Secretary Antony J. Blinken with David Gura of Bloomberg Surveillance – United States Department of State

QUESTION:  Thank you very much and welcome to our audience on Bloomberg Radio and Bloomberg Television worldwide.  Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being here.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good to be with you.

QUESTION:  Many ways we could go here, but let’s start with Syria.  And you’ve described this moment as one of both promise and peril.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  That’s right.

QUESTION:  You have what seems like a de facto government that is a designated terrorist group and you’ve said that the U.S. has been in contact with HTS.  What specifically have they said?  I know there are other groups operating in the country as well.  What have they said about how they might govern if this is how it all shakes out?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  What we’ve heard them say is positive.  The question is:  What are they actually going to do?  We brought together with Jordan countries from around the region last week.  We had Türkiye, we had Iraq, we had the Gulf states, Jordan, Egypt, European partners.  And we came together to set expectations.  What is the international community, what are the neighbors looking for as this transition takes place in Syria?  And we all agreed we want to see something that’s inclusive, that’s nonsectarian, that respects minorities, women, that deals with any chemical weapons that may be remaining in Syria that doesn’t ally with ISIS or any of the terrorist groups that are there.

And the reason that’s so important is we want to make it clear to HTS and all of the emerging authorities that the recognition that they seek, the support that they seek and need from the international community – well, there are certain expectations that come along with that.  And as I said, we’ve heard positive statements coming from Mr. Jolani, the leader of HTS.  But what everyone is focused on is what’s actually happening on the ground, what are they doing.  Are they working to build a transition in Syria that brings everyone in?

If they do that and if they meet some of these other tests that the international community is looking for them to meet, then I think you can see something very positive, and here’s what it is:  For the first time in decades, the people of Syria can go forward without a dictator, without a terrorist group dominating their lives, without one sect or one group running things at the exclusion of others, and without foreign power calling all the shots.  That’s the opportunity, but it really requires HTS and other groups that are there to move forward in this inclusive way.

QUESTION:  You’ve said that the U.S. wants to help, and I look at this country that has a lot of sanctions that are residual, a lot of sanctions have been in place for decades on Syria.  Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut has called for a temporary suspension of sanctions.  Is that something that you would be amenable to and would that be effective in helping you have more engagement with what may be this new government?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  So we’re looking at all the authorities we have.  We’re looking at all of the sanctions – not only our own, the United Nations has sanctions on HTS, its leader.  And I think what we need to see is actual concrete steps, building an inclusive nonsectarian government, a transition, eventually getting to an election. 

As we see these steps taken, then I think we’ll be able to respond, others will be able to respond.  That’s what we would like to do, but we need to see concrete action, not simply positive declarations.

QUESTION:  The EU’s chief diplomat has said she’s sending a senior representative to Damascus to talk to this new group, talk to this government.  Is that something that you would want to do, that you can do, indeed, given the terrorist designation, the sanctions that are in place?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Yeah, we’ve actually been in direct contact with HTS.

QUESTION:  On the ground?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I can just tell you we’ve been in direct contact and we’re also looking at getting people on the ground in Syria.  I think it’s important to have direct communication, it’s important to speak as clearly as possible, to listen, to make sure that we understand as best we can where they’re going and where they want to go.  So we’ll be looking at pursuing that in the coming days.

QUESTION:  Pull back and ask you another question about the region, and there’s been a lot of speculation that a ceasefire deal could come together when President Biden spoke about the deal between Israel and Hizballah.  He was asked at the end, “Do you think you could get a ceasefire deal by the end of your tenure?”  He said he’s hoping and praying.  Is there anything that’s happened that gives more grounds for hope and prayer going forward here?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  There is, and the reality is we should logically be able to get this.  And I say that with all the caution that comes with that statement because we’ve been very close before and we’ve had these Lucy and the football moments where you’re just ready to kick the football and Lucy pulls it away. 

But what’s changed is this:  Hamas knows that the calvary’s not coming to the rescue.  For months and months and months, it hoped it would get a wider war with Hizballah, with Iran, with Iranian-aligned groups coming in and creating more problems from¹ Israel on more fronts and helping Hamas endure.  We now know that’s not happening, they know it’s not happening because of the very important work that was done with us and with others dealing with the unprecedented Iranian attacks on Israel, dealing with Hizballah.  So I think that’s concentrated minds among Hamas on the need to complete this deal.

Having said that, it’s always incredibly fraught and it’s very hard to get decisions made, it’s hard to communicate.  And for all of those reasons, even as close as it is, it can still move in the other direction, but we have – we’ve all been fanning out, working with all of the different partners who can make a difference and who may have some leverage with, communications with Hamas – whether it’s Qatar, whether it’s Egypt, whether it’s Türkiye, where I was just last week.

The fundamental question right now is:  Is Hamas finally prepared to say yes?  And if it does, we get the hostages back, we get a ceasefire, we get an immediate dramatic improvement in the lives of Palestinian children, women, and men who have been caught in this horrible crossfire since October 7th of Hamas’s making.  If they really purport to care about the Palestinian people, they will say yes and do it now.

QUESTION:  Let me ask you about that horrible crossfire, and it’s something that you’ve written about in a recent essay for Foreign Affairs, the fact that millions have been displaced, tens of thousands have been killed, Gaza has been kind of reduced to rubble.  You’ve made 12 trips to the region.  How much regret do you have that a kind of sustained level of humanitarian aid hasn’t made it into Gaza over the course of this conflict? 

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  From day one, we’ve tried to do several things going back to October 7th: first, to stand resolute with Israel to try to make sure that October 7th would never happen again; second, to prevent this war from going wider, because if that happened, if other fronts opened up – whether it was with Iran, whether it was with Hizballah, these other groups – more death, more destruction, and it would probably prolong what was going on in Gaza; and three, to do whatever we could to make sure that people in Gaza were getting the assistance they need, were getting the protections they need.  And we have been on this virtually every single day.  And we’ve seen moments when more assistance was getting through than we’ve seen moments where it’s —  

QUESTION:  It ebbs and flows.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  — where it’s ebbed and flowed.  But this has a dramatic effect on the lives and livelihoods of people in Gaza.  The last week or ten days, there has been a noticeable improvement, but we’ve seen that before and then we’ve seen it fall off. 

The best way to finally deal with the needs of the people would be to end the conflict, would be to get the ceasefire, to get the hostages home.  That’s the best way because you have an environment that is unique.  You have a population that’s trapped in Gaza.  It doesn’t have anywhere to go.  In most other conflicts people – they can become refugees.  That’s not a good thing, but it’s better than being caught in the middle of a hot war.  And also you have an enemy in the case of Hamas that’s fully enmeshed with the civilian population, living in and under buildings – apartment buildings – schools, mosques, hospitals.  That doesn’t obviate at all the responsibility that Israel has to try to ensure that assistance gets to people who need it and that people are protected as best possible, and we’ve been pushing on that every single day. 

We’ve also seen what’s possible if there’s real, sustained focus on this.  There was a polio vaccination campaign to make sure that little children in Gaza got these vaccines, and it was very successful.  Until there’s an end to the conflict, what we’ve been trying to impress upon the Israelis is the need to make – bring that same focus in a sustained way on getting assistance to people who need it. 

QUESTION:  I’ll ask you a last question just about the transition that’s underway.  And you’ve said of this new administration you want to pass the baton to them so they can get off and running.  Forgive me, but it does seem like they are off and running.  You had President-elect Trump meeting in France with President Zelenskyy, President Macron; he’s met with Prime Minister Trudeau in Florida.  His designate to be the special envoy to the Middle East has been in the region as well.  Does that complicate the work that you’re doing, having that sort of separate voice, separate foreign policy for lack of a better word in the region while you’re trying to do your work? 

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Look, there’s one president at a time, one administration at a time, but we’re in very close contact with the incoming administration.  I spent a couple of hours —  

QUESTION:  It does feel novel though.  I mean, we used to talk about the Logan Act. 

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  This does feel like these are different circumstances, (inaudible). 

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Look, I think there are a few things – I think there are a few things going on.  First, as I said, we’ve been in very close contact with the incoming administration.  I’ve spent a lot of time with Senator Rubio and Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, with Mike Waltz, his successor.  We’ve had very good – not only conversations, but we’re trying to make sure that we’re as coordinated as possible so that they know what we’re looking at doing in the remaining time that we have.  I want to be able to hand off to the incoming administration the best possible hand to play in all of these areas, in all of these challenges, because the world doesn’t stop just because we’re in a political transition. 

It’s also normal that countries around the world want to hear from the incoming administration.  They want to know what they can expect and so they can get ready for that.  As long as we’re communicating closely, which we are, and as long as we’re working to, again, try to make this handoff as effective as possible so that they can get moving on the run because there’s really no time to wait, then I think that’s a good thing. 

And look, on the Middle East, just to stick with that quickly, we’ve been working very hard to make sure that as best we can, we put in – we actually start to implement plans for a better future for the region, or if we don’t have time to fully do that, to be able to hand them off – not just getting the hostage and ceasefire deal, but having a clear plan for what follows, a day-after plan for Gaza so that there’s no vacuum that Hamas can refill, that Israel can pull out, and you can have Gaza stand up for its people – administration, security, reconstruction.  We have done an extraordinary amount of work carrying through what President Trump started with the Abraham Accords to get normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which will be the biggest gamechanger in the region.  And those plans are there and are in place and ready to go if we get an end to Gaza – a conflict there. 

We’ve done a lot of work on what a pathway to a Palestinian state would look like when people are ready for that conversation.  They’re not now.  At some point, they’re going to have to be.  All of that is ready to be handed over to the new administration, and hopefully they’ll carry the ball forward. 

QUESTION:  Very quickly before I let you go, you mentioned that normalization deal.  It was something this administration invested a lot in before October 7th.  Clearly, the conversations have been going on.  There has been reporting that we’re close to a breakthrough there.  Is there?  Can you shed any light on sort of where those conversations stand today?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  So one of the things I look back on is on October 10th, a year ago, I was supposed to go to Saudi Arabia and to Israel to work on the Palestinian component of this normalization deal; and of course, that trip didn’t happen because of October 7th.  But even with Gaza, we have had – we’ve continued these conversations, we’ve continued this work.  And in terms of the agreements that are needed between the United States and Saudi Arabia, they’re pretty much ready to go and that would then trigger the normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.  But two things are required to actually get that done:  One is an end to the conflict in Gaza and two is having a credible pathway toward a Palestinian state. 

As I said, all of the work’s been done and hopefully we’ll get to that end of conflict in Gaza.  We’ll have to – they’ll have to engage the conversation on the – answering the Palestinian question, but the work is there.  And if that happens, this transforms the region.  You have Israel that’s integrated in the region.  There’s a common security architecture to deal with Iran.  We saw that.  It’s something we put together embryonically when Iran attacked Israel in an unprecedented way – direct attack.  We not only for the first time participated in Israel’s active defense; we brought other countries, including countries in the region, into that defense.  So you can see what’s possible in the future.  But it requires an end to the conflict in Gaza and it requires moving forward on the Palestinians. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, thank you very much.  That’s Antony Blinken, Secretary of State.  I’ll send it back to you.