standing in the way of ending

02:22this conflict is Hamas. They can release the hostages, lay down their arms, as we have said

02:26repeatedly. It is Hamas that is preventing an end to this conflict. Yes.

02:31.

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