James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:10 P.M. EST
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Look at this. Packed room. Happy New Year, everybody.
Q Happy New Year.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: It's so good to see everyone. Welcome back. 2024, here we come.
And with that — we are just 16 days away from parts of the government shutting down. Sixteen days away. Sixteen.
Instead of doing their jobs, House Republicans left Washington in the middle of December. And they're not back until next week.
The American people want Congress to work with the President to take care and work on real issues — real issues that matter in their lives. That's what the American people want to see.
But instead of entering this year with a new approach to deliver for the American people, House Republicans are prioritizing baseless impeachment stunts. In fact, earlier today, House Republicans said, and I quote, "We'll shut the government down. We control the money."
It's been 13 weeks since the first government funding deadline and more than 6 weeks since they kicked the can down the road for a second time. It's time for House Republicans to get serious, do their jobs, and deliver for the American people.
It shouldn't be hard to fund the government. It is truly their basic, basic duty. So, they should get to work.
And now, we're joined, as you see, with — by my — by my colleague, Admiral John Kirby, who is here to discuss the recent attacks by the Houthis and the developments in the Middle East. We haven't seen you all in a couple — in a while, so I know he's going to do a little bit of a laydown.
Admiral, the podium is yours.
MR. KIRBY: Afternoon, everybody.
Q Good afternoon.
MR. KIRBY: As Karine said, it's been a little bit of a while here since we've had a chance to talk, so I just wanted to give you a laydown of where things stand in the Middle East.
Over the holidays, the President received regular updates from his National Security Advisor, Mr. Sullivan, as well as the national security team. And as you all know, he had the chance to speak again with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Yesterday, Mr. Sullivan held a phone call with Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, where they discussed ongoing Israeli military operations and ongoing efforts to see if we can secure the release of the remaining hostages.
The United States remains focused on working with a range of partners to help Israel defend itself, to surge humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza, and, of course, to defend our national security interests in the region.
That most certainly includes protecting the free flow of international commerce in the Red Sea.
To accomplish these goals, we have established and will continue to maintain a significant force presence in the Middle East.
This includes an aircraft carrier strike group, centered around the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, with its embarked air wing of some 80 aircraft, as well as an amphibious ready group, with its embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
That amphibious ready group, led by the assault ship USS Bataan, was moved into the Eastern Mediterranean in recent days, coinciding with the departure of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford.
Now, between the Bataan and the two other ships of her group, the USS Mesa Verde and the USS Carter Hall, this consolidates in that part of the Mediterranean more than 4,000 sailors and marines and more than 50 aircraft.
An amphibious ready group with an embarked Marine expeditionary unit is capable of a wide range of operations and, because it is sea-based, remains a highly flexible option to any Commander-in-Chief when it comes to the potential use of force.
These ships and their Marines are augmented by three additional squadrons of fighter and attack aircraft that are based ashore and additional highly capable warships at sea, including a number of destroyers that are specifically designed for ballistic missile defense.
Some of those warships are operating in the Red Sea, where they — alongside the ships, aircraft, and capabilities of more than 20 other nations — continue to counter Houthi attacks on civilian maritime shipping. You've all seen in the last few — a couple of days what these ships have been able to do in terms of knocking things out of the sky.
All told, these U.S. and coalition ships and aircraft contribute to an impressive array — I'm sorry — impressive air and missile defense capability, as well as robust intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, not to mention offensive and defensive military power.
As the President has made clear, the United States does not seek conflict with any nation or actor in the Middle East, nor do we want to see the war between Israel and Hamas widen in the region. But neither will we shrink from the task of defending ourselves, our interests, our partners, or the free flow of international commerce.
That's why, earlier today, we released a joint statement alongside 12 — I'm sorry — 11 countries condemning Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea — one of the world's most critical waterways — and reiterating that these attacks must cease immediately. And just after we released that statement, Singapore came on board, so now there's 13 nations that have signed up to that statement.
As we have made clear, these actions directly threaten freedom of navigation and global trade and they put innocent lives at risk.
This joint statement demonstrates the resolve of global partners against these unlawful attacks and underlines our commitment to holding malign actors accountable for their actions.
Lastly, as you've seen, now in — in addition to this release — well, I think that's it.
I'll take questions, sorry. (Laughter.)
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Darlene.
Q Thank you. I wanted to ask about Iran. Does the United States have any idea of who might be behind the bombings there today?
And secondly, does the U.S. think the killing of the Hamas leader in Beirut has significantly changed the strength of Hamas?
MR. KIRBY: So, on your first question, we aren't at a point now where we have a lot of great detail on — on this bombing. Certainly, our — our hearts go out to all the innocent victims and their family members, who are — obviously, their lives are going to be forever changed by this. But we don't have any — we don't have any more detail in terms of how it happened or who would — might be responsible for it.
On your second question, again, I would point you to — to our Israeli partners to talk more about this. We're — we're, again, not in a position to confirm the specific reports.
I would just tell you that al-Arouri was a noted designated global terrorist. And if he is, in fact, dead, nobody should be shedding a tear over his loss.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Mary.
Q Thanks. I know you said you don't have any great detail on who was responsible, but can you rule out that Israel had anything to do with this?
MR. KIRBY: We have no indication at this time at all that Israel was involved in any way whatsoever.
Q No indication, but just to be clear: You don't think — did they support or assist in — in some other way?
MR. KIRBY: I would — I'm not going to speak for another nation. I would just tell you that we have no indication that Israel was in any way involved in this.
Q And given that this was the Soleimani anniversary, did you have any intelligence that something was being planned for this day?
MR. KIRBY: We certainly had no indications that there would be some sort of violence surrounding the anniversary of his death.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead.
Q Just to follow up on the — the Lebanon issue. Is there any concern that that particular strike might expand the conflict regionally?
MR. KIRBY: Well, I would just say, Trevor, everything that we've done — in fact, the laydown I just offered of the force posture changes that the President has ordered in the region — has been designed to prevent an escalation or widening or deepening of this conflict.
As we've said before, we don't want to see it widen beyond Israel and Hamas. And, again, we're going to keep working with partners in the region to prevent that from happening.
Q Okay. And then on the Red Sea. You mentioned that joint statement that came out today and that Singapore has added their names to that as well.
MR. KIRBY: Yeah.
Q But that is just, you know, 13 countries total. That's smaller than the — the 44 that — that issued a statement in December. And, you know, countries that you would think would be on that list, like France, are — are not. Is there a region — reason why that's not a broader group of countries that signed on?
MR. KIRBY: I — hey, first of all, 13 other nations signing up to language like that — or 13 total nations; 12 others than us — I think, is significant. Other nations can speak for themselves about their decision-making with respect to signing on to public statements.
There are, as you know, many nations in — that are assisting us in Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea that don't want to be public that are contributing capabilities, but they don't want it public.
So, I — I think you're seeing an increasing number of nations around the world, particularly as commerce in the Red Sea gets affected and shipping companies are making difficult decisions about whether to transit the Red Sea and the impact that it's beginning to — to have on global commerce. Countries are more and more becoming aware of this increasing threat to — to the free flow of commerce in the Red Sea by the — by the Houthis and are increasingly being willing to express their — their discomfort with that.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Peter.
Q John, thanks so much. Is it the White House's view that the elimination of Hamas is an attainable goal?
MR. KIRBY: What we've said before is — well, first of all, the Israelis should speak to their military goals. We have said that we absolutely believe they have the right and responsibility to eliminate the threat that Hamas poses to the Israeli people.
Now, they have said for themselves, Peter, that the way they're going about that is really targeting infrastructure — you know, tunnels and command and control nodes — as well as leadership. It is not that unusual or different approach than we took ourselves in places like in Iraq and Afghanistan going after the leadership network.
Now, you can certainly significantly degrade a terrorist organization's ability to operate, train, and conduct attacks by going after its leadership. You are probably not going to eliminate the ideology which underpins that group. And we've seen that — I — al Qaeda, ISIS, other groups.
Q So, let me be clear. There is a difference between language the U.S. has used in the past with the language "degrade" — to try to degrade the leadership and the ability to attack. So, does the U.S. — just to be clear, I understand Israel's role in this — does the U.S. believe the elimination of Hamas, though, is an attainable goal?
MR. KIRBY: We believe that it is absolutely an attainable goal for the Israeli military forces to — to degrade and — and defeat Hamas's abilities to conduct attacks inside Israel. They — they can — it can be done militarily.
Are you going to eliminate the ideology? No. And are you likely going to erase the group from existence? Probably not. But can you eliminate the threat that Hamas poses to the Israeli people? Absolutely.
Q Okay. Let me ask another question, if I can. We've been talking about the Houthis here. We heard from Maersk and some of these other companies that — obviously, the big — the — the Danish shipping giant that paused —
MR. KIRBY: Yeah.
Q — its operations in the Gulf of Aden and in the Red Sea. A lot of other shipper — shipping companies are either pausing or rerouting right now.
How concerned is the United States that these shipping companies may be pausing or trying to find other routes or revisiting that region altogether right now, given the impact it could have on the United States in terms of supply chain, inflation, and whatever else?
MR. KIRBY: Well, if we weren't concerned, we wouldn't have stood up an operation in the Red Sea, now consisting of more than 20 nations, to try to protect that commerce. The Red Sea is a vital waterway. A significant amount of global trade flows through that Red Sea. And by forcing nations to go around the Cape of Good Hope, I mean, you're adding weeks and weeks onto voyages and untold resources.
Now, expenses have to be applied in order to do that. Plus, it's just a more dangerous journey. So, obviously, there is a concern about — about the — the impact on global commerce.
Q Is the pocketbook issue that Americans could be concerned about, given the supply chain —
MR. KIRBY: We haven't seen that effect yet.
Q Is it at risk of being?
MR. KIRBY: It would depend on how long this threat goes and on how much more energetic the Houthis think that they might become. I mean, right now, we haven't seen a — you know, an uptick or a specific effect on the U.S. economy. But make no mistake: It is a key international waterway, and it can have an effect on the global economy.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Weijia.
