Reporter Presses John Kirby After Stating Fears Of All-Out War In The Middle East Were ‘Exaggerated’

2 months ago

During a White House press briefing on Wednesday, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby was asked about the implications of the death of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

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00:00Go ahead, Dan.

00:01Thanks, Karine.

00:02Thanks, Admiral.

00:03Admiral, earlier this week, you said that fears of an all-out war in the Middle East

00:05were exaggerated.

00:07Is that still your assessment, the White House's assessment of the situation following these

00:12latest strikes?

00:13We don't believe that an escalation is inevitable.

00:17And there's no signs that an escalation is imminent.

00:21But I also said that we watch it very, very closely.

00:24I also said just – and said again today that this is something that we've been concerned

00:28about since the 7th of October.

00:29It's not like we're brushing off concerns at all.

00:32We're watching this very, very closely, and it's been a chief concern of the President.

00:35And will the White House be urging restraint from Israel following this?

00:38I'm not going to talk about our diplomatic discussions with our Israeli counterparts.

00:44We have been working hard to keep this war from escalating, just as we've been working

00:49very hard and are today to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.

00:53Thanks.

00:54Can you tell us, was the President briefed on this last night as the reports started

00:58coming out, and how he's been informed about this throughout the day?

01:01The President was briefed on reports coming out of the Middle East.

01:06He routinely – I'm not going to get into the specific timing or the parameters of it,

01:11but he has been kept fully informed, as you would expect that he would be from the national

01:14security team.

01:15And that means on a continuous basis as well.

01:17Egypt's foreign minister said in a statement that the assassinations undermine the strenuous

01:21efforts made by Egypt and its partners to stop the war in the Gaza Strip.

01:25You had just said in an earlier answer that it doesn't mean that the United States would

01:29stop working toward a ceasefire deal, but can you talk about the concerns about the

01:33negotiators continuing that work and what this means about that going forward?

01:38I would just tell you as we're standing here today, they're still at that work,

01:42and we've got a team in the region, and we're going to keep the shoulders to the

01:45wheel.

01:46It's that important.

01:47And we still believe the gaps are narrow enough to be closed.

01:49We still believe the details can be hashed out.

01:51It's too soon to know, based on the reporting over the last 24 or 48 hours, what impact

01:56any of this is going to have on the ceasefire deal.

01:58It was always complicated.

02:00It remains complicated.

02:03And reports coming out of the region, as we've seen again over the last 24 or 48 hours, certainly

02:07don't make it less complicated.

02:09Has there been contact with Egypt and Qatar to reassure them to stay in these conversations

02:14right now?

02:15I would just say that we have and maintain routine communications with our counterparts

02:21in Egypt and in Qatar and with Israel.

02:23Those communications are ongoing.

02:24Just to be clear about that, has the U.S. reached out or had contact either directly

02:30or indirectly with Iran since the occurrence in Iran?

02:33I have no diplomatic conversations to speak to, certainly none of that type.

02:37So just to be clear, there have not been with them or with any of their – any intermediaries,

02:45or you can't tell us if there have or haven't been?

02:46I have no conversations to speak to.

02:49Okay.

02:51Fundamentally, is an Iranian response here inevitable?

02:53Look, you've seen the comments by the Supreme Leader and what he said publicly.

02:58It's out there for everybody to see.

03:00I'll certainly not speculate about whether and to what degree Iran does anything.

03:10What I can tell you is we have and will maintain a level of readiness to preserve our national

03:17security interest in the region.

03:19It's not like we take a blind eye to what Iran is capable of doing and has shown their

03:22capability of doing in the region.

03:24It's not like we've demonstrated an unwillingness to defend Israel from threats in the region,

03:31including from Iran, if that happens.

03:34And we maintain that capability and that readiness to do so now.

03:37I would also say, lastly, Peter, what I said earlier, we don't want to see an escalation.

03:42And everything we've been doing since the 7th of October, we've been trying to manage

03:46that risk.

03:47Those risks go up and down every day.

03:49They are certainly up right now.

03:51They don't make the task of de-escalation, deterrence, and dissuasion, which is the goal,

03:56any less complicated.

03:57So to be clear, does the U.S. think this action was escalatory, provocative, justified?

04:03As I said earlier, I'm not in a position to verify the accounts.

Reporter Presses John Kirby After Stating Fears Of All-Out War In The Middle East Were ‘Exaggerated’

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