Jean-Pierre Asked If An Israeli Strike Targeting A Hezbollah Commander In Lebanon Was 'Escalatory'

4 months ago

At a White House press briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Israel and Lebanon.

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Transcript

00:00Go ahead, Matt.

00:01You ruined the first row, Matt.

00:03What did I – oh, I'm sorry.

00:04I apologize to you and to everyone for that.

00:07It's always Reuters.

00:09Last time it was Steve.

00:10I take full blame for that.

00:12But we love you anyway.

00:15Israeli strikes in Lebanon today,

00:20do you view them as escalatory?

00:22Do you think they're an appropriate response

00:24to what we saw previously?

00:26So, obviously, we are aware of the reports out there

00:29that the IDF just conducted a strike

00:32against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

00:34And I leave it to Israel to speak

00:36for their own military operations.

00:39I do not have an immediate comment as this just happened,

00:43literally just happened a few minutes before I walked out.

00:46So I'm going to leave Israel to certainly IDF,

00:49as they have been doing, to respond to this

00:51and just don't have an immediate comment at this time.

00:54And then just to follow up on Colleen's question earlier,

00:57the Lula call today, is there —

00:59I'm sorry, Marlene, I didn't touch on that.

01:01Is there any expectation that there's going to be some prep

01:05as far as sanctions are concerned?

01:07Or is — I mean, is there —

01:08what is the Venezuela content of that?

01:10Oh, okay. So let me just say —

01:12and I think we shared this with all of you —

01:13that the President was going to be speaking

01:15with the President of Brazil.

01:16And so they're going to discuss a number of issues.

01:18And like we normally do,

01:19we will certainly have a readout for all of you.

01:23So, look, we are — as it relates to Venezuela,

01:26we are obviously in the process of evaluating

01:28what Maduro and his representatives do next,

01:31and we will respond accordingly.

01:34And so while I have nothing to announce today

01:36as it relates to sanctions or moving forward,

01:39we will continue to assess our calibrated sanctions policy

01:43towards Venezuela in light of overall U.S. interest,

01:47the actions and non-actions that are taken by Maduro

01:50and his representatives, and the overall direction

01:52of our broader U.S. bilateral engagement with Venezuela.

01:57And so, again, don't want to get ahead of where

01:59we are at this time.

Jean-Pierre Asked If An Israeli Strike Targeting A Hezbollah Commander In Lebanon Was 'Escalatory'

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