QUESTION: And joining me now is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Secretary Rubio, welcome back to Meet the Press.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
QUESTION: Well, I want to start with these peace negotiations in the Middle East. Is this now the end of the war in Gaza?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, not yet. There's some work that remains to be done, and I would view it in two phases in terms of understanding how to break this out. The first piece of it, which was very clear from the letter and Hamas's response, is they have agreed to the President's hostage release framework. And what needs to happen now - and they acknowledge in the letter and their response - is there now needs to be meetings, which are occurring even as I speak to you now and hopefully will be finalized very quickly, on the logistics of that.
What that means is who goes in to get them. Is it Red Cross? When do they show up, et cetera? What place are they going to be? And the conditions have to be created for that to happen. You can't have bombs going on and fighting going on in the middle of this exchange. So that's piece one.
The second - and we want to see that happen as soon as possible. All 48 hostages, both living and deceased, and there's some - need to be released. And there are some logistical challenges to that that we'll have to work through, but that work is happening even as I speak to you this very moment.
The second part of it, it's even harder, and that is the long-term piece. What happens after Israel pulls back to the yellow line and potentially beyond that as this thing develops? How do you create this Palestinian technocratic leadership that's not Hamas, that's not terrorists, and with the help of the international community? How do you disarm any sort of terrorist groups that are going to be building tunnels and conducting attacks against Israel? How do you get them to demobilize? All that work - that's going to be hard, but that's critical because without that you're not going to have lasting peace. You may get the hostages back, you may get a cessation of hostilities, but in the long term it's going to happen all over again.
So, both are going on at the same time, but priority number one, the one that we think we can achieve something very quickly on hopefully, is the release of all of the hostages in exchange for Israel moving back to that yellow line, which is basically where they stood at the middle part of last month, of August. And that's the one we're focused on. Even as I speak to you now, there are people meeting on that.
QUESTION: I want to drill down on the timing of the hostages in just a moment, but first just big picture. President Trump seems to be taking Hamas's response as a yes to his peace proposal. As you've indicated, though, there's a lot that still needs to be worked out. Hamas didn't mention laying down its arms, for example. Do you see Hamas's response as a yes to President Trump's peace proposal?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it's certainly a yes to at least - look, it's Hamas, okay, so I'm not telling you here that these are people I trust 100 percent, nor should we. But they have said basically that they agree to his proposal and the framework for releasing the hostages. That's an enormous achievement. They have also agreed in principle, in generalities, to enter into this idea about what's going to happen afterwards - the Palestinian technocrats, et cetera. There's a lot of details that are going to have to be worked out there.
But look, this is a plan that the President put forward, but let's remember it has the strong support of the UAE, of Qatar, of Egypt, of Saudi Arabia, of the Turks, Indonesia, all these others. So, there's a lot of international pressure on Hamas to make this happen, and we're going to need them and the European Union and countries from around the world to also participate in making this thing work.
So, that second phase, the phase you're discussing, the disarmament/demobilization, that's not going to be easy. That's going to be hard. But it is really important because without it, without demobilization, you're not going to have a lasting peace. A lot of work has to happen there, and we acknowledge that, and we want it to work out, and we're going to do everything we can to make it work.
QUESTION: Prime Minister Netanyahu has indicated he expects the hostages to be released as soon as this week. Is that your expectation, that the hostages will be released this coming week, Mr. Secretary?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, I would like the hostages to have been released yesterday. Now we need to work through the logistics of how that's going to happen. I mean, and again, that sounds simplistic but it's not just about - you've got to make sure that there's no fighting going on. You have to make sure the Red Cross can get there, what time they're going to be there, where they're going to be. All of that has to be worked through, and that's not easy in the middle of an active war zone. That has to be de-escalated, and that's exactly what they're meeting about right now. I mean, that's what the talks are about. That's what the high-level talks are going to be in Cairo tomorrow.
QUESTION: But they could be released this week, Mr. Secretary? They could be released this week?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, our expectation - yeah, we want it to be as soon as possible. There's no doubt about it. We want it as soon as possible. It needs to happen as quickly as possible. And we will know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not by how these technical talks go in terms of the logistics. But absolutely, we want these hostages - all of them, living and deceased - released as soon as possible.
QUESTION: Let me ask you about Israel's role in this. Israel has not agreed to fully withdraw from Gaza. What is the timeframe by which the United States wants to see that happen? Are we talking weeks, months, years?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, listen. So first of all, they have agreed - and that's part of the release - to move back to the yellow line, which is what they've called it. It's basically where Israel stood in the middle of August. And so that - they've agreed to that piece. And I think ultimately, everyone has agreed, including Israel, that eventually at some point here, as this process plays out, Gaza will be governed by a Palestinian technocratic group that's not Hamas, that are not terrorists, with the help and the assistance and the guidance of an international consortium like the Board of Peace, et cetera. That is the goal everyone who signed on to this agreement has agreed to.
QUESTION: What's the timeframe, though, Mr. Secretary?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Now, but in order —
QUESTION: Weeks, months, years?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, that'll take - that'll take - yeah, no, in terms of - I mean, yeah, you can't set up a governance structure in Gaza that's not Hamas in three days. I mean, it takes some time. And when we ask Israel, okay, you're at the yellow line, now everything behind it you have to turn it over, you have to have somebody to turn it over to. So, I mean, let's be realistic here. You can't just set up a sort of new governance structure inside of Gaza in 72 hours. That - it's going to take some time to do it. The important thing is that there's a plan, it's being executed, it has the money, it has the support, it has the expertise, and that it's moving forward and everyone has agreed to the parameters of it. But that is ultimately the goal here that everyone who's signed on to President Trump's deal has agreed to.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I want to read point 19 of the President's peace plan. I'll put it up so folks can see it. It says, quote, "While Gaza redevelopment advances and when the Palestinian Authority reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people." Does the Trump Administration now support Palestinian statehood, Mr. Secretary?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, look, first of all, that provision was very important to the countries that signed on with us, and Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, et cetera. They all really - that's a very important point to them. I think the most important point to read out of that is that you have to have somebody to turn it over to, right, someone that you can hand that over to. We've always said that if there's going to be a two-state solution, it has to be negotiated with Israel; it has to make sure that Israel's security is taken into account.
And so I would argue that - I wouldn't say this is a new policy position. What I would say is you want to be able to have in Gaza a place - Israel has no interest in governing Gaza. They want to turn it over to somebody, some organization that will govern it that will not build tunnels and sponsor terrorism and come across the line and kidnap, rape, and murder Israelis. That's who they want to turn it over to.
QUESTION: But —
SECRETARY RUBIO: And right now that doesn't exist. That has to be built.
QUESTION: But Mr. Secretary, in terms of where the administration stands, yes or no: Does the Trump Administration support Palestinian statehood?
SECRETARY RUBIO: That's not a yes-or-no question. That's a process. No, but that's not a yes-or-no question; that's a process. Ultimately, at the end of the day we've always said - this has been the consistent position of this administration, of myself and of a lot of people that have watched this for a very long time. In order for that aspiration to even be credible, it has to be realistic. We can't have a Palestinian state that's governed by Hamas or by some terrorist organization whose stated purpose for existence is the destruction of the Jewish state. That would never work.
Until there is - until Gaza is governed by people that are not interested in destroying Israel, until there are no security threats emanating against Israel from Gaza, you're not - forget about statehood; you're not going to have peace. So, we have to create the conditions for that. That's going to take a while, and that's going to be part of what these negotiations are about in the days to come.
But right now, the priority - number one - is to get the hostages released. If we can't even get an agreement on the hostages being released, you ain't going to have long-term peace here. So, let's get that piece done - it's the most important - and then we can move to phase two, and it'll give momentum to the rest of the effort. But this is not going to be easy.
QUESTION: All right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: No one said this is going to be easy. We are dealing with something that's been going on for a very long time.
QUESTION: All right. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, thank you very much for your time this morning. We really appreciate it.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thank you.
