White House National Security Spokesman Says No Immediate Signs of Escalation After Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh Was Killed
White House national security spokesman John Kirby was asked repeatedly Wednesday if Israel's suspected killing of Hamas's political leader in Iran would lead to an escalation in hostilities throughout the Middle East, and potentially jeopardize a case-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that the U.S. has tried to broker.
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00:00I am not in a position to confirm the reports coming out of Tehran.
00:07I've seen the statement that Hamas put out.
00:10I can't confirm or verify. We have no independent confirmation.
00:14But I can state that I also have no conversations around that reporting that I can speak to today.
00:26I think it's too soon to know what any of these reported events could mean for the ceasefire deal.
00:34But if I could add two points, one is that doesn't mean we're going to stop working on it.
00:38In fact, we have a team in the region right now as we speak to try to continue to work with our counterparts
00:44to move this forward because it's that important.
00:47And number two, as I kind of alluded to earlier, it's always been complicated work.
00:51And it's not like the complications with every passing day get easier.
00:56And that includes today.
00:58Our job since the beginning of this conflict, in addition to making sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself,
01:04in addition to making sure the people of Gaza aren't suffering more than they already are, is to manage risk in the region.
01:10One of the things the President's been very focused on is trying to prevent escalation here.
01:14That work is complicated and difficult every day, and that includes today.
01:20We don't believe that an escalation is inevitable, and there's no signs that an escalation is imminent.
01:28But I also said that we watch it very, very closely.
01:31I also said just and said again today that this is something that we've been concerned about since the 7th of October.
01:37It's not like we're brushing off concerns at all.
01:39We're watching this very, very closely, and it's been a chief concern of the President.
01:43And will the White House be urging restraint from Israel following this?
01:46I'm not going to talk about our diplomatic discussions with our Israeli counterparts.
01:51We have been working hard to keep this war from escalating, just as we've been working very hard
01:57and are today to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.
02:01Look, you've seen the comments by the Supreme Leader and what he said publicly.
02:04It's out there for everybody to see.
02:06I'll certainly not speculate about whether and to what degree Iran does anything.
02:16What I can tell you is we have and will maintain a level of readiness to preserve our national security interest in the region.
02:25It's not like we take a blind eye to what Iran is capable of doing and has shown their capability of doing in the region.
02:31It's not like we've demonstrated an unwillingness to defend Israel from threats in the region, including from Iran, if that happens.
02:40And we maintain that capability and that readiness to do so now.
02:43Based on the constructive conversations that we had with the prime minister last week, we still believe that this is a worthy endeavor.
02:50We still believe that the gaps can be narrowed, the details can be fleshed out, and a deal can be had.
02:55Now, again, it's too soon to know what these recent events over the last 24, 48 hours are going to do to the process.
03:00I don't want to sound overly sanguine here, but we still believe the deal on the table is worth pursuing and the hostages need to come home.
03:09And we're not going to stop trying to work on that.