State Department Official: US Will Not Be In Attendance At UN Two-State Solution Conference

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During a State Department press briefing on Thursday, Deputy Principal Spokesperson Tommy Pigott confirmed that the United States would not attend the two-state solution conference at the United Nations.

Transcript

00:00The United Nations Security Council yesterday, the U.S. was isolated in its position when

00:07it comes to the humanitarian situation in Gaza's support for the GHF. We've had the

00:12U.K. Prime Minister in the last hour saying the situation in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible.

00:17We've had more than 100 humanitarian aid agencies saying that this system is creating the conditions

00:25of starvation. You have desperate Israeli hostage families who have been for weeks pleading

00:31with the Prime Minister of their country to do this deal. The U.S. is the only power

00:36that has the leverage and the pressure to try and make that happen from the Israeli side.

00:42There is clearly a gap between Israel and Hamas. It's been there for a long time. And there

00:46are Israeli families who will say that this is quibbling over a few metres of territory

00:50in Gaza. This is quibbling over the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released.

00:55And the U.S. could put the pressure on to move these two sides closer together. And I

01:00just, can you help us understand why at this moment, when you see the conditions on the

01:06ground in Gaza, with now mass starvation, the U.S. is deciding this is the moment to walk

01:10away from these talks?

01:12This is not a question of what the United States is doing. It's a question of what Hamas has

01:16done. This is a response to what Hamas has done continually.

01:18But that's not actually the position of many of the Israeli hostage families have-

01:21Israel has long accepted the deal on the table, and Hamas has long rejected it. I mean, this

01:25is about, it's never about been our commitment to a ceasefire. That's never been the question

01:29here. We have engaged in good faith to try to achieve a ceasefire. The question has always

01:33been with Hamas. That is where the question has been. That is where it remains. And the

01:37response we just saw from Special Envoy Wyckoff is reflective of that. The question is with

01:42Hamas, not with the United States.

01:44Sorry, just in terms, the statement says you'll now consider alternative options. I

01:49mean, to bring the hostages home, what possible alternative options can there be? Israel has

01:55tried rescues, Gaza is reduced to rubble, the population is starving. So, I mean, if you

02:01could help us understand what that statement could possibly be referring to.

02:03I'm not going to speculate more on terms of what his statement. His statement stands for

02:07itself at this time. If we have more to announce, we will announce it.

02:10And just, sorry, just one, can I just, just one other thing I wanted to ask about the

02:13Two-State Solution Conference next week. I know the U.S. had said previously when it

02:17was postponed that it opposed countries going to this conference in New York. Do you have

02:23a position on it this time?

02:24MR. Nothing further beyond saying that we will not be in attendance of that conference.

02:28Yes.

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