BREAKING NEWS - Antony Blinken Speaks To Reporters During Unannounced Visit To Iraq To Meet With PM

Yeah , uh Secretary , thanks you for questions .

Uh Yesterday , President Joe Biden , when asked whether he was optimistic if progress was being made towards getting Israel to agree to humanitarian policies and strikes .

He gave a thumbs up and said yes , based on your conversations with Israel on Friday with Arab leaders .

Yes .

And today , do you share the president's optimism ?

Why hasn't the deal been agreed to yet ?

And how do you get around Israel's apparent categorical rejection of any kind of a deal like this ?

A deal that people , many people seem to think is a modest step .

Well , first , as we said , following my conversations with the Prime Minister and with the Israeli government , this is a process .

Israel has raised important questions about how humanitarian pauses would work .

We've got to answer those questions we're working on exactly that .

In fact , we agreed that our uh teams would get together and they , they're doing just that uh including today to work through uh the specifics , the practicalities of um of these pauses .

Second , it's important that the pause advance a number of things , one of them is hostages .

We are intensely focused .

The United States , Israel every other country that has one of its citizens being held hostage by Hamas to bring them home .

Now , it's important that as we're engaged in pursuing humanitarian pause , this can be something that advances the prospect of getting the hostages back .

It can also advance other things that we're committed to doing as is the government of Israel and other partners in the region , especially getting more humanitarian assistance to people who need it in Gaza .

I'll remind you when we had conversations three weeks ago about starting humanitarian assistance .

It was a process to actually get that moving .

But we had a commitment to do that .

It took some days to get the process in place .

Since then , we've had trucks moving .

We have about 100 trucks a day going in .

That's good , but it's grossly insufficient .

So now we're working on raising that significantly so that more aid in a sustained way gets into Palestinians who need it there again .

A humanitarian pause can also help advance that and create an environment in which we can do as much as possible for people who so desperately need the assistance .

The Arab leaders said nothing short of a total ceasefire would be acceptable .

Did you make any progress in convincing them that a humanitarian pause would be a reasonable compromise ?

I think , I think everyone would welcome humanitarian pauses .

There's no doubt about that .

There are obviously different views including on the question of the ceasefire .

But there's no doubt from my conversations with all of our colleagues who were in Amman yesterday , that everyone would welcome the American policy because again , it could advance things that we're all trying to accomplish , including getting hostages back , including getting a lot more assistance into Gaza , including getting people out of Gaza , citizens from other countries who seek to leave .

We've had important progress there in recent days , there are also real complications that come along with it .

We continue to work through them .

But in each of these areas , the humanitarian pause or pauses could make a positive difference , Michael .

Um Thanks very much for uh sort of taking my question , Michael Berman from the Washington Post .

Um question about uh each of your visits today here in Iraq .

I mean , what kind of steps did you talk about with the Iraqi Prime Minister specific steps that they can take as a government to try to reduce the uh militia attacks and attempted attacks on us forces here .

And um looking back at Ramallah , um you said that you , you have a view for the Palestinian authority to have a potential governance role in Gaza .

I wanted to ask what uh President abbas' view was , that was of that today .

And um you know , if , if he's in favor , why , why do you think that's a great idea , given the generally low view of the Palestinian authority among Palestinians ?

Well , first with regard to Iraq Prime Sudan has spoken out clearly .

In fact , he made an important statement about a week ago , October 23rd , condemning these attacks and making clear the imperative that they stop .

And in addition , he is working with his own security forces and others too take necessary action to deal with these attacks and to seek to prevent them .

So we talked about that I can't get into specifics , but this is a matter of Iraqi sovereignty .

No country wants to have militia groups engaged in violent activity that's clearly against the interests of Iraq and its own sovereignty as well as against our interests .

So I think we have a shared purpose and commitment and trying to make sure that these attacks don't happen .

And we also share the interest and interest that is shared with virtually everyone in the region to make sure that the conflict in Gaza doesn't spread to other places , whether it's here or elsewhere in the region .

So everyone is looking to take the necessary steps , use their authority , use their influence to try to make sure that this stops doesn't happen with regard to the visit to Ramallah and the Palestinian authority .

Look , we're they and we are very focused on on the day of even as we need to be thinking about the day after .

And I think what's clear is that with regard to the day after , with regard to future Gaza , the West Bank , Palestinian views , Palestinian voices , Palestinian aspirations need to be at the center of that .

And that's what we focused on the P is playing a very important role right now in the West Bank , in trying to keep stability there .

That's usually important because no one wants another front in the West Bank or anywhere else .

And they're really stepping up under very difficult conditions to do the necessary work .

But if you project forward to the future , what we all agree is that in defining that future , in shaping that future for Gaza , for the West Bank and ultimately , uh for a Palestinian state , Palestinian voices have to be at the center of that .

The Palestinian authority is the representative of uh of those voices .

So uh it's important that it play a leading role .

Thank you .

Thanks .