Blinken discusses humanitarian aid for Gaza, Haiti unrest

We take you now over to the state department you can see Secretary of State Anthony blinkin there speaking to reporters let's listen short while ago I did a video conference with colleagues from Cyprus from uh the United Kingdom the UAE cter the European Union and the United Nations to coordinate our efforts in getting this Maritime Corridor up and.

Running uh we're also of course working with uh with Israel on this when established this Corridor will uh enable the distribution of up to two million meals every single day as well as medicine water and other critical humanitarian supplies Germany Greece Italy the Netherlands Canada are also supporting.

This effort now this is something that's going to take time uh to actually put in place although we're working on it as expeditiously as possible and I want to emphasize it is a complement to not a substitute for other ways of getting humanitarian assistance into Gaza and in particular.

Overland routs Remain the most critical way to get assistance in and then to people who need it but this will help close the gap uh and it's part of our all of the above strategy to make sure that we're doing everything possible by every means possible to Surge support to those who need it by land by sea by air as you know the United States has.

Been leading efforts from the very beginning to try to ensure that assistance gets to those who need it uh we've had significant ups and downs periods of interruption disruption uh and having said that we're also seeing right now humanitarian assistance uh through Rafa and through.

Kuram Shalom getting back to uh levels that we' gotten it to some weeks ago about 200 trucks a day yesterday for the first time the world fuit program was able to resume a delivery to Gaza Morocco made its first humanitarian assistance delivery through Kem Shalom uh this week the first shipments to North Gaza through a new Crossing uh at.

The 96th gate began we have flower that flowed from ashdod Port uh we're working to make sure that uh inspections are accelerated and Road repairs move forward so that we can also increase the flow that's going from Jordan uh into Gaza that's a critical route for supplies so there's movement and we've and and it's positive but it remains.

Insufficient um Israel still needs to open as many access points as possible and keep them open to make sure that things are flowing in a sustainable way increase the scanning capacity the inspection capacity particularly at Kem Shalom where more can be done to get more Aid in more quickly easing unnecessary restrictions on Key Products.

Having having greater Clarity and predictability on what can get in and what can't there's a legitimate issue here about duse items but we need to see much greater Clarity much greater consistency on what these are and of course as we've said all along while it's vital to make sure that things are getting into Gaza once.

They're in they have to get to the people who need them and so distribution within Gaza remains a critical function they improving communication improving deconfliction with humanitarians particularly with the United Nations with local Community leaders uh remains important work and work that is still uh in.

Progress the bottom line is we need to see uh as we've described it we need to see flooding The Zone when it comes to humanitarian assistance for Gaza um this will have a number of uh I think important merits to it uh first and foremost it will bring Comfort to people who so desperately need it but beyond that one of the challenges that we have.

Now um that you're seeing now is that lawlessness insecurity all of that pervades in Gaza combined with desperation when you put those things together you have situations where AID goes in and then people um immediately charge at the trucks uh and uh you see looting you see criminal gangs uh get in the act and again just uh ordinary.

Civilians who and in the absence of sufficient Aid May believe that their only chance to get a piece of bread is to go at the one truck that they see coming in when you have a sustainable predictable confident supply of assistance going in that will give people confidence that food is there.

It'll keep coming they can rely on it that will also decrease both the overall insecurity sense of lawlessness prices will come down for goods that uh are being looted and then sold on the black market and that'll undercut the gangs that are engaged in that practice having said all of that even as we work to Surge.

Humanitarian assistance by every means necessary the most effective way to really get that done is with uh a ceasefire uh and having an environment much more conducive to getting the aid through there's a very strong proposal on the table right now um the question is will Hamas take it does Hamas want to end the suffering that it's.

Provoked the question is there but I can tell you that we're intensely engaged every single day almost every single hour with cutter with Egypt uh to see if we can get a ceasefire agreement that will get the hostages out get more Aid in and create uh a pathway perhaps for a more lasting secure solution uh hostages remain front and.

Center on our minds and in our hearts uh we just learned that one of the Dual us Israeli citizens um who we believe was taken on October 7th he thaen was in fact killed on October 7th um I'd met with his family multiple times over the last several months I spoke to them yesterday uh to Ruby to.

Hait there are um no good words uh no one should have to go through what they've gone through and what the other hostage families continue to go through it's another reason why getting the ceasefire would be so crucial to enable us to bring the hostages home the president has made clear that.

Ensuring the supply of humanitarian assistance doing everything possible to protect civilians has to be a priority it can't be a secondary consideration So to that end I would simply say where there's a will there's a way uh we look to the government of Israel to make sure that this is a.

Priority protecting civilians getting people the assistance they need that has to be job number one even as they do what is necessary to defend the country and to deal with the threat posed by Hamas happy take some questions Mr secretary hello how are you um so two things very briefly one I I you guys have been talking for a long.

Time months and months and months now about the need to get more Aid into Gaza so I'm just curious about what this meeting today was did did it accomplish anything or did any were any decisions made about speeding up the maritime Corridor or what was the was this a a broader that had more broader thing that had more to do that and then secondly.

It's it's no secret that the differences between President Biden and his administration and prime minister Netanyahu and his his government have have have gotten uh bigger larger over the course of the past uh couple months but particularly over the course of the last several weeks or or days and I I'm curious you you are unhappy with the.

Pace of the a and what Israel has done in terms of um speeding assistance into Gaza but but Al but when you combine that with the actual combat that's going on on the ground can you see a point where it comes where the United States where the Biden Administration says look enough is enough and then if that does happen what would that mean thanks Matt.

Thanks in terms of the meeting today the focus was on the U the maritime Corridor and the the pier the the dock that will will be building that the president announced in the State of the Union so what we were talking about today was with the countries that are directly participating in both um helping to establish uh that Pier that dock but.

Also uh putting in place the system to collect uh assistance uh and then to uh to send it off by SE to the dock that we'll be building so that's what this was about um and it was really following up on the president's State of the Union message um following up in very concrete ways to get this moving to get this off the ground uh and as I said the military.

Is also working intensely on this uh we want to get this up and running as quickly as possible but it demands tremendous coordination among the donor countries among the participating countries and of course with Israel so that's what we're focused on today uh and um again I want to emphasize that this um this effort is vital but it's.

Again a complement to not a substitute for other means of access for humanitarian assistance to uh to Gaza and notably the Overland access um as to the second part of your question I'm not going going to engage in hypotheticals we've been working closely um with the government of Israel but also uh many other countries to try.

To make sure to the best of our ability that Aid can get in that it can get to people who need it and that civilians are better protected that remains an ongoing effort and as I said we need to see efforts in in that direction maximized president's been very clear this has to be a priority and it has to be a priority for Israel it's the right.

Thing to do it's also I think profoundly in Israel's interest to do it and that's what we're working on Andrew Andre thank you I want to follow up on that and also separately about Hai but first about Gaza and the disaster that this has become uh the US is weaponizing the War.

You're the leading we are the leading supplier of weapons to Israel at the same time you are leading an International Rescue effort to get this Aid in despite the obstacles from members of the cabinet in Israel which have delayed the opening of more L land access and still are um and as you point out these sea roots are slow they're.

Slower than they should be even because not all the ports are open and they're not a sub for the hundreds of trucks that could get in by land so can you explain to the American people this incompatible policy these policies are in Conflict uh and have you received any plan as requested from Israel for a.

Plan to take care of the people in Rafa if as the Prime Minister has said he's determined to go in after those last four what he says with those last four battalions cly on Haiti there's the same disaster emerging there on a different scale but um is there a us plan to help with relief it's already been five months since the UN authorized the.

Canyon multin Le multinational Force the Supreme Court there is objected it's it's going to be a while until they get in even if they agree to go in um what emergency relief can we provide to the people of Haiti to try to resolve the the growing disaster there thank you thanks Andrea uh so coming back to the uh the first.

Question we have been uh focused All Along on two things one uh making sure that Israel can effectively defend itself and that's an enduring commitment that's uh that's not going to go away uh and also to try to make sure that um October 7th never happens again uh and in doing that uh we're there as Israel's Ally as Israel's.

Partner we've also been determined from day one that is Israel takes steps necessary to defend itself to ensure that October 7th doesn't happen again that civilians are protected humanitarian assistance gets to those who need it and these two objectives are are not in Conflict the question is whether Israel on the one hand.

Is and can effectively deal with its security needs and defending the country while at the same time maximizing every possible effort to ensure that civilians are are not harmed and that assistance gets to those who need it and as I've said for some time we see uh a gap between the intent and the result that we're determined every single day uh to.

Close we want to see the violence uh end uh we want to see this get to a point where where um civilians are fully protected and people get what they need uh to uh to get by and ultimately uh to rebuild their lives the best path forward right now would be of course getting an agreement on hostages that's what we're working on intensely every.

Single day um with regard to Rafa president's been very clear about this uh repeatedly what we've said to Israel is this given the large number of civilians that U are now in RAF many of them displaced from other parts of Gaza about 1.4 million uh we need to see a plan that will get civilians out of Harm's Way uh if there's to be a.

Military operation uh in Rafa and not only gets them out of Harm's Way uh but also ensures that they have what they need that they have shelter that they have food that they have medicine uh We've not yet seen such a plan um on Haiti as you know this has been a long unfolding story the heart of the story is the suffering.

Of the Haitian people and we want to see that brought to an end but that requires a few things um it requires a more stable political system uh so that the country can function and function democratically and for that we need to see a transition uh to a to elections to a clear return to a democratic path we.

Need assist ass humanitarian assistance development assistance so the economy can get um get built up people can have opportunity and fundamentally we need to see security because it's very hard to do either of the first two things in in an environment that is profoundly insecure and right now uh you have in Haiti um profound insecurity that um is.

Being driven largely by the action of gangs who control big parts of the capital city critical infrastructure Etc so we've been working on all of these fronts and as you know uh the United Nations endorsed some months ago um a multinational security support mission to help the Haitian police regain control of security as we're putting.

That together um and Kenya stepped up to say that it would lead this Mission we've brought together other countries that are going to contribute to the mission we ourselves are contributing significant resources to it in parallel we've also been trying with um CARICOM countries the Caribbean countries other interested countries to help patients.

Get back on a uh better political path I was in Jamaica just um a couple of days ago with all of the countries from uh from the Caribbean CARICOM uh with other partners including uh Canada including France including Mexico all of this in support of Haitian Le efforts to find a political path forward to get to a uh political transition and that's exactly.

What was agreed uh the other day the Prime Minister prime minister rri um step down uh along with his government um a transitional presidential Council or college as they call it is being stood up it's inclusive it brings together most of the major parties in Haiti as well as other key stakeholders like the private sector.

Like the Interfaith Community um and civil society that Council has as its mandate uh again agreed to by the uh by the Haitians to choose a new prime minister an interim prime minister to establish a National Security Council and to put in place an electoral commission that creates the pathway uh the transition to elections and to um a.

Constitutionally mandated uh government that also creates a better environment in which the multinational security support Mission can go forward I was on the phone this morning with President Ruto of Kenya who confirmed Kenya's um preparedness to lead that that mission um as soon as the this new council is stood up which we believe will happen in.

The next couple of days and uh an interim prime minister is selected that uh Mission can move forward I announced um as well when I was in Jamaica that the Department of Defense is um doubling its contribution to this effort so we now have $200 million coming from DOD another $100 million coming from the rest of the United States government in.

Support of the multinational security uh support Mission we have another almost $100 million that's been raised from other countries um around the world uh and notably from uh from Canada so my anticipation to Long answer your question is having done all of this work um we should be in a place where that mission can go forward um it can all.

Right quite a lot of ground covered there we've been listening to Secretary of State Anthony blinkin at the state department initially discussing discussing efforts to get a new what he describes as Maritime Corridor established to get Aid to civilians in Gaza that of course will follow up to the president state of the Union message.

To create a port in Gaza uh the secretary of state says hostages in Gaza remain uh remain front and center in their minds he says the the maritime Corridor will get 2 million meals per day to people in need yeah blink also addressed the unrest in Haiti and said we need to see a return to a democratic path in the country with elections.

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