QUESTION: I'm joined now by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Good morning.
QUESTION: Let's pick up where Ian left off. Are there real signs of hope here? Is this different?
SECRETARY RUBIO: This is the closet we've come to getting all of the hostages released - every single one, all 48, including the 28 who are deceased, of course the 20 that are still alive. But there's a lot of pitfalls along the way. There's some work to be done here.
I would encourage everyone to think about this in two phases. Phase number one, which Hamas has accepted, is the President's framework for release - the hostages are released and Israel pulls back to what's been called the yellow line, roughly where there were in August of last year - and that exchange happened. And that's the first phase of these talks because you have to work through the logistics of that - where do - who's going to pick them up, what's going to be the process for the exchange? We want to see that happen very quickly.
The second phase of this conversation - and they can be happening simultaneously - is what happens after that, what happens after Israel pulls back to this line, what happens with this international group that's going to come in and create a governance structure, an international governance structure led by technocrats, Palestinian technocrats, et cetera. That's the part that I think is going to be a little tougher to work through, but that's what's going to provide permanency to the end of the conflict.
So, we're focused on those two phases - phase number one incredibly important getting those 20 hostage - all 48 hostages back.
QUESTION: And Mr. Secretary, let's drill down on some of those things. One of the things that Hamas said about releasing the hostages is with the provision of "proper field conditions" for carrying out the exchange. You mentioned that briefly, but is that a complicated process? Do you really have hope they will be released and these aren't things to stall?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I do have hope that they'll be released, and I think there's chances. Look, the field condition piece which the President alluded to in his Truth Social post on Friday evening is that you can't have an exchange of hostages, you can't obviously bring them out, if bombs are going off and active combat is occurring. And fortunately, as you saw, the Israelis have announced that they have now suspended all offensive operations in the region with the exception of like addressing an imminent threat, someone's coming towards them with what they think might be a suicide or -
QUESTION: There were bombings last night.
SECRETARY RUBIO: - address that.
QUESTION: There were bombings last night in Gaza City.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, then we have to look into that. Yeah, well again, we have to look exactly what those operations were. But ultimately, yes, you cannot have an exchange and - if there is active combat ongoing. You just can't do it, I mean, for the safety of the hostages and for the Red Cross or whoever it is that's going to go in there and be a part of this exchange. You have to set the conditions. The Israelis have said that they would only deal with imminent threats, so we'll look into any of that because that's going to be a key component.
Now, obviously we have to make sure Hamas is also doing their part in this regard, but there are a lot of opportunities here for whoever wants to sabotage it to do so, and that includes Hamas by the way, or elements linked to Hamas sabotaging it by, in fact, creating conditions that are not viable for an exchange.
So, no one said this is going to be easy. This is good progress, but a lot of work remains. But it is the most significant development in this entire situation in a very long time, and it's the closest we've been in a long time to seeing a path towards the release of every hostage.
QUESTION: And one of the things President Trump said is that the hostages should be returned to Israel within 72 hours of acceptance of the plan. Has that clock started, or do you not quite think they've accepted the plan?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think they have accepted the outlines and the principles of the plan. What hasn't been worked out, as we just discussed, is what is the logistics of it - how is it going to work, what time, where. There are logistics involved here. You've got to send somebody into that area to go pick them up. We saw that previously in the other hostage releases where the Red Cross would go in. They would take custody of these people. They would bring them back out. All of that has to be worked out. And I think at that point is when I would say, if we want to get technical about this and legalistic, is when the clock would begin to run.
The goal in saying 72 hours is he wants to see it happen quickly. This is not something that can drag out. We cannot be here three weeks from now still discussing the logistics of how hostages are going to be released. That has to happen very quickly in order for the rest of this deal to gain momentum. We're dealing with two sides here who absolutely despise each other. And obviously, we understand after October 7th two years ago why it is that the Israelis have such little trust in Hamas, and no one should have any trust in Hamas. But we've got to get this thing done, and I would say we want to see it done very quickly, and the hostage piece has to happen very, very fast.
QUESTION: And you're talking about within a couple of days. Should we expect it next week if it does happen? This week?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, actually, the talks - yeah, already some of the technical talks is happening right now, and our hope is that by the time our team gets to Cairo 90 percent of this has been worked out and we're just sort of finalizing the logistical piece. We'd like to see it done yesterday. I mean, we want to see the hostages moving as quickly as possible. We understand that we have to get the teams like the Red Cross or whoever it is that's going to be that goes in and gets them. All these things have to be worked out, and that shouldn't take that long. All those talks are occurring even as I speak to you now. We're hoping it will be finalized very quickly, early this week.
And I'm hoping - again, who knows the timeline, but this cannot take weeks or even multiple days. We want to see this happen very fast. If it doesn't, then I think the entire deal becomes imperiled. So, this has to happen quickly for the sake of the hostages, the families, and this deal.
QUESTION: And Secretary Rubio, President Trump also said that Hamas cannot pose a threat again. They have not talked about part of this deal, which is disarming.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, look, that's going to be a key component of that second phase we just discussed. As long as - as long as there is a threat emanating from Gaza against Israel's security, be it Hamas or some successor organization; as long as there are people, organizations, inside of Gaza who possess rockets, build tunnels, want to kidnap, murder, and rape Israeli citizens and attack Israel, there isn't going to be peace.
Everyone knows this, including the Arab countries in the region, which is why they all signed onto this deal put forward by President Trump that deals with the fact that what Israel wants, what we want, what the deal envisions, what the countries in the region envision, is a Gaza that's run by Palestinian technocrats and Palestinian civil servants and Palestinian leaders that do not pose a threat to Israel. If there is a threat emanating from Gaza, you're not going to have peace here that's sustainable.
So that has to happen. That demobilization has to happen. And clearly, Hamas is an organization that we do not believe can be a part of that because of their history. Their very purpose for existence is to threaten the Israeli state. So that will have to be addressed in the second phase, and it's going to be a tough piece of it, no doubt about it. But if we truly want enduring peace, anyone who's in favor of enduring peace should be in favor of demobilization of Hamas or any other armed terrorist organization that seeks to operate from Gaza.
QUESTION: And President Trump's ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, was critical of Hamas's response. He said it was a classic "yes, but." What would you say to the senator?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I would say we all have to be clear-eyed about this, right? There are conditions that have to be met here. If two weeks from now, a week from now, whatever, it's clear that the hostages aren't going to be released and they're playing games, then I think the President stated what our position is going to be. He did so in a Truth Social post on Friday morning, giving them a 6pm deadline of Sunday to accept. And I thought that it was telling that within hours of that we get this letter from Hamas basically saying we agree to the framework the President's put forward, let's have our mediators negotiate the logistics for the release of the hostages, and we need to enter into further talks about the rest of the deal.
So, no one here is claiming this is done. What we are claiming is that we have moved a - so we are at a much better place today than we were seven days ago. A lot could happen wrong here, but so much could happen right if we can get this done, and we're very dedicated to making that happen.
And look, it's not just us, just the United States, although this is an initiative that President Trump deserves a tremendous amount of credit for; but it's Qatar, it's the UAE, it's Israel who's been involved in these talks, it's Saudi Arabia, it's Indonesia, it's countries like Egypt and Jordan and other countries from the region, all of whom are pushing hard and are behind this effort. We all want to see it get done, and I think that collective pressure can make this happen. I'm optimistic it will happen, but it won't be easy.
QUESTION: We are certainly all hoping it happens as well. Thanks for joining us this morning, Mr. Secretary. We appreciate it.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thanks, Martha.
