Sec. Austin Responds To Netanyahu Calls For U.S. To ‘Fast Track’ Weapons Shipments To Israel

4 months ago

During a press briefing on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin delivered remarks on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks to Congress.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Again, we do have limited time,

00:01so I appreciate your limiting your follow-ups.

00:03Let's go to Al Arbiya, Joseph.

00:06Mr. Secretary, just to follow up on Prime Minister Netanyahu's

00:10comments yesterday, that he said that he wanted to fast-track,

00:14he wanted U.S. weapons fast-tracked.

00:16He said that this would lead to a quicker end

00:18to the war in Gaza.

00:20Your former top official, who departed just in January

00:23on Middle East policy, said that the faster delivery

00:26of U.S. weapons is or will not enable

00:28a faster end to the war.

00:30There's no end to the war if the ends are total victory

00:32or only defined in military terms.

00:34Can you say whether you agree with that assessment or not?

00:37And General, I wanted to ask about the Houthis again.

00:41There's been some criticism in recent days and weeks

00:44from U.S. military officials,

00:46including from the CENTCOM commander,

00:48about the U.S.-led mission to counter the Houthis,

00:53that maybe the current mission is not succeeding.

00:57Can you talk about any recommendations that you've made

00:59that the administration has not heeded or listened to,

01:02or what more could be done other than,

01:04you mentioned more than just military operations

01:07or related matters.

01:09What else could be done specifically?

01:11Thanks for the question.

01:15Regarding the speed of delivery

01:17of security assistance to Israel,

01:21we have provided security assistance to Israel

01:25at record pace.

01:27And we've done that from the very beginning.

01:29We're able to do that because we learned a lot of lessons

01:32from our efforts to provide security assistance to Ukraine.

01:36And you saw what happened initially.

01:41This conflict, well, the Israelis were attacked.

01:45A couple of days later,

01:47we had security assistance flowing in on the airfield there

01:52to our allies there in Israel.

01:56We have sustained that throughout.

01:58And again, we're gonna continue to do that.

02:02We're gonna continue to ensure

02:04that Israel has what it needs to defend itself.

02:07But again, in terms of the prime minister's comments,

02:11I won't comment on that.

02:13What I will tell you is I'm gonna stay focused

02:15on doing what we've done to date,

02:17providing Israel what it needs to be successful.

02:22Well, I'll just tell you,

02:23I'm not gonna get into internal deliberation discussions

02:25and tell you what recommendations I made or didn't make

02:27or what was taken or not taken.

02:29But I will say is that what we are doing

02:31is actually taking away capability from the Houthis

02:34from the military aspect.

02:36But to address this, it's gonna take broader

02:39than just the military strikes.

02:43There's an inspection regime of things

02:45that is of smuggling that we can work through.

02:48There's also other things from a sanction standpoint

02:52and many of the tools that you're probably familiar with.

02:55And that's the conversation of the things that we need to do

02:57not just with the US, but just in the international community

02:59and to raise the awareness of the impact of,

03:04there is a full of navigation now, but there is an impact.

03:06And so how do we collectively internationally look at this

03:11so we can get that free flow of commerce

03:12back through the Red Sea and the bottom of the net?

03:16Okay, let's go to NBC.

03:19Mr. Secretary.

Sec. Austin Responds To Netanyahu Calls For U.S. To ‘Fast Track’ Weapons Shipments To Israel

Category

Transcript

Recommended