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Qatari Prime Minister Confirms Israel-Hamas Ceasefire-Hostage Deal; Biden: U.S. Hostages Will Be Part Of Phase 1 Release; Gaza Ceasefire-Hostage Deal to Take Effect Sunday. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 15, 2025 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

MAN #2 (Translated): My first question, will this agreement will reach a permanent ceasefire? Will the guarantees -- are the guarantees strong enough so that Israelis will implement all the clauses of the agreement from now to Sunday? What is the situation like to be in the Gaza Strip? A third question, please. What had caused the success of the negotiation this time? And what has Qatar contributed this time? And how will the role of Qatar be like during the implementation of this agreement?

SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN AL THANI, QATARI PRIME MINISTER: I have got lost with all these questions. You should ask me only one question. Please go back to the first question.

MAN #2: Will this agreement this time lead to a permanent ceasefire?

AL THANI: Yes. That's enough. Yes. Let me wait and ask the second question later. As to the implementation of this agreement. First, it depends on both sides that they really implement it.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: As we continue to monitor this press conference from the Qatari Prime Minister. Out of Doha, we are told that President Biden will make a statement momentarily from the White House. This is a new statement, of course, ahead of the planned speech, primetime speech that he was already going to give and still will give later tonight.

Jeff Zeleny, you've covered Joe Biden for a very long time. He has been so focused on issues in and around the Middle East for more than half a century. Did not want this to be part of his legacy when it came to October 7th, but is going to be very happy to have this phase one of a deal part of his legacy at the 11th hour.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Without question, we'll be speaking from the cross hall of the White House. There, of course, a spot that is also so heavy with history. But we got a statement from him just a few moments ago. And he said, I laid out the precise contours of this plan on May 31st, after which it was endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council. So making the point that this has long been underway.

Long that would be before he dropped out of the presidential race. That would before Vice President Harris lost the presidential race. So making clear that his administration has been working on this, but goes on to say just about the welcome news and the somber moment that this is.

But you're right for Joe Biden, longtime chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, the Vice President, the President. I'm thinking back to the moment where he flew Israel in the hours after October 7th and hugged Netanyahu in a controversial political move at least. He clearly wanted to see this through. And this is happening with just five days left in his presidency and indeed his public life.

BASH: Yeah, and it is true, they did lay out publicly. Alex, the contours, even more than the contours of this deal that seems to be coming to fruition finally. That was the public sort of exposure to this deal. And that was done because it wasn't getting as far as he wanted. Privately, that is the President you see there with the Vice President and the Secretary of State. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, 46TH U.S. PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. It's a very good afternoon because at long last, I can announce a ceasefire. And a hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas. More than 15 months of conflict that began with Hezbollah's brutal massacre on October 7th. More than 15 months of terror for the hostages, their families, the Israeli people. More than 15 months of suffering by the innocent people of Gaza.

Fighting in Gaza will stop, and soon the hostages will return home to their families. The elements of this deal were what I laid out in detail this past May, which was embraced by countries around the world and endorsed overwhelmingly by the UN Security Council. The deal is structured in three phases.

Phase one will last six weeks. It includes a full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza, and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas, including women and elderly and the wounded. And I'm proud to say Americans will be part of that hostage release in Phase 1 as well.

And the Vice President and I cannot wait to welcome them home. In exchange, Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. And during Phase 1, the Palestinians can also return to their neighborhoods in all the areas of Gaza.

[14:05:06]

And the surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin and the innocent people can have a greater access to these vital supplies.

You know, during the next six weeks, Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get phase two, which is a permanent end of the war. Let me say it again, a permanent end of the war. There are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two. But the plan says if negotiations take longer than six weeks, the ceasefire will continue as long as the negotiations continue. I've spoken to the Emir of Kuwait and the President of Egypt and we have pledged to make sure the negotiations will keep moving forward for as long as it takes. Then when phase two begins, there will be an exchange for release of the remaining living hostages, including male soldiers. And all remaining Israeli forces will be withdrawn from Gaza and the temporary ceasefire will become permanent.

And finally phase three, any final remains of hostages who have been killed will be returned to their families and a major reconstruction plan for Gaza will begin. This, this is the ceasefire agreement I introduced last spring. Today, Hamas and Israel have agreed to that ceasefire agreement and the whole ending the war.

You know, those of you who have followed the negotiations can attest the road to this deal has not been easy. I've worked in foreign policy for decades. This is one of the toughest negotiations I've ever experienced. And we reached this point because of the pressure that Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States.

Hamas's longtime leader Sinwar was killed. Hamas strongest supporter Iran launched attacks on Israel. And those attacks failed after my administration organized a coalition of nations to stop them. And after I ordered the U.S. ships and planes to come to Israel's defense we also shaped Israel's strong and calibrated response. Destroying Iran's air defenses, but avoiding an escalatory cycle of an all-out war.

The United States also organized a coalition of 20 countries to stand up to attacks by the Houthis, including their missile attacks in Israel. Then Hezbollah, another Hamas strongest backers, was significantly weakened on the battlefield and its leadership was destroyed. With our support, Israel negotiated a ceasefire with them. And after that, Lebanon finally elected a new president who's not, who's not beholden to Hezbollah and he began a new chapter for the Lebanese people.

All told, these developments in the region which the United States helped to shape, change the equation. And so now, the terror network that once protected and sustained Hamas is far weaker. Iran is weaker. Iran is weaker than it's been in decades.

Hezbollah is badly degraded. And after more than 15 months of war, Hamas senior leaders are dead, thousands of mosque fighters are dead, and the military formations have been destroyed. With nowhere to turn, Hamas finally agreed to releasing hostages.

You know, there was no other way for this war to end than with a hostage deal. And I'm deeply satisfied. This day has come, finally come. For the sake of the people of Israel and the families waiting in agony, and for the sake of the innocent people in Gaza who suffered unimaginable devastation because of the war, the Palestinian people have gone through hell. Too many innocent people have died, too many communities have been destroyed.

In this deal, the people of Gaza can finally recover and rebuild. They can look to a future without Hamas in power. You know, the Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers. Many peacemakers helped make this deal happen, including an extraordinary team of American diplomats who have worked non-stop for months to get this done.

Secretary Blinken led the effort. Secretary Jake Sullivan -- National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Bill Byrne, Jon Finer, Brett McGurk, Amos Hochstein and the Vice President worked relentlessly as we work to deliver this deal.

[14:10:01]

I'd also note this deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented for the most part by the next administration. In these past few days, we've been speaking as one team. This has been time of real turmoil in the Middle East. But as I prepare to leave office, our friends are strong, our enemies are weak. And there's genuine opportunities for a new future.

In Lebanon, there's an opportunity for a future free from the grip of Hezbollah in Syria, a future free from the tyranny of Assad. And for the Palestinian people, a credible, credible pathway to a state of their own. And for the region, a future of normalization, integration of Israel and all its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.

At the G20 in Delhi in September 23, I rallied key countries behind a vision of an economic corridor from India, across the Middle East to Europe. That vision can now become a reality. There are risks as well, including ISIS and Iran, even in a badly weakened state. But we're handing off to the next team a real opportunity for a better future for the Middle East. I hope they will take it.

Let me close with this. My friend for years in the United States Senate, former Senator George Mitchell, who did so much to forge peace in Northern Iowa, once said about diplomacy, said, it is 700 days of failure and one day of success. 700 days of failure and one day of success.

Well, we've had many difficult days since Hamas began its terrible war. We've encountered roadblocks and setbacks. We've not given up. And now, after more than 400 days of struggle, a day of success has arrived. God bless all the hostages and their families. May God protect the troops of all those who work for peace.

WOMAN #1: Mr. President, (inaudible) Gaza now, as you are saying, the implementation of this deal will be in the hands of the next administration, and basically, they will shape the future of Gaza. So how do you see this future? And also, how much credit do you give to the Trump team for this deal? Trump is already taking credit for it.

BIDEN: Well, you know, this is the exact framework of the deal I proposed back in May. Exact. And we got the world to endorse it. Secondly, it's America supports Israel that helped them badly weaken Hamas and its backers and create the conditions for this deal.

And thirdly, I knew this deal would have to be implemented by the next team. So I told my team to coordinate closely with the incoming team to make sure we're all speaking with the same voice, because that's what American presidents do. Thank you.

WOMAN #2: (Inaudible). How many Americans will be released when the hostages are being released?

BIDEN: All the exact detail of how many people are being held, how many bodies will be returned unless will all be forthcoming. All of it. All of it. Thank you.

MAN #4: (Inaudible)

BIDEN: I'm confident. Thank you.

WOMAN #3: Who gets credit for this, Mr. President. You or Trump?

BIDEN: Is that a joke? Oh, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: An extraordinary moment with President Biden flanked by Kamala Harris, his Vice President and of course the Democratic nominee for president and his Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, talking about something that they have been working on for months. And he is absolutely right, talking about the fact that the contours of this, even more of the details of this deal is what his administration put forward in May, what, six, seven months ago.

And they have been trying to get done for all of that time with lots of fits and starts for lots of different reasons. And you could see almost the stone faced Tony Blinken, who has been a part of the Biden orbit for decades, crack a little bit of a smile when the President said that diplomacy is 700 days of failure and one day of success because Tony Blinken has been living it along with so many others.

I want to bring in Christiane Amanpour. Christiane, you were with the secretary of state today, just a few hours ago inside the State Department, as the final I's were dotted, the T's were crossed on this very long sought deal.

[14:15:14]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Indeed, Dana, just timing is everything. And we did our interview, his last TV interview before he hands over to his successor. And this administration changes as this was happening.

And so in the interview, he, he couldn't actually say it's done, but he was absolutely sure that it was being done. And he was able to roll out the details, some of which have been fleshed out by President Biden right now before that by the key mediator, the Prime Minister of Qatar, who explained, you know, day by day and phase by phase how this would go.

Interestingly, I also asked him about a connection, as President Biden just talked about, with the incoming administration. And Blinken told me that he had had over the last days and weeks, very good, in his words, conversations with his successor should he be confirmed. His, you know, confirmation is happening today, Senator Marco Rubio, that they were very constructive and very good on this and other foreign policy issues, including Ukraine and other such things. So there's no doubt that this administration knew that to get this over the line, they would have to accept that the actual major implementation would be by the incoming Trump administration.

And in Blinken's words, and I think Biden's words, they have delivered to the Trump administration leverage which the Trump administration can now choose to use or not to use, either in this case in the Middle East or in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. But certainly, certainly even Blinken admitted that, you know, the arrival of Donald Trump focused a lot more minds at this particular juncture, but that this was the deal that the Biden administration had written practically to the word back in May.

And of course, that begs the question of how many more lives could have been served and saved had that gone into implementation then. But here we are at this point, Dana.

BASH: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Christiane. It really is remarkable. And Frank Lowenstein, I do want to bring you in. Thank you for being so patient as we were watching multiple press conferences, including and especially from the President of the United States.

He talked about, as Christian said, the fact that this is and was his plan, fact check, true. He also talked about the fact that he understood that it will be Donald Trump and his administration that will have to implement and carry out the multi-phase plan, fact check true. And he said that is why our teams work together and spoke as one team. As a diplomat, what does that tell you?

FRANK LOWENSTEIN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATIONS: Well, I think it was very positive that they worked so closely together on this deal. I think obviously the Biden administration deserves the lion's share of the credit for their persistence over the last six or seven months. But I think Trump did play a constructive role, particularly with the Israelis, in terms of getting them to make the tough compromises that would be necessary to get this deal done.

So Biden can say when he left that he created a pathway to a sustainable end of the war in Gaza. But just to be clear, this is not like the ceasefire deal in Lebanon that is, in its own right intended to end this war. It's really a 42-day agreement and the release of about a third of the hostages and a partial withdrawal of Israel from Gaza.

What has not been resolved, and you heard this in the Qatari news conference, was whether we're ever going to make that transition from phase one to phase two. And Netanyahu has said very clearly, I am not going to allow Hamas to remain in power. The Israeli foreign minister said, Hamas knows this is only a temporary cease fire.

So it will really be down to the Trump administration to create the conditions where the Israelis feel like they can move from phase one to phase two and not run the risk of having Hamas sort of regenerate. So, yeah, lots of work remains to be done.

BASH: Yeah, no question. But you can't get to phase two without getting to phase one first. And clearly the fact that they're already putting that pressure on, even before we've seen -- actually seen in black and white what it says, the deal says. And also more importantly, the hostages come home, the airstrikes end in Gaza. Thank you so much for sticking around with us. Appreciate it.

And back here, Jeff Zeleny, just kind of back to the Biden moment. The sentence, I think I heard you go, and I sort of wrote it down as well. At the end of the statement, he took a couple of questions and one of the questions was about who gets credit for this. And he said, without saying explicitly, that it was his deal and, you know, he should get credit, but so should the Trump administration, which is why he said teams work together.

[14:20:03]

But then he said explicitly, we were speaking with the same voice, quote, because that's what American presidents do.

ZELENY: Without question. Those five words certainly hang very heavy as we really transition from the Biden administration to the Trump administration. And thinking back to four years ago, the courtesy that he was not afforded of a complete peaceful transition that really started his administration in a much slower way away.

But then as he turned to walk away, a reporter asked, who gets credit, Biden or Trump? He said, is that a joke? So clearly he believes that he gets the lion's share of the credit here. I'm not sure that -- I think we can have this discussion another day.

BASH: I agree.

ZELENY: And the question also is how much of this is implemented. But there is no doubt, I think, that Joe Biden, President Biden, former Vice President Biden, former Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, this was something he also said, this road to this deal has not been easy. I worked in foreign policy for decades. It's one of the most difficult negotiations I've been part of.

So this now will be a piece of his legacy. Does it override everything else? Of course not, but it is one chapter of it. And he said, I told my team to work with their team. So that is something that, you know, this is much more important than or bigger than domestic politics.

However, if this had happened in May, would domestic politics have changed? Those are questions that will be lost to history. But there is no doubt that this impacted the presidential election in many ways.

Look at Michigan, look at younger voters, look at others. So that, of course, is a time for another or discussion for another time, I think. But I do think that's what American presidents do was so, so telling.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: It's still intriguing. You pointed out earlier that he was noting in April that this was the deal, right? Laying down that marker and then saying in this speech, we developed and -- this was developed and negotiated by my administration, but it will implemented by the next. He is laying down very specific markers here about how this went through.

It's not going to be a day of just saying, well, Donald Trump was coming and everybody just started to scurry and all of a sudden a deal was done. He came out and tried to say, no, look, a lot of work has come into this point and there was cooperation at the end. But he wants this to be part of his legacy, specifically this window.

BASH: And the only way it will be part of his legacy in the way that he hopes it is, is if it is implemented in a way that works out and that is really, really key in the short-term with this first phase and that Donald Trump and his administration do push Israel and Hamas to continue with the next phases.

I do want to get to MJ Lee, who is at the White House for us and MJ, you and our colleagues have some great new reporting that hopefully will be on cnn.com soon, if it's not already there, about the late nights past messages and final demands inside the final intensive push for the cease fire and hostages deal, talking about what went on, the drama that went on in order to get to what we're seeing right now.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and you know, we definitely remember this from the first cease fire that we saw more than a year ago, just how incredibly complicated, fragile and fraught these negotiations were the last time around too, when it really came down to the wire.

One of the biggest reasons being that it is very difficult to negotiate with Hamas officials, particularly when Yahya Sinwar was alive. You know, he was the leader of the group that was in hiding under tunnels, presumably in Gaza for all of the negotiations.

And one senior administration official talking to reporters just sort of laid out and helped paint a picture of how this time around to the last couple of days, as this really got down to the wire, how complicated things were and how fragile these talks were towards the end.

Essentially we had representatives, as we know, gathered in Doha, representatives from the U.S., Egypt, Israel and Qatar on one floor of a building in Doha. They were on the second floor and then just downstairs were the Hamas officials. And the entire time messages were basically being exchanged as the two groups were sitting in different rooms on separate floors to try to get this across the finish line. One of the evenings, this official said, basically stretched on into the middle of the night at 3 a.m. or so.

And at the very end, and you know, this again shouldn't be surprising if you remember how these talks went the last time around. Hamas ended up coming in with some last minute demands. We had reported this earlier in the day two that a U.S. official said there were some last minute issues that had come up that had to be addressed.

[14:25:05] And that led the other parties to basically being forced to stand firm and reject presumably some of those demands that were being made by Hamas. And then finally, this ended up getting across the finish line.

One other sort of big picture, I think, sticking point that is clear, again, we've heard this before was that in the months prior, Hamas had sort of refused to be clear about which hostages they had, how many hostages they had. And then as we got closer to today, the group was unwilling to share information about which hostages would actually be released. That obviously ended up getting resolved because we now know how many hostages are going to be released in the first six week phase of this cease fire.

And very importantly, President Biden himself confirmed in his remarks that Americans, as we reported, are going to be among those hostages that are initially released. Now, he wouldn't get into the details. He certainly didn't say which Americans are going to come out. He didn't say exactly how many. He didn't say whether all of them or some of them would be alive or dead.

We do know that four of the seven Americans have already been declared dead. So we are basically hoping that the three remaining that were not declared dead will ultimately come out of this alive. And I think it is just worth stressing.

It's, it seems like an obvious point, but for this president, this is one of the reasons that this was such an important priority for him. He has consistently talked about how this is one of the most important duties when you are the President of the United States is to secure the release and return of any wrongfully detained Americans abroad.

And now, he is hoping that any day now we will be able to celebrate as a country and this administration the release of these Americans, at least some of them from Gaza after so many painful months for their families.

BASH: That's right. Three American hostages held by Hamas are presumed to be alive, but doesn't appear as though all of them of the three, Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Keith Siegel will be coming in the first phase. Edan, for example, is young. He's a young man and is in the IDF. So that is unlikely in the first phase. Thank you so much, MJ.

I want to go to the region to Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, I just got some reporting from our colleagues over there and they're talking about the sense and the feeling right now inside Hostages Square. We heard a lot about it from Bianna Golodryga earlier in the afternoon. But what they are describing is a moment of relief, but not celebration, because only a handful of hostages are due to return at first, and those who do come back are an unknown condition.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Dana. And there will still be many moments of uncertainty as this cease fire is implemented, as those hostages begin to emerge from the Gaza Strip. The last time we had that week long cease fire at the end of November of 2023, it was only the day of sometimes an hours before that the families learned that their loved ones were on the list for that day.

This time, in addition to that uncertainty, we also have the uncertainty of which of these hostages are going to emerge alive and which of them will be coming back to Israel in body bags. Our understanding is that not all of the 33 hostages set to be released will be living hostages, although the majority are indeed expected to be.

As the President laid out there, this will be a six week cease fire that has been agreed to. That is all that has been officially agreed to here. But as the President said, and as clearly his hope is, is that this cease fire can be extended and can ultimately lead to an end of the war.

He pointed out the fact that this six week cease fire will continue beyond that as long as the parties, Israel and Hamas, remain at the negotiating table in order to try and reach the second phase of this agreement, which would ultimately result in the total withdrawal of Israeli troops, the end of the war, and the release of all of the hostages remaining.

But that is far from a certainty. And time and again, the Israeli Prime Minister has said that he will not end this war until Hamas is entirely defeated. I have spoken with aides of his who have suggested that Israel will return to fighting perhaps after this initial phase of the deal takes place.

And I also want to highlight, you know, the other side of the coin of what President Biden was saying there, with the fact that this is based on a framework that he announced in late May. He was talking about it in the sense of making clear that this was his deal.