U.S. URGES CEASEFIRE DEAL AMIDST HEIGHTENED TENSIONS
August 1, 2024US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said that the strikes on Tehran and Beirut “don’t help with the temperature going down” in the region.
Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, was assassinated in an air strike in Tehran on Wednesday. The strike came hours after Israel said it killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. Israel has claimed responsibility for the first attack but not for the assassination of Haniyeh.
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English Script:
John Kirby: These reports over the last 24, 48 hours certainly don’t help with the temperature going down. I’m not going to be Pollyannish about it. We’re obviously concerned about escalation. And again, without confirming the reports over the last 24, in terms of Tehran, certainly the IDF has already spoken to the operations that they’ve conducted elsewhere. All of this adds to the complicated nature of what we’re trying to get done. And what we’re trying to get done is a ceasefire deal, that can get you six weeks in phase one, get a lot of hostages, the most at risk out of there and home with their families and get some more humanitarian assistance. Based on the constructive conversations that we have with the Prime Minister Netanyahu last week, we still believe that this is a worthy endeavor. We still believe that the gaps can be narrowed, the details can be fleshed out, and a deal can be had. Now, again, it’s too soon to know what these recent events over the last 24, 48 hours are going to do to the process. I don’t want to sound overly sanguine here, but we still believe the deal on the table is worth pursuing, and the hostages need to come home, and we’re not going to stop trying to work on that.
