Earn. Meeks desires ‘assurances’ on Israel help nonetheless is originate to sending weapons if Iran retaliates

As we have mentioned the Biden Administration has been acutely focused on a number of foreign policy challenges this week from the ongoing Israel Hamas War to countering China in the Indo Pacific and the funding fight on Capitol Hill over USA to Ukraine for more on all of this I'm joined Now by Democratic congressman from New York Gregory Meeks.

He's the ranking member on the house Foreign Affairs committee Congressman thank you so much for joining me I really appreciate it good to be with you I want to start with where we started this segment which is that trilateral meeting taking place at the white house right now what message do you think that trilateral meeting sends to China and.

What are the deliverables that you would like to see come from it well look it says that uh these the Democratic countries uh in uh the indo-pacific are going to stick together uh and going to work together uh you know it is historic uh in nature in that regard so when you look at what President Biden has done bringing.

Together for the first time at cap David uh historic with Japan and South Korea uh now also adding in Australia working together uh the Philippines uh it is showing that the Indo Pacific will continue to be an open uh uh uh uh area and that the Democratic countries are not going to let an authoritarian government come in and try to use.

Coercion or other matters and we're going to work very closely together in that regard let's turn now to the Middle East and Israel specifically you have said you will not approve the sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel without what you have called assurances about what they will be used for can you help us congressmen be specific what kinds of.

Assurances do you need to see before you would approve such a sale look we've got a lot of things that's going on right now and what I want to do is to make sure that I get all of the facts uh and then know for example uh you know we have a situation one dealing with Hamas who now says they.

Don't have the 40 uh hostages uh enough to continue the the ceasefire Nom uh conversation uh number two you have a situation where you have uh various we almost may have a famine going on and starvation uh how many uh humanitarian trucks to get Aid into to feed the Palestinians uh you know I need to know what what's happening on the ground.

There you have a situation just what I heard you talking about in the last uh in interview where Iran may be trying to attack Israel and so Israel has to have what it needs also to make sure that it can uh starve off anything that uh may happen there so there's a lot of things and it's time for me to make sure that I get all of the information before I have.

To make a decision on that in fact we're talking about the um the the F5 the f-15s uh and what we're talking about really would not be deliverable to Israel until at least 5 years from now so uh I think that the window uh is to make sure and the responsibility that I have uh is to make sure that I get the Assurance of all the facts that are.

Taking place on the ground from all of the parties that are concerned well you take me to my next question because as you say the F-15 fighter jets wouldn't get there for quite some time so I guess the question is Congressman is the US using enough leverage do they need to apply more pressure than these verbal warnings to Israel do they need does the.

US need to condition Aid to Israel in order to see the types of results mitigating civilian deaths which is what the president is calling for well you see that the president is working very hard uh and there are certain things that you know that one of the things I'm trying to find out how many uh uh G ways that now that will be.

Addition there to to get the aid in or uh the ability to have where we have may have 400 trucks going in uh is it going up to 700 to 800 let's talk to uh the uh world food organization and other uh NOS that may be on the ground so that we know that we are feeding people I'm focused on wanting to stop a starvation from taking place also so all of those.

Things are very uh important uh just uh to to know and to make facts into decisions uh the responsibility that I have uh as the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs committee uh is let's let's get that and and and let's see where we go from go from there those are all important things as as you noted there are growing concerns that there.

Could be a retaliatory strike by Iran on Israel if that were to happen if those concerns were to grow would that change your assessment would you then be willing to provide uh those F-15 fighter jets and Aid with conditions attached yeah look so in my opinion part of what's the deal is you know I don't want 1,000 PB U 1,000 lb or 2,000 lb bombs.

Going into Gaza uh that seems to me that be the wrong thing to do it causes you know indiscriminate uh death of uh children and and and women and innocence that should not happen now at the same time if Israel is attacked by Iran or hisb or any of them then the other those weapons may be appropriate to be utilized there so because you're.

Talking about what's coming in from there so I'm want to make sure that Israel um is you know because we know what ham with with uh hasbalah and Iran they don't want Israel to exist we're not going to allow Israel to disappear and we're going to support Israel in that regard to make sure that they have the right as we've talked about all the.

Time to defend themselves and so if in fact they're attacked we in the United States are not going to turn our back on Israel we're going to help them you know and give them what they need to defend themselves I think that's what this is all about is it's about what's happening in Gaza and what's happening uh in with uh his balah and.

Iran and we got to take all of those things into consideration Congressman let me ask you about another critical region of course Ukraine overnight there was another massive Russian air strike on Ukraine Congress has yet to approve more Aid to Ukraine where do you stand on some of these new proposals like providing Aid to Ukraine in the form of.

A loan for example something that former president Trump has said that he is supported and therefore seems to be gaining support among some Republicans I think what we need to do is to pass the uh supplemental uh Bill the Security Supplemental bill that was passed in the senate in a bipartisan way that is the quickest way for us to get.

To Ukraine what they need to defend themselves and push back Russia you know as long as we were supplying uh them the arms that they needed they were not only winning they were knocking Russia back you look at over the 300 and some odd thousand soldiers they they've killed you can look at the destruction of Russian airplanes Etc what they need is.

Air cover what they need is some attacks and other you know weapons to push back they showed their confidence over the they showed their ability over the last couple of years that this war has gone on just give them what they need and guess what it helps ukrainians but not only it's out for our own uh National Security interest you heard uh.

What the Prime Minister Japan talked about they know that China's watching what's going on also so if you want to beat back against China this is the way to do it and ukra giving Ukraine what it needs and it needs it urgently right now so I would say to the speaker just put the Senate bill on the floor so that we can then pass that bill here the next.

Day it will be on the president's desk or that night he will sign it and we can then start giving Ukraine the ammunition that it needs so that it can continue its fight all right Congressman Gregory Meeks thank you so much for your time really appreciate it thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us.

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