White House 'welcomes' Israel's participation in new ceasefire talks, urges hostage deal

The White House on Friday said it “welcomes” Israel’s decision to send another team of negotiators to Doha with National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby calling the move “a good step.”

Kirby, in his first call of the year with reporters, indicated the White House has no plans yet to send National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan or Middle East envoy Brett McGurk back to the region for this new round of talks, but that President Biden “has made clear his national security team will be a participant all the way to the very end.”

“We’re going to be doing everything we can to see if we can broker a new ceasefire deal again that will get the hostages home,” Kirby said. “So I don’t have any breakthroughs to speak to today or announcements to make about participation physically, but I can tell you that we’re definitely going to stay focused on this.”

Kirby deflected a question to the IDF on why Israel hasn’t decreased its strikes on civilians in Gaza if Hamas’ capabilities have been downgraded and their allies defeated.

DEMONSTRATORS IN Tel Aviv call for the release of the hostages last Saturday night. To the families of the hostages and those who continue to bear the scars of loss and displacement – we see you, we stand with you, and we will continue to fight for your justice and peace, the writer asserts. (credit: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Destroying Hamas

There’s no question that Israel has caused significant damage to Hamas’ military capabilities and abilities to resource and operate, he said, adding Hamas still exists as a viable threat with fighters and infrastructure.

“Hamas still has some abilities, and I’ll let the Israelis speak to the actions they’ve taken to mitigate the threat that Hamas poses,” Kirby said. “What I would prefer to talk about today is the opportunity that Hamas has right now to sign on to a new hostage deal.”

Kirby repeated the White House’s position that Hamas started this war putting its own people in the current position, and could easily end the suffering by signing the deal.

Commenting on the recent US strikes in Yemen, Kirby said as long as the Houthis continue to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Israel, “we are going to continue to take actions to degrade their capabilities”

“It’s really that simple,” he added.