SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it's - this is an impressive center with a lot of important work that's happening here. This is an historic mission, by the way. I mean, if you think about it, there's nothing to model this after, because this has never happened before. I think we have a lot to be proud of in the first 10 days, 11 days, 12 days of implementation, where we have faced real challenges along the way, including over the weekend, but also an exciting opportunity.
So this will be a - the journey to sort of get through the 21 plan - points of the plan. To get to all the things that we're trying to achieve is not going to be a linear journey. There's going to be ups and downs and twists and turns. But I think we have a lot of reason for healthy optimism about the progress that's being made.
One of the reasons why I wanted to come today is sort of get a sense of the workflow, get a sense of the organization, and get a sense of the needs. It is increasingly why you see a lot of uniforms here, including some partner - nation-states that have come, of course, with the Israelis who are hosting us and be part of this. You're starting to see more of a presence from State Department and related entities as well, and that'll continue to grow as we can provide the personnel and things like emergency response, the coordination - the coordination of our humanitarian assistance and things of that nature. So you're starting to see that presence here grow.
But a lot of good progress is being made on a number of fronts, and you can break this out in a number of ways. The first is the maintenance of the current ceasefire, of the current peace that we're confronting, and that involves two things: number one, de-conflicting from any flashpoints that may come up. We need to understand, the world needs to understand, that on the other side of that yellow line there is still a terrorist group that remains armed, and we've seen them take actions against their own population. I think it's important, by the way, that there be more media coverage given to the fact that Hamas has brutalized Palestinians, has brutalized Gazans over the last few days, and that's something to point to. But all of that has to be managed to make sure that in addition to that that we don't have any flashpoints that could derail the broader process.
At the same side, the - at the same time, the coordination of humanitarian assistance, and there's humanitarian assistance that is now flowing into those places beyond the yellow line. But that involves coordinating with all of these different organizations from around the world, including international organizations and charity groups. That's a massive undertaking to coordinate all of that and that it be distributed safely.
That's just beyond the yellow line. Behind the yellow line, there's another effort going on in humanitarian assistance which is even broader, because those areas are safe. Those areas are secure. So that's happening.
At the same time, it's this work on creating an international stabilization force. It involves bringing together all the nation-states that are offering to provide personnel and resources, so structuring what that stabilization force will look like, lining up all the countries that are willing to provide either money or personnel or a combination of both, and then getting the right international mandate, whether it's the UN or an international agreement, working through that to make sure that that entity - that security force - that can exist can function, is funded, understands what its mission is clearly, and can execute it effectively.
And then beyond that, of course, is the long term - the reconstruction, the rebuilding, the creating of conditions so that never again will we see what happened on October 7th, so that you can actually be in a place that no longer has elements operating within it that are a threat to Israel or to their own people, for that matter. And, of course, that's a longer-term plan, and that's something that's also key to all of this. It's the goal we're all trying to get to.
But before we can get to that goal, we've got to get through the process that we're involved in right now, which is making sure the ceasefire holds without anything disrupting it, making sure people are getting the life-sustaining aid that they need in a way that's not being looted or stolen or diverted in any way, and at the same time creating the conditions for the stabilization force to come in, as soon as it possibly can be put together, to provide what we need - the stabilization we need - in order to move to the further phases of this plan.
All right. Yeah.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, can I ask about - President Trump in his Time interview talked about the case of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner, saying that he's considering raising it. Do you want Israel to —
SECRETARY RUBIO: I can't hear what you're asking because there's some buzz going on here.
QUESTION: I'll shout. Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner - President Trump, in his interview with Time, said that the U.S. was considering asking Israel to release him. Is that something that you're asking —
SECRETARY RUBIO: You talking about the one from the U.S.?
QUESTION: Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. I don't have any news for you on that today. Obviously, we'll work that through our embassy here and our diplomatic channels, but we don't have anything to announce on that.
QUESTION: The Palestinian prisoner, the Palestinian activist, Marwan Barghouti.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I don't know why I can't hear you.
QUESTION: Sorry. Marwan Barghouti. Marwan Barghouti, his case.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. Yeah, I don't have any update for you on that.
QUESTION: Secretary, there's a lot of criticism —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes, go ahead, please.
QUESTION: Secretary, first of all, welcome to Israel. Second, there has never been anything like this in Israel, but what do you think? Does Israeli military decision regarding Gaza are taken effectively in D.C.? And if the IDF will identify that Hamas is rearming and regrouping, can we independently renew the fighting on which you asked —
SECRETARY RUBIO: I think everybody involved in this would like to see this not happen again.
QUESTION: But if - but we are in the Middle East —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don't think there's any country in the world —
QUESTION: If there is a reason to renew the fighting, should we apply for permission from the Trump Administration? Are we independent?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I wouldn't phrase it that way. I think the bottom line is that there's no nation on Earth that's contributed more to help Israel and its security. As you know, this is the President that, in the 12-day war, struck Iran in a way that other presidents were unwilling to do, and that partnership will continue. We're very committed to Israel's security and supporting Israel.
We're also very committed - and we think it's in Israel's long-term security, and I think our Israeli partners agree - to be able to have a Gaza that is no longer an operating space for a terrorist organization. That's why this plan calls for the demilitarization of Gaza, and that's what we're committed to.
So - but I wouldn't phrase it the way your question asks it. I don't think this has to do anything with permission or anything of that nature. This has to do with basically we're all committed to making this plan work. There is no plan B. This is the best plan, it's the only plan, it's one that we think can succeed. It's - one that we believe it's on the way to success, as impossible, as unimaginable as it may have been.
Remember a month ago, six weeks ago, no one would have thought possible that you were going to get all the hostages out - and I know that we still have the remains of hostages, so that has to happen. That's part of this, and we're very committed to making sure that happens. We are not going to stop pushing until all of that is - all the commitments that were made here are kept, and that includes the demilitarization of Gaza.
Now, we're dealing with factors here, we're dealing with miles and miles of - kilometers of tunnel networks, we're dealing with two decades of terrorist infrastructure. All that has to be confronted, and we'll do that together with Israel.
QUESTION: Secretary.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.
QUESTION: If you could address - following on your mention just now about disarming Hamas, is that something that the ISF force will be - would be engaged in? And if Hamas refuses to disarm voluntarily, is that something that this force would be involved in, forcing them to disarm?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well - yeah, if Hamas refuses to demilitarize, it'll be a violation of the agreement, and that'll have to be enforced. I'm not going to get into the mechanisms by which it is going to be enforced, but it'll have to be enforced. I mean, this is a deal, and a deal requires conditions to be met. Israel has met their commitments. They're standing at the yellow line, and that is contingent upon the demilitarization.
So suffice it to say that we're also hopefully going to create conditions where people - where Hamas won't have people because there'll be ways - we want to see a Gaza where people can live without Hamas, where they have jobs, where they have prosperity, where they have opportunities. I'm not telling you that's going to be set up next week, okay? That is a long-term project. But what I am saying to you is that we want to create the conditions, we want to help create the conditions here so that people in Gaza don't have to be terrorized by Hamas and in fact have lives, jobs, businesses, and a better future and are completely uninterested ever again in joining, supporting, or being held captive by a terrorist group.
So I think everyone - it's not just the United States, by the way. This is what makes this so unique. It's not just the United States. Understand over two dozen countries signed on to this, including regional powers, regional countries, Arab countries. Majority Muslim countries signed on to the commitment that there would not - that there would be a demilitarized Gaza and that there would not be a Hamas with the capability to threaten Israel. That's a commitment not just by the United States. This was signed on by all these countries. We fully expect that everyone will live up to those commitments.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, the question I see from Israeli point of view - thank you, and welcome to Israel, by the way. I think the question from Israelis' point of view is that in the meantime - because everybody wants this plan, no question about that. In the meantime, as you mentioned, every day Hamas is rearming, re-preparing, doesn't give back our dead hostages. So the question is whether in the meantime the U.S. should let Israel to act on the other side of the Gaza Strip. In this way the ISF future work will also be easier. That's the question. Thank you.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, right now, there's an agreement in place, right? And that requires both sides to live up to their commitments. If the commitment - if the deal - what you're describing to me means the deal fell apart. But right now we're not at that stage, and that's what we're trying to prevent. That's why I'm saying to you we're not going to forget about the hostages. We push every single day and we'll continue to push until the remains of every single hostage is returned. Work is going on even as I speak to you now. That's being pushed on. That's not something we're going to stop talking about. We fully expect that Hamas will fully demilitarize. That is the agreement they signed on to. That is the agreement that all of the nation-states that joined this effort signed on to. And we expect it to be fulfilled.
Now, we're about 8, 10, 12 days into this. But - and the third point is we don't want to see any threats against Israel coming out of the areas that Hamas is currently still present in and that won't be tolerated either. So the President has made that very clear, that if Hamas threatens Israel or fails to demilitarize, this will be taken care of. But let - we're - that is what this whole effort is about, is making sure that all of those commitments are met on both sides.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes.
QUESTION: It says - behind you, actually - in open-source reporting that the U.S. accepted Israel's veto of Turkish forces in the ISF. Is that accurate? And can you provide any detail on that security force, how big it will be, who it will include, or any other —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we haven't formed that force yet, so there's still work going on. There's a lot of countries that have offered to do it. Obviously, as you put together this force, it'll have to be people that Israel is comfortable - or countries that Israel is comfortable with as well. Let me just say that I think there are a lot of countries that are expressing interest right now. I'm not going to get into a list of who they are. I'm not going to get into a list of who's offered, who's been vetoed. We're not going to get into that. Suffice it to say that we are - plenty of countries that have offered and are interested in participating.
I also think it's fair to these countries to - they need to know what they're signing up for, which is why the work is ongoing to create what is the security force, what is their mandate, what is their command, under what authority are they going to be operating, who's going to be in charge of it, what is their job. I mean, how's it going to be resourced, how's it going to be sustained and paid for, what are the rules of engagement - there's a lot to work through. That's why there's all these people working in this building. So part of getting people to sign up is you have to tell them what they're signing up for.
So - but I don't want to get into any who's being vetoed, who's not being allowed. Obviously every member of this force has to be someone who has capability and willingness, but also someone that everyone's comfortable with, including Israel.
QUESTION: If I could - right next to you stands the print of the - Trump's 20-point plan, and as we can see in number four, within 40 - 72 hours, Israel should take in all Israeli living and deceased hostages. Those 72 hours have passed a long time ago and we're not seeing those hostages being returned fully. Is the U.S. doing enough for that?
And my second question is we're hearing —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes, the U.S. is doing more than anybody else is for that, and we're going to continue to do for that, and it's going to happen. The remains are going to be released. That's going to happen.
QUESTION: And my second question —
SECRETARY RUBIO: And if it doesn't, then the deal got broken. But it's going to happen.
QUESTION: And the second question is about the technocratic government that would rule Gaza, the Palestinian government. We're hearing from Hamas that they are a part of the committee that forms this government. Does that not miss all the point of what we're doing here?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I think everyone talking about that's getting way ahead of themselves. There's a lot of work to be done here and there's going to be some impediments along the way and things of this nature that people put out there. Suffice it to say that everyone that signed on to this plan - all of these other countries agreed and everyone agreed that Hamas cannot govern and cannot be involved in governing the future of Gaza. Everyone's agreed to that, okay, so that has to be part of this.
But we're not at that stage yet. Remember, we are still at the - even as all that's being worked on, we're at the stage of just trying to maintain the ceasefire. We're trying - be at the stage of getting humanitarian assistance to flow. We're trying to get to the stage of ensuring that there - that all the commitments made, including the hostages, are lived up to. We're still at that stage where we have to ensure that there are no threats against Israel emanating from Gaza, because there are still terrorists inside of Gaza, particularly behind that yellow - or in front of that yellow line.
So all - we're at that stage, and that's what everyone here is working on, even as we work on the other elements of the plan that you're outlining. This is a long-term plan. Before you get to all these 20 points and you get through all of this, it's going to require a lot of work over a long period of time. All that work is ongoing. We're not even two weeks into this. I think the progress that's been made in 12 days, 14 days since this was originally agreed to is historic and extraordinary.
There's nothing to compare this to. There's no other effort in modern history that you could look at and say this is just like that. This is something very difficult but worth doing. It'll be historic if it can be pulled off. We're committed to making sure that it happens. It will change the character - it will change Israel's security in the long term. It will change the character and the nature of the region in a positive way. We are committed to making that work and we're committed to ensuring that every one of these points is lived up to.
But it's not going to be an easy ride. There are going to be bumps along the road, but we have to make it work. There is no other alternative, and we feel good about the progress that's being made. Every day that goes by it gets better. We have work to do, guys. We still have - we still need more people involved in this. We still need more ideas to be - more commitments to be lived up to. So this is going to be a journey, but it's one worth taking, because we think it leads to something very special.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, if I could ask you a question just a little closer to home, yesterday, President Trump terminated trade negotiations with Canada. Have you spoken with Foreign Minister Anand? What can Canada do to resume these?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think what happened is one of the leaders in Canada was running ads in the United States on trade - on tariffs that took President Reagan's words out of context. Even the Reagan Foundation criticized him for it. But I have not spoken - I've been traveling since yesterday, but I have not spoken to the foreign minister since then. But, I mean, the President made his announcement that he's suspended any trade talks with Canada for now.
QUESTION: In an interview to Fox News, President Trump implied that Israel is a proxy of the U.S. Do you agree?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I didn't hear that interview. And he's never said that.
QUESTION: Okay.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what role do the U.S. see for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza the day after? We've heard about lot of plans that was done by the Palestinian Authority —
SECRETARY RUBIO: The Palestinian Authority?
QUESTION: Yeah, that's Mahmoud Abbas authority.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, look, again - I mean, obviously you know and I've expressed and we've expressed our concerns about the Palestinian Authority as it stands today. It's certainly in need of reform. As far as what role it's going to play in the future of Gaza, that's yet to be determined, if any role at all. We don't know. I mean, that's what's being worked on.
Again, this is very complex. These - we're out - we are dealing with 30 or 40 years of mistakes, 30 or 40 years of terrorism, 30 or 40 years of deeply embedded problems, and we're about 14 days into this agreement. So right now, we're trying to get through this, and part of that - the long-term governance of Gaza that is not Hamas, it's not a terrorist organization - that's work that's going to need to be done. I mean, I can't prejudge what that's going to look like now, because that's going to be something that has to be worked on collectively with Israel, with partner nation-states, and something everyone has - for it to work, everyone has to agree to it. For that to work, everyone has to agree to it. We're - the work is happening, but we're not at that stage where I can tell you this is what it's actually going to look like. Nobody can tell you that.
But I can tell you what it can't look like. It cannot be a place that is governed by anyone who wants to use it as a launchpad for attacks against Israel. If it is, then we'll just - there'll be another war. There won't be any peace. There will never be peace as long as there's an area or a territory that's being used as a launchpad to threaten Israel's security. Everyone understands that, and everyone that signed on to this deal understands that.
QUESTION: On humanitarian aid, you mentioned that's going to be coordinated through here. I wonder if you could say what the role of the UN will be, and specifically what role UNRWA might play in —
SECRETARY RUBIO: UNRWA's not going to play any role in it.
QUESTION: Okay, and —
SECRETARY RUBIO: UNRWA's not going to play any role. And the UN is here. The UN - we can - we're seeing the work they're doing, the World Food Program. There's also not-profit NGOs, humanitarian assistance organizations that are involved in this - Samaritan's Purse - so it's a conglomeration of about eight to twelve groups that are here. The United Nations is here. They're on the ground. We're willing to work with them if they can make it work, but not UNRWA. UNRWA became a subsidiary of Hamas.
QUESTION: And so —
QUESTION: Secretary, when you're talking about disarming Hamas, there's been some discussion of a program to buy back weapons.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, there's a lot of ideas floating out there. Ultimately —
QUESTION: So how seriously is that being taken?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don't know. Look, there's a lot of ideas out there about that. The bottom line is you can't have any of the elements of terrorism. You can't have tunnels, you can't have rockets, you can't have anything that threatens Israel's security. I'd point back to the answer I just gave: If Israel's security is threatened, if five years from now, three years from now, two years from now Gaza is a place where people who want to destroy Israel are able to operate from with impunity, there's not going to be peace. Everyone knows that. Every country that signed on to this understands that. It is one of the principles that's outlined here. That cannot be the outcome.
The outcome needs to be a Gaza where people have jobs and a life and a better future and people aren't thinking about how do I kill Israelis, how do I attack Israel. Because if we can't reach that point, then there's not going to be a peace. There's not going to be an enduring peace. You can't be at peace with elements that want to destroy you and kill you and carry out another October 7th. Everyone recognizes that.
But there's a lot of work that we need to do to achieve that. We're not there today, 14 days, 13 days after this deal was signed. But I can tell you we've made more progress in 13 days than anyone thought possible. We've come a long way. This is - but this is the first mile in a very long journey. We've got a long ways to go, but we're optimistic that it's heading in the right direction. We are better off today than we were yesterday and better off yesterday than the day before, but no one is under any illusions. There's a lot of hard work ahead. There'll be bumps along the road. There'll be threats to this peace that emerge that we're going to have confront, but there are also some exciting opportunities as well that we want to make sure that we are pursuing.
QUESTION: Could I follow up —
QUESTION: One question on another topic.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.
QUESTION: And another topic, I'm talking about annexation. You were using the term Judea and Samaria a few months ago. And obviously there will be no annexation, but I wonder if you're still obligated to the name of the term Judea and Samaria.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I don't play semantic games. Well, who else?
QUESTION: Could I follow up on the annexation? You and the President and Vice President have voiced opposition to annexation. Do you have the word from the Israelis that they're not going to go ahead with this in the West Bank?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, this is a vote that they took in the Knesset. From what it was explained to me, it was elements that tried to use it to embarrass Netanyahu while the Vice President was here. Suffice it to say, we don't think it's going to happen, and more importantly it's not from a legislative standpoint structured in a way that could happen. But it would also threaten this whole process. I mean, we understand that, right? I mean, everyone has to understand if something like that were to happen - right now, if that were to happen, a lot of the countries that are involved in working on this probably aren't going to want to be involved in this anymore. It's a threat to the peace process and everybody knows it. But I'm not getting into the middle of Israeli politics. We're focused on peace and security.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) assurance of the prime minister —
QUESTION: What do you expect in terms of future normalization deals —
SECRETARY RUBIO: What?
QUESTION: What could we expect in terms of future normalization deals after this ceasefire? We heard about Saudi Arabia; we heard about other countries. Is there anything you can tell to the Israeli people about the possible benefits of this deal going forward?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don't think I need to explain to the people of Israel the benefits of normalization with more countries, especially regional countries - some of whom were on track to do so before October 7th happened and we were close. So I think you look at the Abraham Accords; we'll be very open about the fact that we'd like to expand it and add more countries to that. And we see this as mutually beneficial. It's not just beneficial for Israel, it's beneficial for these countries. We have a lot of countries that want to join, that have expressed interest in joining and want to join. So I think that would be great, and I think that could be a byproduct of achieving some of this. And —
QUESTION: Mention some names?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I'm not going to mention the countries' names, because it's up to them to announce it. They're going to say - I announce them here, and they're going to - then they're - maybe they haven't even talked to their own people about it yet. But I think we know who some of them are, right? We know who some of them are. And we think it would be great. There are some bigger than others.
But we'd like to have as many members of the Abraham Accords as possible. That work is going, and I think what we're doing here could help create the momentum for that to occur. So yeah, I do think the Abraham Accords can grow. I think there are some countries you could probably add right now who wanted to, but we want to do a big thing about it. And so we're working on it. But believe me, we have a whole unit at the State Department that works on that. The problem is some of them are here working on this now, but they can work on two things at once.
What else? I got a couple more.
QUESTION: If I could follow up on the ISF, Mr. Secretary —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.
QUESTION: Is it the U.S.'s intent to deploy the ISF as a UN peacekeeping force under a UN Security Council —
SECRETARY RUBIO: We haven't decided. Maybe. We don't know. We - that may be one route. The problem is that some of these countries can't participate in this unless they have a mandate from the UN, as an example. So maybe it'll be a UN resolution; that's one route. We could have an international agreement as well. We're working through that. I mean, we'll find the right formula to do it; it may be the UN. We're working on some language on that now that hopefully will be in place. There may be another way to do it. But we will need something, because some of these countries, by their own laws, can't participate in these efforts unless they have some sort of international mandate or flag that they're under.
All right, I've got time for one more.
QUESTION: There's been a series of settler attacks against a village full of American citizens in the West Bank, Turmus Ayya. I was just wondering if you had seen any of the videos of these attacks, and —
SECRETARY RUBIO: I'm aware of the incidents, and I've seen - I mean not recently; I've seen them, some of the ones that have been posted and some of the things on social media. Our embassy has worked on that topic and has expressed the U.S. opinion to their government. Obviously, the safety and security of Americans anywhere in the world is something that will be important to us. So - and we've expressed our position directly to the Israeli authorities, and our ambassador's spoken on this topic very clearly and repeatedly.
Okay? Thank you, guys.
