# 									Digital Press Briefing with the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf							

Special Briefing

Brussels Hub

April 24, 2024

						Download AUDIO						(mp3)						[31 MB]

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/20240424_Leaf.mp3

**MODERATOR:**  Good afternoon from the State Department’s Brussels Media Hub.  I would like to welcome everyone joining us for today’s virtual press briefing.  We are very honored to be joined by the Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern Affairs Ambassador Barbara Leaf.

And finally, a quick reminder that today’s briefing is on the record.  With that, let’s get started.  Ambassador, please, I’ll turn it over to you for opening remarks.

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Great, thank you very much, John, and thank you for this opportunity to speak to European and Middle Eastern regional press today.

So I’ve just concluded a meeting – daylong meeting with other Middle East/North Africa directors of the G7 countries.  We met to discuss today our efforts to achieve three primary objectives: to substantially increase the flow of lifesaving humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza; to forge a consensus on a post-conflict vision for Gaza; and to find ways by which the international community can bolster support to the Palestinian Authority and to the Palestinian public generally.

So on the humanitarian front, we’ve noted some recent improvements in this last two and a half weeks.  More aid is entering on a daily basis, and Israel has begun use of a northern crossing and the Ashdod Port for humanitarian aid.  The U.S. Government has continued working with our partners to make progress to open a maritime humanitarian corridor, but as the President and the Secretary have noted, these efforts are simply not enough, and as Special Envoy Satterfield said just yesterday, a hundred percent of the population in Gaza is at risk of famine and malnutrition.  Deconfliction coordination remains a major issue for humanitarian workers and experts.  We’re pushing to accelerate the delivery of assistance on all fronts – by air, land, and sea.  We’ve urged Israel and continue to urge Israel to improve deconfliction and take tangible steps to allow the entry of more aid and distribution of that aid throughout Gaza.  We also believe that the UN, including UNRWA, is indispensable for that effort.

On post-conflict planning, the G7 has an opportunity to support recovery efforts in post-conflict Gaza that can create hope for peace and security for both Palestinians and Israel.  These plans – building on the Secretary’s Tokyo principles – would involve international donors contributing to the robust reconstruction of Gaza, fostering security arrangements, and a Palestinian-led governing structure.  We’re committed to advancing enduring peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, including through practical, time-bound, and irreversible steps to work towards establishing a Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel.  The West Bank and Gaza must be reunified under the Palestinian Authority.  A revitalized Palestinian Authority is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and establishing the conditions for stability.  The G7 discussed today the PA’s efforts to reform and all our efforts to ensure its financial solvency.

We also discussed Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region.  The G7 unequivocally condemned Iran’s reckless and unprecedented attacks against Israel earlier this month.  We’re urging de-escalation and we’re seeking to prevent a wider regional conflict.  Iran remains the world’s top exporter of terrorism and a destabilizing force throughout the broader Middle East region.  We applied new economic sanctions against Iran immediately following its attack on Israel, and we applaud the EU’s decision to expand its sanctioning authorities against Iran’s missile transfers to Russia and its support for terrorism through its proxies in the region.  The G7 and our allies will continue to stand firm in the face of Iran’s support to terrorism.

And with that, I’d be happy to answer your questions.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you so much for that, Ambassador.  Why don’t we go ahead and start with a question that’s been submitted by Sekumady Condé from RTV Slovenia.  They ask, “How might sanctions against the Israeli army’s Netzah Yahuda Battalion affect U.S.-Israeli relations, and should the U.S. support an independent international commission to investigate the mass graves discovered in Gaza?”

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  So look, I will not get ahead of the Secretary’s own comments on decisions that he is making that are before him.  Let me just make clear a couple of things.  The legislation in question – the Leahy Act – is legislation that concerns U.S. taxpayer-funded Foreign Military Financing to partners around the world.  So it is a set of requirements that we use with all partners who receive FMF, and it comes into play in the case where we find evidence of members of a unit or a unit engaging in gross violations of human rights, and that will trigger a suspension of that aid or simply not permitting such assistance to be proffered to such a unit.  Again, I am not going to get ahead of the Secretary’s decision or his announcement on that, but that – I just wanted to clarify what that is and isn’t.

And then as to the reports of a mass grave, we have seen those reports; we have asked for information.  I don’t have anything as yet to share.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, ma’am.  Next question, this time from Christoph Ehrhardt from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung asks:  “What is the situation regarding the Israeli-Lebanese border?  Is there still a chance for a diplomatic solution to avoid an all-out war?  And when do you think the window for this is closing?”

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  So to your question, yes, absolutely – there is a prospect for resolving this diplomatically, and that’s something to which we’re very much committed, and we’ve committed the energies and efforts of an envoy, Amos Hochstein.  Is the window closing?  I wouldn’t put it that way so much as that there has been a high degree of volatility on that border, a very disturbing degree of volatility on that border, and of course the communities on either side of that border have had to evacuate to decamp to other parts of Lebanon, other parts of Israel, out of harm’s way.

The potential for escalation is acute, and so we have of course cautioned Israel in terms of how it responds to attacks that Hizballah initiated, and initiated in the initial hours as the attacks were unfolding on October 7th.  So we have cautioned Israel to be careful in the way it responds, and we have certainly used a number of channels and we’ve been aided by other partners in using their channels, direct or indirect, to Hizballah to warn against entering into the fray or widening the conflict.  So yes, there’s absolutely a prospect for de-escalation of a more formal kind, and then ultimately moving to a diplomatic effort to delineate the border.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, ma’am.  Next question, this time from Abdelraouf Arnaout from *Al-Ayyam* daily in Palestine.  “The U.S. has said many times in recent months that it supports establishing a Palestinian state, and when the Palestinians asked the Security Council for full membership in the UN, the U.S. went against the international consensus by using the veto.  Do you see this as contradictory?  The Palestinians have said it will reconsider relations with the U.S.”

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  So look, Abdelraouf, we – I want to be very clear on this point.  The President, the Secretary of State have said throughout the three years of this administration we stand firmly behind the quest for – the very legitimate quest of Palestinians for a state of their own.  What we were compelled to do last week was simply responding to what I would call an effort to put the cart before the horse, as we say in American English, which is to say that we believe strongly – and this has been the case across multiple successive administrations – that a Palestinian state is something that should be negotiated, that it – to go through the effort to proffer membership to a state that doesn’t in fact exist, where the borders have not been delineated, and a whole series of final status issues have not been negotiated simply makes no sense.

So I want to assure you that we do remain committed to that because we believe deeply that security for both Palestinians and Israelis resides in a state for each of their own, living side by side in peace, but a state that is negotiated.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, ma’am.  We’ll go to a live question now.  Nadia Bilbassy.  Nadia, please, you have the mic.

**QUESTION:**  Thank you for doing this.  Hi, Barbara.  The President just signed into law the 1 billion humanitarian assistance to Gaza.  Can you just help us to break down where this money is going to go exactly, which organizations are going to receive it?  And also, as you know, UNRWA is the most capable organization of distribution while others maybe are on the ground, but will any of this money will be given to UNRWA even if the investigation hasn’t been concluded yet?

And second, I know you talked about your colleagues in the G7.  Is the listing the IRCG* on the terror list like the U.S. did was one of the points that you discussed with the G7 and the Europeans, and is this something that could happen soon?  Thank you.

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Thank you very much, Nadia, for those excellent questions.  So first on the supplemental, I don’t have a breakdown to offer you in terms of how much money might be devoted to assisting the people of Gaza.  But what I want to say is the following:  These discussions that I had today, these discussions that we are doing on a very regular basis with both G7 partners, Arab partners, is very much directed at the – at aligning and coordinating our thinking, our analysis, and ultimately our efforts towards that end so that in both the here and now, when the humanitarian needs are really extreme, those needs can be met and met through a coordinated effort across the international community; but also in the post-conflict phase, which I very much hope we will get to sooner rather than later.

On the question of UNRWA, we have been – the Congress has ruled out the U.S. providing assistance directly to UNRWA.  What I will say is there are many other avenues by which we can – channels and organizations by which we can assist the Palestinian people.  We do recognize that the functions that UNRWA carries out are indispensable and that there is no ready replacement for UNRWA in carrying out those responsibilities or for the staff who put their lives at risk in Gaza every day to carry out those functions.  There are a number of countries that have either resumed their assistance or opted not to, and we are certainly encouraging all of our partner – our donor partners to look to these needs in a coordinated way.

On your question about the IRGC, there is definitely renewed interest in EU ranks to look at that prospect.  I won’t speculate at this point where that’s going to go, but I will just say that the discussions we had today – and you saw it in the decisions, the sort of the unanimity of the 27 members of the EU on Monday at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting – there was shock and really outrage over the attack that Iran did: over 300 munitions in one form or another directed against Israel in a wave of attacks, waves of attacks that were meant to damage, destroy, and take lives.

And let me just point out that was only the most recent use of ballistic missiles by Iran to settle accounts with a sovereign country.  Of course, this happened before with an attack by Iran on Iraq and an attack shortly thereafter by Iran on Pakistan.

So I think there is very high interest in EU ranks to look at that question of designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization precisely for its role in these kinds of destructive and highly destabilizing activities.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, ma’am.  We’ll go to another submitted question now from Hussam Baramo from *Alquds Alarabi* newspaper in the UK.  “According to Israeli media outlets, the U.S. has accepted the Israeli decision to attack Rafah in Gaza.  Can you confirm this and explain why the U.S. has changed its previous position?”

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Absolutely not.  I cannot confirm that.  We have not done any such thing.  We have not greenlighted a military operation.  I want to be very clear on that point.  There seems to be a widespread misapprehension about that issue.  In fact, we’ve been quite clear publicly and privately that there’s no question of a military operation, major or slightly less than major, being undertaken in circumstances in which you have over a million people crowded into a very small space in the vicinity of Rafah, where you have all of the humanitarian infrastructure to support those people there – located there, and you have the critical apertures for assistance – the points of ingress there.

So we’ve been very clear on that point.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, Ambassador.  We’ll go to another live question now, this time from Ellen Ioanes.  Ellen, please go ahead.

**QUESTION:**  Hi, thank you so much for doing this.  I wanted to get back to the question of the mass graves that have reportedly been uncovered at Nasser Hospital, and whether the United States would support an investigation – an independent investigation into these mass graves.

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  So look, I really don’t have much to offer you beyond what I’ve already said.  We are making inquiries now about that.  We are trying to learn ourselves what’s behind this event.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, ma’am.  We’ll go to another submitted question, this time from Momchil Indjov from Club Z Media in Bulgaria.  He asks about the *Galaxy Leader* ship that was hijacked by the Houthis in November of 2023.  “There are two Bulgarians and some other EU citizens on board.  Have the Bulgarian or other governments asked for U.S. help to free the hostages?  If so, what is the United States doing to resolve this case?”

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Well, look, that’s an excellent question, and thank you for that.  I mean, look, a couple comments I would make.  First of all, since the *Galaxy* was first attacked and then seized, we have relentlessly raised the issue through direct and indirect channels to the Houthi.  We have a number of partners who are doing the same thing.  Our Special Envoy Tim Lenderking has it really at the top of his agenda as a humanitarian matter that these mariners should be released to go home to their families.  It really is outrageous.

And I would just say this particular attack, just as the attack on a ship in the last couple of weeks that led to the death of three mariners, really underlines the fact that there is a recklessness and an inhumanity on the part of the Houthi in targeting commercial vessels, some military vessels, but commercial vessels that have absolutely nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza.  It really moots the notion that this is – that these attacks are in some way going to support the Palestinian cause.  They do not.  What they do do is put innocent civilians in harm’s way.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, Ambassador.  We have one more live question here from Michel Ghandour.  Michel – Michael* – please go ahead.  Please identify the outlet you’re calling in from too.  Can you hear us?

**QUESTION:**  Can you hear me?

**MODERATOR:**  Yes.

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Yes.

**QUESTION:**  Okay.  Thank you for doing the call.  Madam Secretary, the U.S. was able to successfully manage the conflict between Israel and Iran.  How will you build on that to find solutions for the Iran nuclear program and the crisis in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon, and where Iran is involved in these conflicts?

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Wow, you’ve given me a lot of work.  All right.  How do I answer that question?  Look, first of all, I would not say it was managing a conflict so much as it was ensuring through really rapid work with partners – with European and regional partners aligned with Israel’s own robust self-defenses – to assure that really 90 percent or more, 95, 98 percent of the munitions arrayed against Israel were destroyed in flight or deflected, defended against.  And as I said earlier, the notion that the appropriate response to one act is a ballistic missile and land attack missile – a land attack cruise missile and UAV attack on another country is an appropriate response is – just defies belief.

So I would say there are – the issue of how we deal with Iran in the region and even Iran in the nuclear sense, in the nuclear dimension, is a very complex one.  It relies on really a multilevel, multichannel approach and a multilateral approach, and this is exactly what you saw energized in Brussels this week in EU discussions.

It’s also the case that Iran has entered overtly into the battlefield in Ukraine, on the European landmass, by assisting Russia in its horrible war on Ukraine and on Ukrainian cities with wave after wave of Iranian drones.

So in each country that you mentioned – Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon – there are different formulations for how we can collectively go at this question.  One of them is, for instance in Iraq, is to do our best collectively, again, and as well as individually to assist the Iraqi Government in regaining and retaining its sovereignty internally and externally against the pressures that Iran exerts on Iraq and that Iran exerts on Iraq through its proxies.  In Lebanon, of course, Hizballah is a terrible force that weighs against the government and the government’s own agency.  So you use a variety of tools – diplomatic, sanctions, and occasionally military as necessary.  There’s no easy answer.

And as for the nuclear dimension of this, look, it’s diplomacy, of course, but it’s also been the case that we have had to use sanctions as well to respond to Iran’s own escalatory behavior.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, ma’am.

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Okay, I have – I think we have one more question that I can do.

**MODERATOR:**  We’ll go to Willy Lowry.  Willy, please go ahead.

**QUESTION:**  Sorry, I was muted.  Thank you so much for doing this.  I really, really appreciate it.  I was just wondering if you could confirm or talk a little bit – you referenced it earlier – the kinds of conversations you’re having both directly and indirectly with the Houthis to try and really discourage them from their current behavior.

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Well, I will caveat all of this by saying that I don’t usually get into detailed discussions or details about diplomatic discussions.  But look, the – we have certainly – since the outset of this administration, we set as one of our really key goals for the region was helping bring to an end the conflict in Yemen.  And that didn’t mean just pressuring the Saudi-led coalition to stand down and remove itself, but rather encourage the sort of indirect and then direct discussions that led to a two-plus-year cessation of hostilities, which has been a huge step forward for the people of Yemen.  And of course it has been a deep relief to the people and the Government of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that the sort of relentless attacks via missiles and drones from the Houthis on the Saudis finally came to an end.

But that is a sort of a de facto truce; it’s not a formal one and it’s certainly not a formal ceasefire and even less is it a formal pathway to Yemeni-Yemeni political negotiations.  All of that has been a larger project for us, aligned with various Gulf partners, starting with the Saudis but also the Omanis, the Emiratis, and so on.  And we have periodically had occasion to have direct discussions with the Houthi.

That has changed quite a bit, of course, since October 7th, when the Houthi set themselves to the task of basically holding all commercial shipping transiting the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab hostage to their quest to prove themselves among the so-called axis of resistance.

So I wouldn’t characterize our contacts as a robust discussion at this point, but we are using all sorts of means – some diplomatic, some shooting down missiles and UAVs – to discourage the Houthis from their ill-considered venture and to basically run down their inventory of weaponry to use against innocent commercial traffic.  And eventually, at the end of all this, what they really ought to be doing is getting back to the business of a Yemeni-Yemeni political process, which is what is basically on offer.

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you, Ambassador.  Unfortunately, that is all the time we have today.  Thanks, everyone, for your questions, and thanks of course very much to the Assistant Secretary for joining us.

Shortly we will send an audio recording of the briefing to all participating journalists and provide a transcript as soon as it is available.  Thanks again for your participation, and we hope you can join us for another press briefing in the near future.  This ends today’s briefing.

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY LEAF:**  Thanks, John.

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