SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good morning, everyone.
QUESTION: Good morning.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So we said we would run through the tape, and I think we've been going at a full sprint. This has been quite an eventful final week for this administration, making good on the President's commitment to use every minute, every day, of every week that we had to get results.
When I came down here on my first full day in office, back when I had a little bit less gray hair - as my daughter likes to point out - I spoke about how the work that we do to keep the American people in the world informed through you, with you, could not be more important. Most of us have traveled well more than a million miles now together. We've done it with a remarkable press corps, people that I've gotten to know as colleagues. If I said "friends," that might actually create problems for you, but let me simply say how much I appreciate the partnership, the professionalism, the work that we've done.
I have even greater respect, even greater appreciation for you asking the tough questions, for you holding us to account. Being on the receiving end, sometimes that's not always the most comfortable thing; not always the most enjoyable thing. But it is the most necessary thing in our democracy.
QUESTION: Three hundred reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs. Why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal (inaudible)?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I'm happy to address questions -
QUESTION: You all knew we had a deal. Everyone in this room knows we had a deal, Tony, and you kept the bombs flowing. Why did you sacrifice -
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I'm happy to address questions when we get a chance, thank you.
QUESTION: - the rules-based order on the mantle of your commitment to Zionism?
QUESTION: Did you want to finish, or -
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yeah.
QUESTION: Why did you allow my friends to be massacred? Why did you allow my friends (inaudible) we had a deal (inaudible)?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I'm happy to address your questions when we get to questions. Thank you.
QUESTION: Did you want -
QUESTION: Hey. You just - you helped destroy our religion of Judaism by associating it with fascism.
QUESTION: Did you want to finish?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Yeah, I have a statement - yeah, I have a statement to make. Thank you.
QUESTION: You waved the white flag before Netanyahu.
STAFF: The Secretary will be happy to take questions at the end.
QUESTION: You waved the white flag before Israeli fascists.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I look forward to taking questions when I get a chance to finish my statement. Thank you.
QUESTION: Your father-in-law is an Israel lobbyist, your grandfather was an Israel lobbyist. Are you compromised by Israel? Why did you allow the Holocaust of our time to happen?
STAFF: It's time to go. Thank you very much.
QUESTION: How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide? How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide? You too, Matt. You smirked through the whole thing. Every day.
STAFF: Thank you. Thank you.
QUESTION: You smirked through the genocide.
STAFF: Thank you.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you. And thank you, Matt. Now I've got a few more things to say, and then I'm happy to take any question about anything, as we've done these past four years. And indeed, I'll talk a little bit about the developments of the last few days as well. But I first really wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you, and also thank you to -
QUESTION: Well, maybe not everyone. (Laughter.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, okay, I was - (laughter). There is an asterisk, and yes, thank you Matt Lee. But also to a remarkable press team here, led by Matt Miller, who do the work every day of trying to make sure that you're informed, the American people are informed.
Let me also just take a step back before diving into the developments of this week, these last days, just to consider how far we've come over these past four years - and also to think a little bit about where we might be going from here. When President Biden took office, the United States faced the worst public health crisis in more than a century. It faced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And unprecedented breaches with allies and partners around the world. Our adversaries saw a historic opportunity to work together to challenge our interests, to challenge our global standing, to challenge the international system of rules and principles on which our security and prosperity depend.
The first time I had an opportunity to speak at length in this role, I laid out how we would work to leverage American diplomacy to safeguard and accelerate America's renewal; how we would reimagine and revitalize our greatest strategic asset - our unmatched network of allies and partners - to deliver on issues that actually matter in the lives of our fellow citizens, matter in their livelihoods, matter in their futures; and to defend against increasingly assertive and aggressive revisionist authoritarian powers; and also how we'd modernize our own diplomacy to try to deliver on these priorities, to ensure that this department is ready to meet the tests of a more contested, a more complicated, a more combustible world.
As President Biden emphasized when he was here on Monday, thanks to historic investments at home and around the world, the United States can now operate from a position of greater strength to tackle all of these challenges. Our adversaries and competitors are weaker. Our strategy of renewal has set the stage for America to win the fierce competition to shape a new era of international affairs to the benefit of our people, to the benefit of people around the world.
And I think this week was another reminder both of the power and the purpose of American leadership and American diplomacy. Over 15 months of devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas, we've worked to broker a deal that would bring hostages home, that would stop the fighting, that would surge humanitarian aid to people who so desperately need it, that would create the space to conclude a permanent ceasefire. We now have that, and we expect implementation of the agreement to begin on Sunday.
As President Biden said yesterday, after more than 400 days of struggle, a day of success has arrived.
I want to thank our fellow mediators, Qatar and Egypt, for their extraordinary partnership, and I want to thank my colleagues - in particular Jake Sullivan, Bill Burns, Brett McGurk - for their remarkable skill and tireless dedication over these many months of negotiation. So -
QUESTION: Will you recognize the Geneva Conventions apply to the Palestinians?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: And again, I'm happy to address questions when I have a chance. I'm happy to address questions in a moment. Thank you.
This is a moment of tremendous relief for Israelis and Palestinians alike. The daughter of one hostage spoke for many when she said, "I can't wait to see them come back to their families. I'm so desperate to see them." A mother of five, displaced from Gaza City, said simply, "We are being reborn."
It's also a moment of historic possibility for the region and well beyond. It's going to take tremendous effort, political courage, compromise, to realize that possibility, to try to ensure that the gains that have been achieved over the past 15 months at enormous, excruciating cost are actually enduring - to manage the still-profound risks, to deliver on the promise of a more integrated Middle East. And simply put, to forge this reality, there are two immediate imperatives: first, to fully implement the ceasefire deal; and then, second, to finalize a plan, an effective plan as I spelled out earlier this week, that provides for Gaza's transitional governance, its security, its reconstruction, and that can make the halt in fighting endure.
Delivering on these two priorities will in turn create the conditions for Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations between them, which will require a credible pathway to a Palestinian state. On each of these imperatives, we've delivered concrete progress and we've laid a foundation for success, which we will hand over to the incoming administration. Together, they represent a historic opportunity to advance the long-term interests of the United States, our partners in the region, and around the Middle East.
In Ukraine as well we've seen the results of steadfast American leadership. We rallied and kept together some 50 countries to help Ukraine defend itself from Putin's war of aggression. Through Ukrainian courage and also Western resolve and firepower, Ukraine repelled Russia's invasion and took back half the territory it originally seized. We've marshaled commitments from countries around the world that will help Ukraine deter and defend against future attacks, and stand on its own feet militarily, economically, democratically.
We've also imposed the most ambitious sanctions and export controls ever on Russia, cutting off its biggest banks, reducing dramatically Europe's reliance on Russian energy, oil and gas, almost to zero at this point. As a result of some of our latest sanctions, Russian oil tankers are piling up along the Chinese coast, unable to offload.
Ukraine will continue to stand as an independent, democratic nation anchored in the West with the freedom to choose its own future. If we sustain our support for Ukraine, if we continue exacerbate Putin's growing manpower and economic dilemmas, we could continue to help Ukrainians gain leverage to negotiate a just and secure peace.
Now, I got back from what was my 21st trip to the Indo-Pacific in this job just a short while ago, a region where the United States is now competing from a position of strength. We brought our regional allies together, our partners together, around a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific, where goods and ideas and people flow freely, where rules are applied fairly and transparently, where countries are free to choose both their own path and their own partners.
We enhanced bilateral relationships with our core treaty allies - with Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines. We forged a new era of trilateral cooperation with Japan and Korea, with Japan and the Philippines as well. We've re-energized the Quad with Japan, India, Australia; strengthened our relationships with ASEAN and the Pacific Island countries; elevated partnerships with Vietnam and Indonesia.
As the DPRK and the PRC continue to fuel Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine, underscoring how European and Asian security are indivisible, we've also built enduring bridges between our Pacific and Atlantic allies and partners. Australia, Japan, and South Korea provided important support to Ukraine. In 2021, European allies were on the verge of signing a massive trade agreement with China; now they're coordinating with us on everything from investment screening mechanisms to supply chain resilience to pushing back on China's overcapacity and unfair trade practices.
At the same time, we've managed our competition with China responsibly so it doesn't veer into conflict, while also cooperating on challenges where the world expects great powers to lead and where it's clearly in the interests of the American people - from climate change to fentanyl.
We've also demonstrated that other countries can rely on the United States to tackle some of our biggest shared challenges and deliver on some of our own - on their own national aspirations: preventing disease outbreaks, enhancing food security, accelerating the clean energy transition, bringing together a global coalition of more than 160 countries to address the synthetic opioid crisis.
As we celebrate the return of hostages in Gaza, including Americans, as we look to relief for the people of Gaza, I'm also thinking of all those U.S. citizens who are held wrongfully, who are hostage, in countries around the world. I carry with me -
QUESTION: Do you know about the Hannibal Directive?
STAFF: Sir, respect. Let's have some respect.
QUESTION: Miller says he doesn't know about the Hannibal Directive. Do you know about the Hannibal Directive?
STAFF: You can leave, sir. You want to come with us -
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Again, I'm happy to address questions in a - just a - in a few more minutes.
QUESTION: I want him to answer -
STAFF: (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I look forward to answering questions in a few more minutes. Thank you.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
STAFF: Okay, well, let him speak. (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you. Thank you.
QUESTION: He's made lots of speeches. Let him answer some questions.
STAFF: Sir, what would you like? Would you like to be escorted out?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I look forward to answering questions. Thank you.
QUESTION: Answer some questions instead of making another speech every day.
STAFF: Sir, would you like to be escorted out?
QUESTION: Go away.
STAFF: You don't have the responsibility to tell me where to go. Do you want to be escorted out or not?
QUESTION: I want him to answer questions.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Okay. Thank you. I look forward to answering questions in a minute. Thank you.
QUESTION: I'm a journalist; I'm not a potted plant.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Everyone will have an opportunity to ask questions in just a minute. Thank you.
QUESTION: Matt Miller has explicitly told me he will not answer my questions.
STAFF: Sir -
QUESTION: I am justified in what I'm doing.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So I have no greater pleasure in this job than crossing off a list I carry in my pocket - the names of those who had been arbitrarily detained and unfairly held hostage, unjustly held hostage, and bringing them home, returning them to their families, returning them to their loved ones.
Finally, I just wanted to share this morning -
QUESTION: Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Answer a damn question.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I look forward to answering questions in a few minutes.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) about Israel's nuclear weapons - everybody from the ICJ - I was sitting here quietly and now I am being manhandled by two or three people. You pontificate about a free press? You pontificate about a free press? You are hurting me. You are hurting me. You are hurting me. I am asking questions after being told by Matt Miller that he will not answer my questions, and so I ask them.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Please, sir, respect the - respect the process. We'll have an opportunity to take questions in a few minutes.
QUESTION: Wasn't - wasn't the point of the May 31st statement to block the ICJ orders? You blocked the ICJ orders. You -
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Please, sir, respect the process. Thank you.
QUESTION: Oh, respect the process. Respect the process while everybody - everybody from the International - from Amnesty International to the ICJ's saying that Israel's doing genocide and extermination, and you're telling me to respect the process. Criminal. Why aren't you in The Hague? Why aren't you in The Hague? Why aren't you in The Hague?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Finally, we've worked to modernize our diplomacy so that we're more agile, we're more effective, we're more prepared for the challenges of a new era. We've reorganized this department to lead on issues that increasingly animate our diplomacy, whether it's emerging technology, public health, strategic competition, economic statecraft. We've embraced new tools and approaches, from integrating data and AI into the work that we do, strengthening our capacity to anticipate, to plan for risks as well as opportunities in this more volatile world.
Maybe most important, we've invested in our people - improving our hiring and retention practices, diversifying our workforce, strengthening our training, providing more support to employees throughout their careers. We've hired the largest Foreign Service officer class in more than a decade, and we've grown our Civil Service corps at the fastest rate in more than 20 years.
It was gratifying to me, and I think to everyone in this department, that among the first and last stops President Biden made in his tenure was right here at the State Department. I think that is powerful evidence of the trust that he placed in us to carry out this country's foreign policy. Our diplomats represent this country with exceptional skill, with professionalism, with heart. They often do so at great personal sacrifice, little fanfare, in some of the world's most challenging environments. It has been, simply put, the greatest of honors to be able to work shoulder to shoulder with them.
These past four years, there have also been moments of disappointment, of hardship, of heartbreak, but I leave this job knowing that we spent every day thinking about and working toward what we believe is best for our people, the citizens we have the immense privilege of representing. And I'm confident we leave office with our country and with this department in a much stronger position than we found it.
And now, with that, one last time, I look forward to taking some questions. Mr. Miller.
MR MILLER: Matt, want to start us off?
QUESTION: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, and thank you for your very opening comments about the work, the cooperation with us, the press corps. Even when we haven't always been satisfied or - with the answers, we certainly appreciate the - your willingness to engage with us. And so thank you for that.
I want to start - I actually only have one question. Exactly 16 years ago today, January 16th, 2009, former - outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had her final press briefing here, and all of the questions she got were about Israel and Gaza - every single one of them. And she said we were working on an enduring ceasefire. She was about to sign an agreement with then-Foreign Minister Livni that would move toward that way. She was working with international partners. Names have changed, but countries pretty much the same - Egypt, the Europeans, the Gulf Arab states.
And so, 16 years ago, we were in the same situation that we're in now, particularly because the ceasefire, the current one, still seems to be in limbo. And I'm wondering if you can point to any progress that has been made over the course of those - the Bush administration, the Obama administration - has there been anything that has changed or given you hope? Because we're basically back in the same position we were 16 years ago.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you, Matt. This is a long story. It's an enduring story. It's a story that is not likely to end any time soon. And if you go back over the course of many administrations - not only Secretary Rice, but so many of our predecessors and so many of her successors, and now me - this is a story that we've been engaged in, one way or another. And I think each of us has probably brought the conviction to it that we could and should do everything possible to try to get to and write a better conclusion, a good conclusion, for the story. And so many of us, for many years, have labored to do just that.
I think one of the lessons that we have to take away is that as resourceful and as powerful as we are, at the end of the day we can't make decisions for others. They have to make them. They have to make hard choices. They have to take chances. We can do everything possible to push, to prod, to encourage, to support, but ultimately the decision lies with those most directly concerned. That's one thing.
But the second thing is - and I believe this strongly - there's also no substitute for our engagement, for the efforts that we make in trying to move this forward and get to a better place. And yes, we have absolutely seen both progress and promise, and the question is whether leaders on all sides - with the people behind them - will find a way to seize on those opportunities.
So as I laid out in some detail just the other day, when we took office we were very focused on pursuing greater integration in the region as the real answer to creating more security, more peace, more opportunity for people, not change - not trying to change individual countries, governments, societies, but bringing them closer together.
And before October 7th, we'd done a lot of work on this integration, building on the Abraham Accords of the first Trump administration, pointing toward the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. And as you all know, we were all planning to go to Saudi Arabia and Israel because we'd made so much progress on the normalization accords, on October 10th, a trip that of course didn't happen, to do two things: to try to help finalize agreements that were necessary to get to normalization, and as part of that, to find a clearer way forward, a pathway to a Palestinian state - vital to Saudi Arabia, very important to us as well.
Even with everything that's happened since October 7th, I believe strongly, including from my many conversations with leaders in the region, whether it's in Israel, in Saudi Arabia, or beyond, that the desire to pursue integration, the desire to bring countries together remains strong, remains powerful, and can be a driving force for finally resolving some of these other questions, including the Palestinian question. Israel's deepest desire from day one of its founding was to be treated like any other country in the region, to have normal relations. And it's been demonstrated that that's possible and desired, but it requires, among other things, ending the conflict in Gaza, which we are now on the verge of doing as a result of everything that we have put into this, an agreement that President Biden put forward - put forward before the world in May, got the entire world to endorse, and in the months since we've been working to negotiate the final details and get it implemented. And that's where we are now.
So end Gaza's one, and then yes, a credible pathway to a Palestinian state is two, and leaders will have to summon the vision and the courage to do that. I laid out some ideas for how you can get there just the other day, but I believe that is possible. And I believe the driving desire for integration is something that can carry this forward.
Finally, I'll say this. We've also seen, as a result of so much of the work that we've done, what the possibilities are. For Israel, when it was attacked in an unprecedented way by Iraq and - by Iran, excuse me - a direct attack with hundreds of missiles, hundreds of drones, not only did we come to Israel's active defense for the first time ever; we brought other countries along to do that, including countries in the region. And Israel now sees, powerfully, what it stands to gain from greater integration in the region, including in a common security architecture. All can see that this is a way to effectively isolate the troublemaker in the region, Iran.
So all of that is there; all of that is possible. And I think for the incoming administration, it'll be important to continue to show: Here's one path and what can be achieved by following that path, and then there's another, which is perpetual violence, destruction, terrorism, and despair for people. That's the choice. I think we've now put in place and done the work that, handing it off, can be used to build a strong foundation and move down that much more positive path.
MR MILLER: Leon.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Leon.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you for your service. Thank you for doing this. I trust you're not going to miss the million of miles that you've done in the last four years, and that you're happy to finally see your children. I wanted to ask you on Gaza, of course, you mentioned tremendous relief in the region, both with Palestinians and Israel. There seems to be uncertainty for the ceasefire, and it - basically it was announced yesterday, and it's supposed to be implemented on Sunday. That's four days, quite a long time. Israel has been - has led new strikes upon Gaza today or overnight. How confident are you that this ceasefire is actually going to happen? And if I may, just a broader question. After the four years, your four years and now that your tenure is coming up, what is your proudest accomplishment in these four years and what is your biggest disappointment?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So on the ceasefire, yes, I am confident and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday. Look, it's not exactly surprising that in a process - in a negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end. We're tying up that loose end as we speak. I've been on the phone in one way or another all morning with Brett McGurk, with our Qatari friends, and I'm very confident that we - this is moving forward, and we'll see the start of implementation of the agreement on Sunday.
In terms of my own tenure and what I take from it - and I think they'll be plenty of opportunity to reflect on that in the weeks and months ahead - look, in terms of satisfaction, as I said at the outset, we came in knowing that we had to reset the foundation for American diplomacy and American foreign policy. And resetting that foundation meant, as I've said, re-engaging, rejuvenating, reimagining these alliances and partnerships. It's the greatest strength that we bring to virtually every issue we have to tackle around the world - these voluntary partnerships and alliances that have stood us in such good stead over so many years and I think are vital to effectively operating in this more complicated, this more contested, this more combustible world. And that's exactly what we did. But the point is not doing that for the sake of doing it; the point is doing it for the sake of more effectively dealing with the world we're operating in. And I think we've demonstrated that.
When Ukraine was attacked by Russia, because of the investments that we'd made in our partnerships and our alliances, we were able to bring together 50 countries, keep them together, and marshal their focus and their resources on helping to defend Ukraine. And we've done that very successfully, and we've done that in a way where many other countries picked up the burden.
When it comes to maybe the biggest systemic challenge that we face in the international system, and that is China and the capacity that it has uniquely - whether it's militarily, whether it's economically, whether it's diplomatically - to reshape the international order, what we've been able to do through these stronger alliances and partnerships is to focus other countries in ways that we haven't seen before on how to deal effectively with the challenges posed by China. We have much greater convergence between us and partners in Europe, between us and partners in Asia, among all of us, in confronting these challenges. And I listed a few areas in which we're working much more closely together. And as I've said before, when you bring just the United States to the table, well, we have a lot of weight; but when it comes to economic issues, for example, where China is engaged in unfair practices, where it's engaged in overcapacity to try to drown our industries, our communities, our workers with their products, well, when we're taking that on and we're doing it alone, we're 20 percent of world GDP. When we're doing that in concert with allies and partners across Europe and Asia who are similarly aggrieved by these practices, well, we're 50-60 percent of world GDP and it's a lot more effective in getting China to change its conduct. So those are just two ways in which we've used this investment in our allies and partners to get real results, to tackle real problems, to meet real challenges.
And again, through so many of the issues that are affecting the lives of our people, we've brought countries together in a way that's going to have a material impact on making things better. I mentioned earlier the coalition we built on synthetic opioids, on fentanyl. You've heard me say this before: The number one killer of Americans aged 18 to 45 is fentanyl. And it's by definition a problem that has to be tackled cooperatively with other countries because the ingredients that go into making it may be made halfway around the world. They come close to our borders. They get synthesized into fentanyl. They come into the United States. They kill people. So the fact that we've brought all of these countries together now working in close concert to deal with this problem, that's going to have a material benefit on the lives of the American people. In these ways and so many more, what I'm - what I take satisfaction is, is that we now can approach each of these problems from a position of much greater strength, much greater effectiveness.
Disappointments - yeah, of course, there are always many. There's always the things that you didn't get done. There's always the could've, would've, should've that you ask yourself. But I think it's also important to take a minute and take stock of what we actually have done, what the men and women of this department have achieved.
Would I have wished, do I wish, we could have gotten this ceasefire agreement months ago? Of course. The suffering since, the lives lost since, sure, could have been - could have been avoided if we had gotten this over the line sooner. But in something as complex, as complicated, where different events have intervened and the work that we had done, the progress we were making towards bringing it to conclusion was delayed or derailed, as the President again said yesterday, almost every time you're trying to deal with something this hard, and as George Mitchell put it so well in the context of Northern Ireland peace, you're going to have many, many days of setback and struggle before you get to that final day of success. But every one of those days of setback and struggle is necessary to get you to the day of success.
MR MILLER: Daphne.
QUESTION: Thank you for your service and thank you for taking our questions over the last four years. Since the Gaza war erupted, there has been a flood of reports with supporting videos and evidence of potential IHL violations by Israel, and yet your department has refrained from making a definitive assessment. There is a sense out there that you gave Israel a pass on this issue and that that's a part of the administration's legacy. Is there any chance you will deliver a definitive assessment on this in your final days?
And if I may, on another region, we're reporting that the U.S. will impose sanctions on Sudan's Burhan today. Could you confirm whether the administration will take that step? And why do this now and why wait till now?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you. We and I take very seriously the work that we do - and we have a responsibility to do - to assess in any place whether violations of international humanitarian law are occurring, war crimes, other abuses of international law, international norms, international practice. And that's what we continue to do every day, whether it's in the Middle East, Gaza, or in many other places around the world. And I'll come to that because your question about Sudan goes there as well.
In Gaza, we faced a uniquely challenging situation in trying to make final determinations. Because uniquely in Gaza, besides having a population that's been trapped there that has nowhere else to go, you have an enemy that embeds itself in and among civilians - houses, hospitals, mosques, schools. And getting a clear picture and a clear understanding of whether any one incident in that context constitutes a violation of international law in one way or another is an incredibly complicated thing to do, especially to do in real time.
So we continue to gather the information. We continue to assess it. If we have any conclusions that we can draw in the time that remains, we will. I'd also point out that in Israel itself there are hundreds of cases that are being investigated. They have a process; they have procedures; they have rule of law. And we also look to them to carry out that process, to carry out the rule of law themselves. That's the hallmark of any democracy.
We have reported in a number of ways on what we've seen, including in the NSM report. We've taken actions in a variety of ways in a variety of places, particularly, for example, in the West Bank, where we've seen abuses committed by extremist settlers against Palestinians and for the first time taken action against them. And I believe and trust that this process will continue, and as we are able to reach results we will.
When it comes to Sudan, you know the actions we took in the direction of the RSF just a few days ago. The SAF has also committed war crimes and it continues to target civilians. It's obstructed the advancement of the peace process. It's refused to participate on numerous occasions in ceasefire talks that we've sought to convene. And together with the RSF, it's caused what is the world's worst humanitarian crisis that people are suffering through every day.
And we believe strongly, as we've said, there's no military solution to this conflict. So we have to see two things. We have to see the effective provision of humanitarian assistance to people who need it. We've been working very hard on that. We've seen some progress but not nearly enough. And we have to see the end of the firing, the end of this conflict. And there we've seen virtually no progress.
So in this situation, we're able much more clearly to account for actions that are taken. There's no ambiguity about the environment in which both sides are operating and what the results of the actions that they've taken actually are, both in terms of the horrific consequences for human life and what that means under our law and under international law.
MR MILLER: Michele.
QUESTION: Can I follow up on that? Thank you. Is the RSF and Burhan - are they equally responsible for mass atrocities? And is the - are these sanctions a sign of failure of diplomacy?
And then real quickly on the Middle East, how would you describe your dealings in these past 15 months with Netanyahu?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So on the RSF and the SAF, the actions we took with - on the RSF, as you know, founded - had a determination of genocide. The actions that we're looking at for the SAF go to war crimes, so there are gradations in these things. And we follow the law. We look at the criteria. We look at this intensely with our lawyers, with our experts, in order to make these determinations, guided, as I said, by the criteria.
The end result is, one way or another, people are suffering grievously in Sudan. It is, again, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. And we have been deeply engaged with our diplomacy to try to bring it to an end. We haven't, to date. But as I've said, part of our challenge in any of these situations is to keep working through it, to keep pushing, to keep pressing to get to that one day of success. It is for me, yes, another real regret that, when it comes to Sudan, we haven't been able on our watch to get to that day of success. As I said, some improvements in getting humanitarian assistance in through our diplomacy, but not an end to the conflict, not an end to the abuses, not an end to the suffering of people. We'll keep working it for the next three days, and I hope the next administration will take that on as well.
On the last 15 months, look, one of the things I think is really important is, as a general matter, to focus less on personalities and on people and more on policies, and what is it that we can do, what is it we should do, to effect those policies. And so what we've been working on over the last 15 months, since October 7th, was to help shape the response in a way that accomplished three basic things: one, of course, to try to ensure that October 7th could never happen again and to make good on our commitment to Israel's security; two, to prevent a wider war, a broader conflict that drew in more countries, more groups, both because that would bring even more death and destruction and because it was exactly what Hamas was looking for, get that wider war, be able to have others attacking Israel, and to allow Hamas to continue to do what it was doing; and third, of course, was to try to do right by the people who are caught in the middle of this crossfire that Hamas initiated - the children, the women, the men of Gaza - with better protection for them, with more assistance for them. And that's what we've been focused on these 15 months.
None of that changes what's happened, but it has put us now in a position where there is the real possibility for moving this to a better place - the immediate possibility, more than possibility, now the immediate reality of finally moving Gaza to a better place, finally getting hostages home, finally getting relief that people need, finally having an opportunity to have an enduring ceasefire. But also, as I was talking about with Matt before, in the region, as a result of the extraordinary setbacks that all of these actors who are responsible for the death, the carnage, the inability to make progress, the setbacks that they have encountered, whether it's Iran, whether it's Hizballah, whether it's Hamas.
So that creates a real moment of opportunity. And as I said, we've done everything we can to put in place, to make the investments and the plans necessary to take advantage of that opportunity. We're handing them off, and my hope, as I said, is the administration that's coming in will continue them.
MR MILLER: Jenny.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, on shaping those policies, looking back is there anything you would have changed in how you negotiate to shape those policies? And do you regret not being firmer on the red lines you gave to Israel on humanitarian aid and civilian harm, given the state of Gaza right now?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: So again, a few things that I think are important, or at least that I take away from this. One is it's, I think, a mistake to ascribe to any one individual or any small number of individuals policies that in the case of Gaza were basically supported by an overwhelming majority of Israelis after the trauma of October 7th. This is a deeply traumatized society, just as Palestinian society is deeply traumatized by everything that's followed October 7th. And if you don't understand that or don't factor that in, it's really challenging to make progress.
So I think we've looked at that. We've understood that. And as I said, we had certain priorities that the President set that we've tried to carry forward in approaching everything we've done since October 7th. And we are now in a place where we're finally, I think, making good on those priorities. We - as I mentioned, one of them was to avoid a broader war with more countries coming in, and at various moments throughout these last 15 months we've been right on the edge of having that wider war.
And because of American diplomacy, because of American deterrence, because of America's ability to mobilize others, we've avoided it. When we had those unprecedented attacks by Iran on Israel, we marshaled other countries to come to Israel's defense. And then when it came to Israel's response, we shaped it, shaped it in a way that it was strong but also calibrated so that Iran's air defenses were taken out, but we didn't have actions that were escalatory and that produced a wider war. And that didn't just happen. It was the product, again, of American diplomacy and American deterrence.
Throughout the 15 months on the humanitarian situation, when - and again, in an environment that is unique, which doesn't obviate Israel's responsibilities, doesn't excuse things that haven't been done that should have been done, but is important because operating in that unique environment with a population trapped in Gaza - in other places where there are conflicts, people can usually go somewhere else. You're a refugee - not a good thing, but better than being trapped in a crossfire. Gaza, almost uniquely, people are trapped. And as I've said many times before, trapped with an enemy that deliberately uses them, hides among them, looks for civilian casualties as not only a necessary cost but one that actually advances their agenda. And we know this from the leader of Hamas himself, Yahya Sinwar. So that's made things very challenging. But whenever on humanitarian assistance we've seen things moving from bad to worse, we've engaged strongly and we've gotten results, whether it was back in April or May, whether it was more recently in September, October.
But fundamentally, the only way given the complicated - incredibly complicated environment to really get at the needs of the people was through a ceasefire and a hostage deal, and that's why we've been laboring so hard on it. And that's why now, as it's implemented, we're finally going to see the relief that people so desperately need.
Let me just add this, and I'm sorry for going on: At various points along the way in terms of getting that deal, the biggest impediments really have been Hamas and its refusal to get to yes. Now, have there been moments when Israel has done things or taken actions that have made life more complicated, more difficult? Yes. But broadly speaking, and especially in the last months until we got to success, Hamas has been the major impediment.
And there were two things that were factoring into Hamas's thinking, and we know this. One, as I said, was the hope that they could get a wider war, that others would jump in, that the cavalry would come to the rescue. And it wasn't until recently that it became clear that that was not the case. And whether it was Iran, whether it was Hizballah, whether it was Iranian proxies, whether it was the supply routes for those proxies through Syria, as a result of actions that Israel took, as a result of actions that we took, as a result of conflicts and problems that these various actors had gotten themselves into that we exacerbated, it finally got to the point where Hamas concluded that, as I said, the cavalry wasn't coming to the rescue. That wasn't going to happen.
Second, Hamas held back at various points because it saw or hoped that public international pressure was mounting on Israel, and it could just wait it out and that pressure would get to a point where Israel would have to accede to all of Hamas's demands. And that includes the hope that there would be a lot of public daylight between the United States and Israel. And so while clearly we've had differences - real differences - with Israel on the way it's gone about the necessary defense of its people and its country, we've expressed those clearly at various points. But we've mostly done it privately precisely because we didn't want to feed into Hamas's clearly held views that if that pressure was mounting and if there was daylight, they could do nothing, they could refuse to engage on the - in the negotiations, hold back on a ceasefire and releasing the hostages, and thus perpetuate the suffering, the loss for the people that they purport to represent.
All of those dynamics were in play. All of those dynamics were ones that we had to make judgments about, navigate with eyes on the prize of getting to the day we got to yesterday, which is the ceasefire and hostage release. So it's absolutely appropriate to ask questions about that, to ask ourselves questions, for everyone to ask questions. Some people say we did too much to restrain Israel when it comes to Iran, when it comes to Hizballah, when it comes to others. Others say we did much too much to enable, and all of those questions are the right ones to ask and they'll be asked for a long time. We had to keep our focus relentlessly on getting to this place where we could actually get a change, where we could actually get an end to a conflict, an end to suffering, and the prospect of something better.
MR MILLER: We'll take one more. Nick Schifrin.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thanks very much. On why you got to the ceasefire deal, as you just highlighted, you've talked a lot about Hamas and pressure; Hamas being diminished helped get them across the line. But on the Israeli side, do you believe that Trump and Steve Witkoff, either through direct pressure or through Netanyahu's perception of Trump - that helped get this deal across the line?
And I want to bring up Ukraine and give you a chance to do legacy on Ukraine. You've argued that you've taken a lot of recent steps to try and give Ukraine leverage and give the Trump administration leverage. Let me just point out, though, that there's no money left in the replenishment fund, Ukraine struggles on the front line, Ukraine has a - sorry, Russia has a reconstituted defense industrial base because of China. So do you fear that your legacy on Ukraine could actually be defined by your successor?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: On the ceasefire deal first, look, the important thing is not who gets the credit, the important thing is getting the result. And that's exactly what we've gotten, and as I've said, the deal that was agreed is based on the proposal that President Biden put out months ago in May, the framework that he made public in detail that we then went around the world and got country after country to endorse, culminating with the UN Security Council. That's what moved Hamas in the first instance, because up until that point Hamas had been rejecting the idea of having an initial phase of six weeks, ceasefire, hostages begin to come out, prisoners are released, humanitarian assistance surges, and we use the time to reach an agreement on the conditions for an enduring ceasefire. They'd rejected that scheme, and it wasn't until May when the President went public, detailed it, and we got the whole world behind it that Hamas was isolated and it moved.
And then every - practically every day since then has been work on trying to actually negotiate the details that had to follow from that to fill in the framework - and understandings on its implementation. And we got very close to completing that on a number of occasions, and as I said, events of one kind or another inevitably intervene - that delay, that derail the work that you're doing. But we kept at it, and meanwhile, as I just described - I won't belabor - all of these other factors that went into the calculus of Hamas changed dramatically, and in no small part because of actions we took in a way to exacerbate the challenges of Hamas and its many potential supporters, as well as actions that that Israel took.
So I think that's what got us to this day. Our diplomacy, our deterrence, really isolated Hamas to the point where they finally came to the - came back to the table, got to yes. In recent weeks, just to cite some other examples, when Hamas was refusing to engage in the fall, I went to our friends in Qatar and said: It's time to tell them that their political operation housed in Qatar is no longer welcome. And that's exactly what the Qataris did. In recent weeks, we went also to other actors, including Türkiye and President Erdogan, to use his weight and influence to get Hamas back to the table to try to conclude an agreement. And he did and they did.
So it's a long way of saying that all of these things coming together over many months, I believe, is what's gotten us here. Now, having said that, it was, I think, very important and very responsible to not only fully inform the incoming administration of what we were doing but also, yes, to involve them in the - this last part of the process that got us to the agreement. And the reason for that is virtually everything that now needs to be implemented under the agreement will be implemented under the Trump administration. And it was very important for the parties to know that the Trump administration stood behind the agreement that we'd negotiated and that President Biden put forward.
And I both appreciate and applaud the very good work that Steve Witkoff did, working closely with us, with Brett McGurk, in helping to get this over the line. But I think sending - being very clear with all concerned that the incoming administration supported, endorsed, and would carry forward its responsibilities under the agreement, that was an important thing to do.
QUESTION: Ukraine?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I'm sorry. On Ukraine. So as I look at it, first, where we started was Putin's intent, desire, and plan to erase Ukraine from the map, to subsume it into Russia, to realize his imperial designs. And as a result of the actions that we took in support of the Ukrainian people with many other countries, that's failed and it won't succeed. Ukraine is standing, and that's the most important thing of all.
Now, the question of where Ukraine goes from here and where we go from here is obviously a very important one, because there's an opportunity, again, an opportunity that we're handing off to make sure that Ukraine can go forward as an independent country, increasingly integrated with Western institutions, because that's the desire of its people, and a country that stands on its own feet - whether that's militarily, whether that's economically, whether that's democratically - and if its people and elected officials so desire, to pursue some kind of resolution or ceasefire with Russia.
Now, that requires Ukraine to decide that that's what it wants to do. It also requires Russia to agree. And there, what we've been working to do all these past months right up to the end, is to make sure, as I've said many times, that Ukraine is in a position of strength to be able to make those decisions, whether that's to continue fighting if it's necessary or to negotiate but to negotiate from a strong position. Part of that, though, has also been imposing extraordinary costs on Russia, and I think you should not discount those, including the impact that they have on Russia's decision-making.
The losses that Russia has incurred are almost unimaginable - I think, by some assessments, 7-to 800,000 casualties. That includes those killed and those wounded. The flight of so many of its most talented people from Russia, the weight of sanctions, export controls, the weight that's such that everything Russia tries to do, even the workarounds that it's done with its war economy, everything is harder, takes more time, and costs a lot more. We see the impact on its economy. We see the impact on its future - its inability to invest in the critical industries of the future that would be a source of strength for Russia. So there's a heavier and heavier weight bearing down.
So I believe that the incoming administration is in a position where, if the Ukrainians so desire and so choose, it can help to negotiate a good deal. And President Trump talks about having good, strong deals. I think there's an opportunity to get one. One of the most critical things will be, if there is to be a ceasefire, is to make sure that it's enduring, that it holds. Because what we know is this: In Putin's mind if there's a ceasefire, he's simply going to rest, refit, and then when he deems the moment right, re-attack. So you have to have built into any ceasefire the effective deterrence necessary so that he doesn't re-attack. That is, I think, a necessary part of any good, strong deal for Ukraine.
So there are lots of ways of doing that, and we've been talking to European partners about some of that. Again, all of that I'm sharing with the incoming administration, and I would hope and expect that they can help land this in a place where everything we've done to make sure that Ukraine not only survives - which it is and which it will - but actually thrives can be realized.
QUESTION: Thank you.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I'll take a couple more.
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
QUESTION: How about here, sir.
MR MILLER: (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: On Austin Tice. On Austin Tice, please.
QUESTION: Sir, how about (inaudible) the only -
MR MILLER: (Inaudible.) Go ahead.
QUESTION: On Austin Tice, it's been a few weeks since Roger Carstens had said they were narrowing down locations where he may have been held. I just wanted to see if you had any more fidelity on that. And then separately, yesterday your successor, before the Senator Foreign Relations Committee commented on the Panama Canal. You've been dismissive of the incoming administration's overtures on Greenland but not as vocal on the Panama Canal. He said the issue is not a joke and it's a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted over questions of neutrality and China's ability to choke off commerce on both sides of the canal. So I wanted to see your comments on that.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Sure. Look, on Austin Tice, all I can tell you is this: Not a day goes by where we're not out there trying to, obviously, find him or get information about what has become of him. And I don't have anything to report beyond what we've already said, but we have people throughout Syria who know the importance that we attach to this and are leaving no stone unturned to find Austin. So he and his family remain in my thoughts, all of our prayers, but mostly we're working to - in any way that we can - to find him. And of course, if we have any further information and hopefully have Austin, we'll share that or the next administration will share that.
Look, on Panama, on the Panama Canal, we have a treaty, we have a settled policy of many years. And that's not going to change. And as I've said before, I think it doesn't warrant spending a lot of time talking about it. Now, when it comes to the resilience of our supply chains, when it comes to making sure that we can get what we need and we don't have risk attendant with it, including from countries with which we have challenged relations, that's - that is important. And that's something that we've worked on pretty much around the world for the last four years, building a greater diversity of the supply chains, building a greater resilience; also, trying to make sure that countries that were trying to build up and build out their own infrastructure to improve the lives and livelihoods of their people had a better offer from us so that they didn't have to turn to others on much more onerous terms. And we've made extraordinary progress on that these last four years. So I think that's where the focus should be and that's where the - where I expect the focus actually will be.
MODERATOR: Tom.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thank you for taking the extra questions. Since the ceasefire was announced, authorities in Gaza have reported another 73 people killed. Aren't we seeing an erosion of norms given the extraordinary numbers? And you've been saying for months that Hamas is degraded militarily. At one point you said, I think, Israel was only making marginal gains when there had been another very big airstrike with civilians killed. So I just want to put that point to you that hasn't - haven't we seen here the degradation of norms given the kind of extraordinary numbers? And here we are still seeing them after a ceasefire agreement is announced in the run-up to that. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
And just secondly, on the point about international journalists being banned from Gaza, can you tell us that you are and have been still pressing the Israelis, that it is your expectation that international journalists will be allowed in?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Second part first - yes, that remains the expectation, and I think it's, as in any place, very important that all of you and your colleagues are able to report, are able to share with the world what the reality is. So we - and certainly I fully expect that to happen, and especially in the context of a ceasefire where the idea that it just may be too dangerous for anyone to operate is no longer the case. So I fully expect to see that.
QUESTION: During the ceasefire, during phase one?
SECRETARY BLINKEN: I would hope so. I can't speak to what the policies will be, but from my perspective, at least, yes.
Second, with regard to the ongoing actions, I spoke to this the other day at the Atlantic Council. And yes, I think some months ago, Israel achieved its core strategic objectives in Gaza, the fundamental objective being to ensure that Hamas could not repeat the horrors of October 7th, and to do that, to dismantle its military organization and capacity and to deal with the leaders who were responsible for October 7th. And that happened some months ago. But in order for there to be a ceasefire, it was necessary that there be some agreement on getting the hostages out, including seven Americans who remain.
And in order to get the ceasefire to be enduring, now that we have an agreement on its first phase, there have to be understandings on what comes after, on a post-conflict plan, one that allows Israel to fully pull out its forces and stay out, one that makes sure that Hamas can't go back in, and one that'll - that provides for the necessary governance, security, reconstruction of Gaza. And we'd been working every day in parallel on those plans. So now there's an opportunity finally to move forward.
But as I've said, as I said to you the other day, I think Israel's perspective on this has been if they took pressure off of Hamas, it would make it less likely that Hamas would actually finally conclude this agreement. That's their - that's the way they see it and that's the way they proceeded. We've tried to reinforce every day the urgency of actually getting to an agreement so that all of this would stop, the firing by both sides would stop, the hostages would come out, the relief would get in. Well, we're finally at that point.
I thank you all very, very much. Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: And enjoy driving yourself on Route 66 and the GW Parkway. (Laughter.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Matt, stay out of my way. (Laughter.)
