The US State Dept held a presser on Oct 10, 2023 with Spokesperson Matthew Miller fielding question. Hamas-Israeli war dominated the proceedings.  Some Excerpts

MR MILLER: Good afternoon, everyone. Start with some brief comments. I would like to begin by reiterating our condolences to the families of those who were killed by Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, including the 14 American citizens who we know have died.

The department is actively engaging with the families of those U.S. citizens. None of us can imagine the grief that they are feeling today, and we are doing everything we can in our power to offer them all appropriate consular assistance.

I also want to talk about Secretary Blinken’s efforts over the past four days since Hamas launched its initial terrorist attacks against Israel, which have been focused on three key priorities.

First and foremost, the Secretary has been engaged with our Israeli partners to ensure that Israel has everything that it needs to defend itself.

Both President Biden and Secretary Blinken have made clear that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel. The first tranche of security assistance is on its way and will arrive in the coming days, and more will follow.

Second, the Secretary has been working the phones with his foreign counterparts to ensure that anyone who has lines of communication with parties hostile to Israel should use those channels to say that now is not the time to take advantage of this situation.??The President has made that point clear – has made that point clearly and forcefully, and it is one Secretary Blinken has reiterated in his calls with leaders in the region.

Third, the Secretary has been intensely focused on securing the release of all hostages held in Gaza. There are a number of countries who have the ability to deliver messages to Hamas, and we have made clear to those countries that they should urge Hamas to release all hostages immediately. This is a matter we take incredibly seriously.

Finally, I’d like to announce that Secretary Blinken will be traveling to Israel in the coming days to engage our Israeli partners directly about the situation on the ground and how we can continue to best support them in their fight against the terrorists who launched these horrific attacks.

Our support for Israel is unwavering, and the Secretary looks forward to meeting with senior leaders in the Israeli Government and continuing the discussions he and the President have been having with them since the initial attacks on Saturday.

And with that, Matt.

QUESTION: In the coming days? You want to be more specific?

MR MILLER: Our expectation is that we will leave tomorrow and arrive in Israel on Thursday.

QUESTION: Okay. And is he going to go anywhere else?

MR MILLER: I don’t have announcements to make. This is a trip we’re still putting together at the time, but we’ll make – may have further announcements on that later this afternoon.

QUESTION: All right. Jake Sullivan at the White House just said there are roughly 20 Americans missing.

MR MILLER: That’s correct. There are – the last number I had before coming out here was that there are 20 Americans who remain unaccounted for. That’s a number that has been moving around over the last few days. You have one number and then some of the people who are unaccounted for, unfortunately, you discover are actually deceased, or then some may turn up. But right now, the number that we’re tracking is 20.

QUESTION: Can you just like explain a little bit more what the Secretary’s message will be? You said he wants to confer with people, but will it be a message of solidarity? Will he discuss, in depth, the conflict and the manoeuvres that – the actions that Israel is taking now?

MR MILLER: It will be a message of solidarity and support. He, of course, wants to hear from the leaders of Israel, hear from them directly about the situation they’re facing, hear from them directly about what they need and how we can best support them, and then to send a message to the Government of Israel and the people of Israel that we are there to support them as they fight against these brutal terrorist attacks and to talk about what additional assistance, we can provide them.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: And what is the U.S. telling the Israelis about a ground operation, given these U.S. hostages?

MR MILLER: We understand that Israel was brutally attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel has a right to conduct operations to ensure the security of its citizens, to ensure the security of its nation. And we are in communications with them about that, but those are decisions for Israel to make.

QUESTION: The partners that you’re engaging with to engage with Hamas, are they being productive? Is Hamas even acknowledging that they’re holding Americans right now?

MR MILLER: I’m not going to speak to the details of those conversations. We do believe that there are partners in the region who are playing a productive role here and want to help secure the release of hostages. But in terms of details of those efforts, I’m not going to talk about them publicly.

QUESTION: Okay. Separately, are there Americans who are asking the State Department for assistance to leave the region, whether from Israel or from Gaza?

MR MILLER: We have been in contact with a number of American citizens in Israel. There are number of American citizens who are longtime residents of Israel, some of them who are dual citizen, some of them who have just moved there, and then there are Americans who were there that were either visiting for business or for tourism or something else. And we have been in contact with a number of Americans through our embassy there, some who we have helped facilitate travel to depart the country.

The airport is still open; there are flights that are getting out of the airport in Tel Aviv. And so, we have encouraged people to make to try to avail themselves of those options. We have also been in conversation with various carriers to encourage them to consider resuming travel in and out of Israel, and we’ll continue to do that.

QUESTION: American officials have said that there is no direct evidence linking Iran to this specific Hamas-led attack. First, is there any update on that assessment? And then second, can you elaborate a bit on what the U.S. would consider direct involvement by the Iranians?

MR MILLER: So, we do not have any information to suggest that Iran either directed or orchestrated these attacks by Hamas. Iran likely knew that Hamas was planning operations against Israel, but without the precise timing or scope of what occurred. Iran has, of course, long supported Hamas with material and financial support, but we have not yet seen anything to suggest that they supported or were behind this current attack. But our experience in these matters tell us that it’s premature to draw any final conclusions about this issue. We’ll be looking at additional intelligence in the coming weeks and days to inform our thinking on this issue, including whether at least there were some in the Iranian system who either had a clear sense of what was coming or even contributed to aspects of the planning.

QUESTION: There’s been some talk, especially by Republicans, about freezing – re-freezing the $6 billion in funds that had been transferred to Qatar to secure the release of the Americans. Is that under consideration?

MR MILLER: I think you’re talking about the funds that come from Iranian oil revenue that I have heard people say could be used to fund malign activities. I want to give a very clear response, so if you’ll indulge me, I’m just going to read something here. “Iran will have zero oil revenue to spend on any of these things. Let me say that again. Zero. One hundred percent of the revenue that Iran receives from the sale of crude oil will be held in foreign accounts and can be used by Iran only for humanitarian trade or bilateral trade in non-sanctioned goods and services.”

And I will point out that is not a quote from anyone in this administration; that is a quote from former Secretary Mike Pompeo, delivered at the State Department on November 2nd, 2018, when he established the accounts that yielded this revenue that Iran is now – now has access to, with additional restrictions that we have imposed on them to ensure that not only – that they can only be used for humanitarian trade, not bilateral trade in non-sanctioned goods, only humanitarian purposes. And we have ongoing mechanisms.  Now, with respect to what we might do in the future, we have the ability to freeze those funds if we need to. We’ve not made any decisions.

QUESTION: Although the President did not call for restraint, for the Israelis to exercise restraint in the upcoming or the speculated-to-be-upcoming ground invasion, the President did mention that Israel ought to abide by international law. Does that, in your view, mean that Israel must end its cutoff of water, electricity, food, and medicine to the people in Gaza?

MR MILLER: I will say that, as the President made clear, Israel has suffered from a brutal terrorist attack. Israel has the right to defend itself. It has the right to take action against the terrorists who launched this brutal attack and killed Israeli civilians and killed American civilians, killed mothers and children and babies, and kidnapped children. And so they are going to take action to respond to this terrorist attack and take action to secure their country, and we support them. As the President made clear, we always encourage all of our allies and partners to act in strict accordance with international law. That is what democracies do. And I would just point out that of course is not what Hamas did  in coming into Israel and kidnapping and murdering innocent civilians.

QUESTION:  You have Hamas listed as a terrorist organization. They don’t get $4 billion a year from you. They don’t have military aid and support and so on. So that is established. You’re saying that Israel is a democracy, it’s a country that abides by international law. I am asking you: the cutoff of water, electricity, food, and medicine is considered a war crime. Do you call on Israel to cease its effort now in cutting medicine, water, humanitarian aid —

MR MILLER: So let me start by saying that we are in the early days of Israel’s response. Israel has a right to conduct an aggressive response to respond to the terrorism that’s been committed against its citizens. We expect them to follow international law, we believe that they will, and we will remain in close contact with them about it.

QUESTION: You believe they should not intentionally target civilians. That’s one. Second, do you have any idea on the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the last four days?

MR MILLER: I have seen public reports.

QUESTION: What are these reports?

MR MILLER: I am not going to speak to what the U.S. Government can verify, which I’ve done with the number of U.S. citizens. I will let Israel speak to the number of Israeli citizens they have killed as well as the number of Palestinians they have killed.

QUESTION: And my last question to you, Matt, I mean, the President has said that Hamas is motivated – and I’m paraphrasing – motivated solely by the quest to kill Jews. Do you believe that is to be the case? Is it the assessment of this government that Hamas sole motivation is to go out and kill Jews? There’s no context; there’s no siege that has gone on for 16 years.

MR MILLER: Said, I am just going to say that is a bit of a surprising question after what we saw a Hamas carry out this weekend, when we saw Hamas go in and deliberately target Israeli citizens and not just soldiers in the IDF but women, children, kidnapped them. We all saw the images that — across our television screens of Hamas behaving in the most inhumane way possible. So, I won’t speak to their motivations, and I think they’re pretty clear.

QUESTION: Thank you, Matt. On connection between Hamas and North Korea, Hamas and North Korea have been engaging in arms trading for some time. What are you concerned about the North Korea’s announcement that it supports Hamas?

MR MILLER: Well, we clearly would be concerned about any country that is providing support to Hamas, whether it be financial, whether it be military, and would look to counter that action. And we do it first and foremost by making sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against the recent terrorist attacks.

QUESTION: Yesterday, Secretary Blinken deleted a tweet related to his phone call with Turkish foreign minister. The tweet included dimension of the ceasefire. Was that the reason? The word “ceasefire” was the reason behind why he deleted the tweet?

MR MILLER: I’m glad you asked me that question because there’s been a bit of misinformation about it. So after his call with Foreign Minister Fidan, we released a public readout that made clear that the Secretary, in his conversation, had reiterated what we have said publicly a number of times, which is: Hamas should cease its violent activities against Israel. The tweet was unfortunately worded, did not capture that appropriately, so we pulled it down.  And I’ve seen a lot of people – a lot of public conversation about this. I think those who – I think you would have to be intentionally misunderstanding what our position is, given the number of statements that we have made about supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, about supporting Israel taking direct action against Hamas. The Secretary spoke to that publicly on Sunday, on the Sunday shows. The President has spoken to it forcefully and we’ve issued a number of statements making that clear.

QUESTION: Can I have one more, please?

MR MILLER: Turkish President Erdogan said Ankara is prepared to take on a mediator role in the ongoing Palestinian and Israeli tension. What is the U.S. position on this offer, and was that discussed during the phone call between Blinken and Fidan?

MR MILLER: So I won’t speak to any potential mediation. I will say, with respect to the conversation that the Secretary had, we released a readout with information about his conversation with Foreign Minister Fidan. We made clear in that conversation, as we have in all of our conversations, that anything they can do to keep other parties from entering this conflict, anything that they can do to secure the release of hostages, is something we would encourage and something we would support.

Go ahead.   

QUESTION: Thank you, Matthew. One, is the U.S. re-evaluating its alliance with Qatar, given Qatar’s support for Hamas? And I want to follow up on Vivian’s question about U.S. citizens. So, U.S. citizens are having difficulty getting out of Israel. On a personal note, a friend of mine and his wife and two of their friends are trying to get out. They filled out some State Department form and haven’t heard back. So I don’t – what advice do you have for U.S. citizens like them? And then regarding – going off of Matt, I mean, what do you say to the criticism regarding the unfreezing of the $6 billion that money is fungible? Thank you.

MR MILLER: So I will say that I already answered the question about money being fungible in great detail, I think, with Matt. And I can repeat it again but that probably isn’t productive for any of us.

I will say – give me the first question again. I got the second one, but —

QUESTION: Yeah, yeah. Is the U.S. —

MR MILLER: Oh, Qatar. Right. So, with respect to Qatar, the Secretary has had a number of productive conversations with the foreign minister of Qatar. We actually think that they are playing a productive role here and will continue to be partners of the United States. We are asking Qatar, as we are asking every country, to use any influence that they have to keep other parties from coming into this conflict and to secure the release of hostages.

And the second question?

QUESTION: The second question is U.S. citizens are having difficulty getting out.

MR MILLER: Oh, right. Look, we understand that there are a number of American citizens who want to leave Israel and that currently it may be that there aren’t enough available flights because some carriers have suspended travel. As I said, we have been in discussions with carriers, urging them to consider whether they want to resume travel. There are still flights that are making it out of Israel, some El Al flights, other flights to – operated by carriers in the region. And so we would encourage U.S. citizens to try to take advantage of those flights or other routes out of. And if they do contact the embassy, we will seek to facilitate travel with any information that we have that can be helpful.

QUESTION: Does the United States believe that the war between Israel and Hamas will be long?

MR MILLER: I’m not going to speculate about the future.

QUESTION: Okay. Secondly, how is the Palestinian Authority’s official policy of “pay to slay” any different from what Hamas did on October 7th?

MR MILLER: I will say that we oppose that policy, and with respect to the aid that we provide through humanitarian organizations to the region, we comply fully with the Taylor Force Act that presents – prevents any U.S. funds from being used in that regard.

Alex, go ahead.

QUESTION: Thanks, Matt. Anything you can tell us about perceived Russian involvement, given Russian connections with Hamas?

MR MILLER: I don’t have any evidence of that to speak to at this moment.

QUESTION: Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesman, meanwhile told the BBC that the group had direct backing for the attack on Israel from Iran. Do you want to comment on it?

MR MILLER: We have seen those quotes. We don’t have any independent information to verify that.

QUESTION: Is there a latest U.S. assessment on Saudi’s position on the potential normalization deal with Israel, and especially after Secretary spoke with his counterpart from Saudi? Where we are at?

MR MILLER: So the Secretary did speak to this somewhat on Sunday, when he was asked about it on the morning shows. And the point that he made is very simple, which is there are opponents in the region of normalization. Hamas is an opponent of normalization. Hizballah is an opponent of normalization. Iran is an opponent of normalization. And they seek to prevent normalization exactly through these terrorist attacks. So we do believe that normalization of relations not just between Israel and Saudi Arabia but between Israel and other countries in the region would help bring stability, would help bring peace, would help bring prosperity to the region. So it is a path that we will continue to pursue. The other path, as I said a minute ago, is the one outlined by Hamas, which is death and destruction. It is one of the goals of launching these terrorist attacks. And so we will not be deterred in continuing to pursue further normalization, which, as I said, we believe brings stability to the region.

QUESTION: Lavrov today published an article on the ministry website accusing the U.S. of interfering into South Caucasus issues, including Nagorno-Karabakh, for its, quote/unquote, “geopolitical ambitions.” Do you have any response to this?

MR MILLER: Well, that’s absolutely not true. Our only goal in the South Caucasus, in the relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan, is to ensure a lasting peace and stability and of course to ensure that the humanitarian needs and rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are protected.

Go ahead and then we’ll wrap.

QUESTION: A question on Syria and Turkish attacks on northeast Syria. In just 72 hours, they attacked 150 sites, including the civilian infrastructure and also the – there are a lot of civilian casualties. Do you have any comments and are you condemning these attacks by Turkish on northeast Syria?

MR MILLER: United States remains concerned about military activity in northern Syria, its impacts on the civilian population and infrastructure, and the impact on the effectiveness of our operations to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS. Our position has not changed. We continue to support the current ceasefire lines and call for a de-escalation of violence. It is crucial for all sides to maintain and respect ceasefire zones and to de-escalate violent activity to enhance stability in Syria and work toward a political solution to the conflict.

And with that, we’ll wrap for the day. Thanks, everyone.

(The briefing was concluded at 3:52 p.m.)