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CNN International: Dozens Killed In Gaza Since Ceasefire Deal Announced; Antony Blinken Holds News Conference At State Dept.; Blinken: Our Work At The State Dept. "Could Not Be More Important". Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired January 16, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers from around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York, and this is CNN Newsroom. I'm going to get straight to our breaking news this hour.
At any moment, we are expecting Antony Blinken to give his final news conference as U.S. Secretary of State. We'll bring that to you live.
We're also closely watching developments in the Middle East, awaiting an Israeli government vote that has now been delayed on a much anticipated Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal. The truce is supposed to take effect Sunday. But first, it has to be approved by Israel's cabinet. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed that vote and is accusing Hamas of reneging on parts of the deal. Hamas says that it stands by the agreement brokered in Qatar. The deal calls for Hamas to release 33 hostages in the first phase, while Israel would release around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
CNN's Kate Bolduan spoke to a U.S. National Security Advisor, who says that he is confident the deal will be implemented. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON FINER, PRINCIPAL U.S. DEPUTY NATIONAL SECUROTY ADVISOR: So, it's going to be challenging to implement this deal, but we fully expect it to be implemented. As you know, and as the President described in his remarks, the deal plays out across three phases. The second phase involves a permanent ceasefire and the release of all the hostages. The third phase involves the release of the remains of hostages who have been deceased during the course of this conflict, or on October 7th. It's all spelled out on paper. And so, we are doing everything we can to set the incoming team up as well as possible to actually implement this deal, since the bulk of this time period will now play out in a new administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SOLOMON: Palestinians, meantime, are hoping that they don't lose any
more loved ones in the remaining hours before a ceasefire takes effect. Authorities say that at least 77 people were killed in Gaza, including 21 children since the deal was announced.
Let's get some perspective now from former Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin. He is the Middle East Director for the International Communities Organization. Gershon, good to have you again.
GERSHON BASKIN, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: Thank you.
SOLOMON: With the cabinet meeting now delayed, we hear from U.S. officials there that they seem to still be confident that this agreement is still in place. Are you? Do you have any concern that this agreement may fall apart at this point?
BASKIN: No. I don't think we'll fall apart yet. I think it is a very problematic deal to implement, and it's a pity that the President of the United States and his team pushed this three-month deal on Israel and Hamas, when a much tighter, smaller deal could have been achieved in a much shorter period of time, that could have released all the hostages.
What we're going to see is 33 hostages in 42 days. We don't even know if the 33 of them are alive. The prisoners that Israel will release, a thousand in number, is dependent upon who the hostages are who are released, and what is their condition? There are a lot of big ifs in this deal. And of course, the biggest if is if it will lead to the end of the war, which it really needs to do.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And also, I mean, just in this moment, at least, if this will still be able to be implemented as early as Sunday, which is what we had previously heard, what do you think?
BASKIN: Well, I think that the Israeli Prime Minister is having difficulty with some of his cabinet members, but he has a majority in the government, and at the moment that he decides to convene a meeting of the Israeli government, there will be a vote, and it will pass. He is confronting the possibility of two political parties bolting the cabinet. I don't think that will happen. They don't want to bring down the government. But, Netanyahu still has this very thin majority, even if they leave the government. Netanyahu's problems will arise once the war is over, and that's what he is primarily afraid of, because then there will be a call for new elections in Israel.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And with the dynamics in the Israeli government being what they are, not necessarily expected to change anytime soon, how does that bode well for phase one turning into a phase two, and a phase two obviously turning into a phase three, and ultimately the end of a war?
BASKIN: Right. Well, I think the best thing that we have going for us is that Netanyahu cannot say no to President Trump, and this is the big difference between the incoming administration and the outgoing administration. President Biden issued threats to Israel on several occasions with regard to humanitarian aid going into Gaza, and it was ignored by Israel and there were no consequences.
We know that Trump is a different kind of President. He is transactional. He expects he -- to be listened to, and Netanyahu has no one to go around his back to another political party that could help him out in moments of trouble. So, when Trump says to Netanyahu, make the deal, get it done before I'm in the White House, Netanyahu takes it seriously, and Trump's Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, was in Doha, traveled to Jerusalem, went back to Doha.
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It was in the arena of the negotiations throughout the period of time to make sure it got done.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And do you think that will ultimately be the change maker here, a new administration?
BASKIN: I think it is. And President Biden presented this deal in the end of May. It took months before it was happening. I met with one of the negotiating chiefs a few weeks ago, and we were actually three weeks before January 20th, and he told me there would be a deal within three weeks. And that wasn't just a prediction of someone who was looking in a crystal ball. He saw the date of January 20th, knowing that Trump was coming into the White House, and that Trump wanted this done before he became President.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And for our audience watching, we have already gotten a two-minute warning from the podium. And so, we do expect Secretary of State Antony Blinken to speak at any moment. Of course, once he arrives at the podium, we will take you there.
But, Gershon, while I have you, I want to ask -- I mean, you have been a part of hostage negotiations before very high-profile hostage negotiations. You know how delicate they can be, the fact that we have even gotten here after 15 months of conflict. Your thoughts about this moment.
BASKIN: Well, I think that for Hamas, the most important thing was to end the war and to free Palestinian prisoners. For Israel, the most important thing is to bring the hostages home without ending the war. Then this has been the conflict all along, and it really took an outside party here, we're talking about the United States of America, to push the sides to make the deal. The Qataris and the Egyptians have been very helpful. They both have interest in sitting this deal done. We're going to see the implementation of the deal. It's very, very sensitive. The focal point will be in Egypt, on the Gaza-Egypt-Israel border in the coming days.
Hopefully we'll see the first three hostages, women hostages, coming home on the first day of the ceasefire, and then hopefully we'll see the speed of it picked up with a ceasefire being held, an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza. And the biggest problem is that no one has dealt with the issue of who is going to rule Gaza on the day after, because Hamas cannot continue to rule Gaza.
SOLOMON: Well, and that is my question, Gershon. I mean, I realize it's a very abstract question right now, and the most pressing need, obviously, is the humanitarian situation on the ground, and of course, for the families of the hostages, getting those hostages home. But, is it clear to you that the -- what the day after of it all looks like, and also who will govern Gaza, and how much of a stumbling block is that in terms of even just this ceasefire deal?
BASKIN: It's a huge stumbling block. Look, the people of Gaza don't want Hamas there anymore. There are two million homeless people in Gaza who've lost everything. Almost 50,000 people killed. And they blame -- they, of course, blame Israel, but they hold Hamas responsible. Gaza will not be rebuilt. There'll be no reconstruction money for Gaza from the international community or from the Arab states even if Hamas remains in place in Gaza. Hamas knows this as well.
The Palestinian Authority Prime Minister in Oslo said yesterday that only the Palestinian Authority can rule both the West Bank and Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority has little legitimacy on the ground, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, and the head of the Palestinian Authority, President Abbas, is 90-years-old, in the 19th year before your term, and Palestinians don't want him. There are alternatives, but it needs to be appointed by President Abbas, who needs to step aside, but someone needs to force him to do that. Maybe it will be President Trump who will do that. Right now, no one has stood up to President Abbas and said, you need to retire. You need to give over the government to someone else who has credibility and legitimacy on the ground.
SOLOMON: And the likelihood that we see perhaps some coalition of Arab leaders make that request to Abbas, what about that?
BASKIN: That would happen if Jordan and Egypt and the Saudis and the Emiratis and the Egyptians, if they all got together and told Abbas, listen, you can be President for life and have ceremonial duties, but we need a reform Palestinian Authority that has legitimate support from the Palestinian street, both in the West Bank and Gaza. That would be the best possibility, because I think it's best for everyone to see reunification of the Palestinian leadership, and it needs to be led by Palestinians who are accepted by the Palestinian street. Eventually, they have to have elections. They need to democratically elect their leaders. That can't be done right now in this period of instability and lack of security. But, once there is stability, the Palestinians really need to go back to the polls and decide who they want to lead them.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Gershon Baskin, we're going to leave it here, but we always appreciate the insights and perspective. Thank you.
And as I --
BASKIN: Thank you.
SOLOMON: -- just mentioned a few moments ago, we are still standing by for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He is scheduled to speak really any moment now.
But, let me bring in my colleague, CNN's Kevin Liptak, who is tracking all of this from Washington.
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Kevin, any sense of what we can expect to hear from Blinken?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think that you're going to hear Blinken urge all of these sides to resolve their differences very quickly, and certainly, this last-minute hiccup to the hostage deal has created something of a scramble inside the White House and in Washington, as they try and urge the Israelis to find out what's going on and to resolve their differences. And we have heard that the negotiators on the American side, both from the Biden administration, Brett McGurk, President Biden's Middle East envoy, but also Steve Witkoff, who is incoming President Trump's Middle East envoy. They are still on the ground in Doha, trying to help bridge some of these gaps that have come up.
We did hear from the White House earlier today, from John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, who said that the White House is confident that this deal will stand, that these differences will be resolved. But, I think the fact that Antony Blinken is coming out, speaking from the podium at the State Department, gives you a sense of how urgently the Biden administration wants to get in front of this and wants to ensure that the ceasefire and hostage agreement that was announced yesterday, and that seemed like it was finalized, actually materializes and actually comes into fruition on Sunday, which is the day that it was expected to happen. And so, I think Biden administration officials, of course, watching this very, very closely.
We did see sort of a moment of celebration yesterday, President Biden coming up, talking about this deal, delivering the speech that he had been waiting months and months and months to deliver after so many points in this process where it seemed as if a deal was in the offing, only to have it disappear at the last minute. I can tell you, Biden administration officials very, very much hope that this is not something of a repeat of those moments. Of course, they've already announced the deal. And so, a lot of anxiety, I think, this morning, from the White House, but also a degree of confidence that this deal will end up being enacted, that this is sort of a last-minute hiccup, and that the differences will ultimately be resolved.
SOLOMON: Yes, certainly anxiety from the White House. And actually, let's listen to the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: -- 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 and 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs. Why did you keep the talks --
BLINKEN: So --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- we had a deal --
BLINKEN: -- I'm happy to address questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a deal. Everyone in this room knows we had a deal, Tony, and we kept the bombs --
BLINKEN: I'm happy to address questions when we get a chance. Thank you.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) my friends to be massacred. Why did you --
BLINKEN: I'm happy to address your questions when we get to questions. Thank you. Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
BLINKEN: Yeah. I have a --
(CROSSTALK)
BLINKEN: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You raised the white flag before Netanyahu. You waived the white flag before Israeli --
BLINKEN: I look forward to taking questions when I get a chance to finish my statement. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) grandfather was an Israel lobbyist. Are you compromised by Israel? Why did you allow the holocaust of our time to happen? 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. You smirked through the genocide.
BLINKEN: Thank you, and thank you, Matt. And I've got a few more things to say, and 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 in 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 -- well, OK, I was -- 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.
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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. They 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 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 is to 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, tireless dedication over these many months of negotiations. So -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you recognize he Geneva Conventions applied to the Palestinians?
BLINKEN: And again, I'm happy to address questions when we 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 costs, 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.
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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 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 to exacerbate Putin's growing manpower and economic dilemmas, we can continue to help Ukrainians gain leverage to negotiate, adjust 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 free and open Indo-Pacific, where goods and ideas and people float 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 re-energized the Quad with Japan, India, and Australia, strengthened our relationships with ASEAN, 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, and 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 interest 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 national -- 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 carried with me --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Respect. You have to respect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miller says he doesn't know about the (inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can leave, sir.
(CROSSTALK)
BLINKEN: Again, I'm happy to address questions in just a -- in a few more minutes. I look forward to answering questions in a few more minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(CROSSTALK) BLINKEN: I look forward to answering questions. Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you start making another speech every day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, would you like to be escorted out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't have the responsibility to tell me where to go. Do you want to be escorted out or not?
BLINKEN: OK.
(CROSSTALK)
BLINKEN: I look forward to answering questions in a minute. Thank you. Everyone will have an opportunity to ask questions in just a minute. Thank you. So --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one has explicitly told me that you will not answer my questions.
(CROSSTALK)
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 to their loved ones.
Finally, I just wanted to share this morning --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Get your hands off me. Answer a damn question.
BLINKEN: I look forward to answering questions and comments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know about Israel's nuclear weapons, everybody from the ICJ, I was sitting here quietly, and now I'm 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.
(CROSSTALK)
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BLINKEN: Please, sir, respect the process. We'll have an opportunity to take questions in few minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's at the point of the eighth -- the May 31st statement to block the ICJ orders? You want the ICJ orders?
BLINKEN: Please, sir, respect the process. Please, sir, respect the process. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, respect the process, respect the process. Everybody from Amnesty International to the ICJ say there is an ongoing genocide and its termination, and you're telling me to respect the process. Why aren't you in The Hague? Why aren't you in The Hague? Why aren't you in The Hague?
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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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 do 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, 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 forward that way. She was working with international partners. Names have changed, but countries pretty much the same, Egypt, 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. 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.
BLINKEN: Yeah. Thank you, Matt. This is a long story.
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It's an enduring story. It's a story that is not likely to end anytime 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 is 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've 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, of course, 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 clear 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 and 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 -- and got us, is 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. 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, a direct attack -- 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.
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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 is one path and what can be achieved by following that path. And then there is another, which is perpetual violence, destruction, terrorism, 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you for your service. Thank you for doing this. I trust you're not going to miss the million 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 with both Palestinians and Israel. There seems to be uncertainty for this ceasefire, and basically it was announced yesterday and it's supposed to be implemented on Sunday. That's four days, quite a long time. Israel 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 or 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?
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 and 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 there'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've 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 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, 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 percent, 60 percent of world GDP, and it's a lot more effective in getting China to change its conduct.
[11:40:00]
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 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, they be made halfway around the world. They come close to our borders. They get synthesized. They come in the United States, they kill people.
So, the fact that we 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 the position of much greater strength, much greater effectiveness.
Disappointments, yeah, of course. There are always many. There is always the things that you didn't get done. There is always the, could have, would have, should have, 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's department have achieved.
What I have wished, do I wish we could have gotten the ceasefire agreement months ago? Of course, the suffering since -- the lives lost since, sure, could have been avoided if we'd 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 toward 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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 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 and 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 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?
BLINKEN: OK. 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 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.
[11:45:00]
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 and 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 has obstructed the advancement of peace process. It has refused to participate on numerous occasions in ceasefire talks that we've sought to convene. And together with the RSF, it has caused what is the world's worst humanitarian crisis that people are suffering through every day. And we believe strongly, as we said, there is 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 is no ambiguity about the environment in which both sides are operating, and what the results of the actions 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michelle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a follow-up on that. Thank you. Is the RSF and SAF (ph), 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 these past 15 months with Netanyahu?
BLINKEN: So, on the RSF and the SAF, the actions we took with the -- on the RSF, as you know, we found they had a determination of genocide. The actions that we're looking at for the SAF go to war crimes, so there're 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 7 could never happen again, and to make good on our commitment to Israel's security.
[11:50:00]
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 were 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've encountered, whether it's Iran, whether it's Hezbollah, 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jim.
SOLOMON: All right. We've just been listening to outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking at what is scheduled as his last press conference, obviously, with events in the Middle East. You never know. He spoke for about 40 minutes. I will say that about 90 percent, 95 percent of the questions being asked were exclusively about the Middle East. There were some questions, of course, about the conflict and the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and East Africa. His remarks were protested, or at the very least interrupted several times, by what I counted, at least three or four interruptions, almost exclusively over the war in Gaza.
Let me bring him back -- and bring back in, excuse me, my colleague Kevin Liptak, who has been listening to this as well. Kevin, give us a sense of your takeaways. I mean, we should say the -- I think the bullet point is that, at least, according to Secretary Blinken, he believes that the ceasefire deal will hold, and he believes that it will actually begin being implemented on Sunday, despite the delays that we're seeing. What else did you hear?
LIPTAK: Yeah, and that was kind of the news peg to this press conference as this deal hits this last-minute snag. You heard Antony Blinken say that in negotiations that were this complicated and this fraught, it would be to be expected that something would come up at the last minute. He called it a loose end, and he said that he had been on the phone with the Biden administration's Middle East envoy Brett McGurk to talk about what was happening, and he expressed full confidence that the deal will be implemented as planned on Sunday. So, that was kind of the news coming out of this.
But, it was interesting, the backdrop to those comments and to the entire news conference itself was how the Biden administration has handled this Gaza conflict for the last 15 months, in this unusually chaotic situation where you had protesters inside the State Department briefing room calling out, accusing Blinken of genocide, saying that he should be in The Hague. I think it really gives you a sense of how difficult an issue this has been for the Biden administration, going back more than a year, and certainly they are celebrating today and yesterday at the success of this ceasefire for hostages deal.
But, it doesn't negate the fact that their handling of it was a serious political liability for President Biden and by extension, his Vice President, Kamala Harris, in last year's election, and will remain a part of the legacy, the foreign policy legacy of the Biden administration. Thousands and thousands of people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli forces, and certainly that it has generated a huge degree of anger, as we saw on full display there in the State Department briefing room.
But, interesting comments from Blinken --
SOLOMON: Yeah.
LIPTAK: -- as he tries to put sort of a cherry on the top of his foreign policy tenure.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's a really interesting point, Kevin, and then just really quickly, unfortunately, we're running out of time here, but one thing that I thought was really interesting is that the first question from a reporter was about how exactly 16 years ago the then-Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, was asked very similar questions as a ceasefire was also in limbo, and just how the parallels between now and then are so striking.
[11:55:00]
LIPTAK: Yeah. It was an interesting perspective. That's Matt Lee. He is the longtime diplomatic correspondent for the Associated Press, who has been in all kinds of these briefings. And it just goes to show that this issue of Gaza and the Israelis and the Palestinians and the Middle East has been an enduring problem for secretaries of state going back probably decades. And I think it just is an indication that Blinken is handing off this problem to his successor, probably Marco Rubio, if he is confirmed, which it's likely he will be. This will be a problem for the Trump administration when they take over on Monday.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And to that point, he said, look, it's a moment of tremendous possibility to forge this reality. There were two immediate imperatives, implement the ceasefire and plan for Gaza's governance and security. On each of these, we have passed this on to the next administration, essentially saying we did what we thought we could do in our administration. We are now passing the baton off to President- elect Donald Trump's administration.
Kevin Liptak, we appreciate you being with us for the hour. Thank you.
And I also appreciate you being with me for the hour. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is coming up next.
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