Department Press Briefing – October 2, 2024 – United States Department of State

This morning, in advance of the President’s call with the G7 leaders, the Secretary convened a call of the foreign ministers from France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. On that call he discussed with them working together to coordinate a response to Iran’s attack on Israel; further discussed how to coordinate diplomatic efforts moving forward to ensure stability in the Middle East. The Secretary then joined the President’s call with the G7. I’m sure you saw the readout that the White House issued a short time ago where they made clear that the G7 condemns Iran’s attack on Israel and is working together on a response, including new sanctions.

With that, Matt. Not Matt. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: I’ll be Matt today. (Laughter.)

MR MILLER: Uh, really? (Laughter.) Go ahead.

QUESTION: So Biden said he does support an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. Is that a red line for the U.S., and are there any others? What’s your message to Israel in how this response should look?

MR MILLER: So the President made very clear what we do not support. I think beyond that we will continue to discuss Israel – with Israel what the shape of their response will be. I’m not going to air all of those discussions privately, but we have made very clear that this was an unprecedented escalation by Iran. Israel has a right to respond to it and we’ll discuss that response with them.

QUESTION: Are the Israelis listening to you? Like, do you have any indications that Israel is even inclined to listen to the U.S. after having made operational decisions on its own that led to success?

MR MILLER: Look, they’re a sovereign country. They do make their own decisions. We talk with them at a number of different levels about what we believe is in their interest, what we believe is in the interest of the region. We’ll continue to do that but ultimately, it’s up for them – as it is for any sovereign country – to make their own decisions.

QUESTION: Are they receptive to what you’ve been telling them in these conversations though? Do you have any indication that they’re going to listen or coordinate with you on what the next steps are?

MR MILLER: I think it’s appropriate at this point that we keep those conversations private.

QUESTION: All right. And then just on Gaza ceasefire prospects, has there been any progress on that since the attack on Hizballah communications equipment? Are there any meetings taking place? Is there a path forward for that at this point, or has that been overtaken by Israel and Hizballah?

MR MILLER: It’s not that it’s been overtaken by the conflict between Israel and Hizballah. It’s that Hamas has, again, refused to engage. I went through some of this yesterday and I’m happy to go through it again. This really predates the events of the past week, 10 days, where we’ve seen Israel launching attacks on – increased attacks on Hizballah. It goes back several weeks where we were at this point where we were trying to get together a next proposal that we, along with the other mediators, Egypt and Qatar, would present to the two parties. And in preparing for that step we’re doing various soundings of what might be agreeable, trying to come do what – play the role of the mediator and come up with a response that would get to yes on both sides, and Hamas has refused to engage.

So it’s not from a lack of interest on our parts, not from a lack of focus on our part, but when you have – when you’ve tried to get – when you’re trying to put together a deal, you have to have the parties themselves engaged. And over the last few weeks Hamas has been unwilling, for whatever reason, to engage.

So – go ahead. She can – you ceded –

QUESTION: I was late.

MR MILLER: You ceded your right, yeah.

QUESTION: Well, I was late; I’m sorry. I was on the phone. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Just to bounce off Gaza, Israel is still – they didn’t have as many troops in Gaza at the moment given their movement of a lot of troops up north. They are still doing operations in Gaza. Can you give us any kind of update on what their next steps are in Gaza in terms of, like, any kind of transition phase? Is there anything that they – like, in terms of what their plan is if there are no communications with Hamas? This – a lot of this is under wraps, but any kind of –

MR MILLER: Yeah, no, look I –

QUESTION: How the U.S. is pivoting?

MR MILLER: I think they should speak for what their next plans are. Obviously, we have been clear about what we believe the post-conflict period should look like in Gaza, but when it comes to what Israel’s plans are, it’s something that they should speak to.

QUESTION: Okay. And on Lebanon, you mentioned yesterday the number of Americans who have registered with the U.S. embassy to get information in case they should want to leave. Do you have an update on numbers, and any update on any U.S. assistance for helping those Americans to leave?

MR MILLER: Yeah. So there are now around 7,000 people who have contacted us. Not all of those are looking for assistance to leave, but we ask people to register with us for more information and then we provide them information. Some of those, I presume, will eventually look to depart Lebanon and some of them will want to stay, but want to – their plans may change over time. Their interests may change over the – over time. That’s the number of people who have registered with us.

In terms of the U.S. helping people leave the country, for – so for the past several days we have been working – and past really going back to September 28th, we have been working to make seats available or to find seats available on existing commercial flights. We have been able to identify over 800 seats over that time. A number of them have been used by American citizens. In all – not in all cases have they been filled. And then today we were able to organize a flight from Beirut to Istanbul to allow other American citizens to leave. It’s been a priority for us to enhance the capacity of flights in and out of the region. So we’ve contracted with additional carriers to facilitate the transport of American citizens. There was a flight that left a couple of hours ago from Beirut; had a capacity of 300, had somewhere – a little over a hundred American citizens and their family members who departed on it.

QUESTION: Okay, thank you. And just one final question: There’s been reports of an American citizen killed in Lebanon. Can you give us any –

MR MILLER: We have seen those reports. It’s our understanding that it was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. But we obviously offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss.

QUESTION: Sorry, just on the flight –

MR MILLER: Yeah.

QUESTION: – flights – excuse me – from Lebanon, from Beirut. There was just one flight today?

MR MILLER: Just one flight today. And I should add –

QUESTION: To Istanbul?

MR MILLER: Yeah, to – let me just add for context, we do hope to organize additional flights in the coming days, depending on demand. If there is demand for those flights, we hope to organize additional flights. I won’t be able to announce them in advance because often – you understand, of course, how difficult the situation is, and –

QUESTION: Yeah.

MR MILLER: – at times that we’ll hope to have flights and won’t be able to get them in or out for whatever reason. But I will be able to, after they’ve occurred, come here and talk about them.

QUESTION: Okay. And then you said since September 28th you managed to secure about 800 seats on existing flights – not contract flights, but existing flights, right?

MR MILLER: Correct, existing flights.

QUESTION: But you don’t have any idea of how many people actually took advantage of those seats?

MR MILLER: I don’t, I don’t. I can try to follow up after the briefing and see if we can get an exact number.

QUESTION: Okay. And those are – those are all – those 800, so a hundred seats that you had secured were on Middle East Airlines?

MR MILLER: Correct. It’s the only commercial carrier currently flying out of Beirut.

QUESTION: Right. Okay. And are there plans for more of these contract flights?

MR MILLER: We are going to look to organize them in the coming days. We’re – keep trying to do both lines of effort: identify seats on existing commercial flights, and then to the extent there is demand – and we do expect there will be demand, at least for the next several days, and then we’ll monitor as we go forward – we do expect to organize additional flights out of Beirut.

QUESTION: Okay. And then when you mentioned earlier about the Secretary’s call this morning with the Quint, I believe it was –

MR MILLER: Correct. Yeah.

QUESTION: I’m sorry, I missed that at the top. You also said that you guys are still in touch at a variety of levels with the Israeli government. In terms of the Secretary’s conversations, when was the last time he spoke to either his counterpart or Ron Dermer, or – was it last week, in New York?

MR MILLER: Yesterday.

QUESTION: Yesterday?

MR MILLER: Yesterday.

QUESTION: Okay. So – and what was the result of that?

MR MILLER: So the Secretary, along with other members of the administration, had a number of phone calls with the Israeli government yesterday. Obviously, the Secretary was virtually – joined the President virtually from here during the attack to monitor the attack, and then participated in a number of calls with senior government – Israeli government officials. We are talking with them about their response and what their response will look like. Those conversations are ongoing, and I think I’ll leave it at that.

QUESTION: Okay. So that was – so that last contact was when they were all in the Situation Room, when we all could see on TV the Iranian missiles coming in. It was after that?

MR MILLER: It – so on the margins of that. I’ll leave – I’ll leave it at that. Yeah.

QUESTION: Okay. But – okay. And then – but so far today, you’re not aware of any –

MR MILLER: No. Not as of this point, which isn’t to say that we won’t have any. And I should make clear that oftentimes we – sometimes we read these calls out, and oftentimes we don’t.

QUESTION: All right. And then – just sorry, just back to – because I realized I forgot to ask it – do you have, whether it was on these flights from the 28th from last week, and plus the 100 or so who are on this other flight today – do you have any idea of how many American citizens have actually left Lebanon?

MR MILLER: I don’t. I can see if we can get that information. On the flight today, it was somewhere a little over a hundred.

QUESTION: You said – yeah.

MR MILLER: But those aren’t – but I should be – those aren’t all American citizens; some of those are American citizens, some of them are family members who are not American citizens.

QUESTION: Fair enough. Thank you.

QUESTION: Can I –

MR MILLER: Yeah, Said.

QUESTION: Politico reports that U.S. officials quietly supported escalation in Lebanon, including apparently the assassination of Hizballah chief Nasrallah. Could you comment on that?

MR MILLER: So we were not aware of that attack, that incident before it happened. So we could not possibly quietly support something of which we were not aware.

QUESTION: Okay. Yeah.

MR MILLER: Now, to be clear, we support bringing Hassan Nasrallah to justice. That is true. We made clear that he is a brutal terrorist with the blood of Americans, the blood of Israelis, the blood of Lebanese, Syrians on his hands. So we do support – but in advance we weren’t aware of that. So –

QUESTION: Okay, so you’re not –

MR MILLER: It’s impossible to support something that you didn’t know was happening.

QUESTION: Okay, so you’re not aware of the logistics, but you are supportive of the action?

MR MILLER: I don’t know what you mean by logistics.

QUESTION: Okay, time –

MR MILLER: We weren’t – we were not aware before it happened.

QUESTION: Time and place and – time and place and method, that’s – those are the logistics. Okay, the – let me just ask you a follow-up to a question that I asked yesterday on what – related to what you’re saying. I mean, Matt, I was in this room in March 2004 when Israel assassinated Sheikh Yassin. Two months later, when they assassinated Rantisi. Probably around this town when they assassinated (inaudible). I mean, there is – there is a record of assassinations. And that has not gotten Israel anywhere. What we see, we see that Hamas has gotten much stronger. Hizballah has gotten a lot stronger. It seems that they are doing everything except looking at the cause of the problem, which is the occupation, a military occupation of a people that it’s been overdue for them to be free of that – from the yoke of occupation. Do you agree with that?

MR MILLER: So I spoke to this in response to a –

QUESTION: I understand, but –

MR MILLER: – nearly identical question from you yesterday –

QUESTION: Right.

MR MILLER: And I will make clear: Look, obviously there is a long history of conflict in this region, and we will continue to make clear that Israel has the right and the responsibility to defend itself from terrorism. It is the same right that every country has, and every country, if it had a terrorist just across the border – a terrorist organization just across from its borders attacking it, would take action to defend itself. I don’t think that is an innovative – or should be even a controversial statement.

But we also are very clear that we believe the long-term way to ensure stability in the region – and really, the short-term way, too – is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. We make quite clear – that’s been the position of the United States for some time, and it is the position of this administration.

QUESTION: Okay. So you agree, then, that Israel has an obligation to end this occupation. It’s time to end this occupation, and –

MR MILLER: We –

QUESTION: – allow people to have their own freedoms, their own level of integrity, measure of integrity that – like the President –

MR MILLER: We absolutely do want to see the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, where Palestinians can choose their own future. Now, that – while that obviously requires some very important steps by Israel, and requires a change of direction from the Government of Israel, they’re steps that that would require the Palestinians to take as well.

QUESTION: Okay. One last question. Senator Graham – and apparently there’s been much talk about this – was saying that we should take out Iran’s oil facilities and so on. Is that a good idea? Would that create total chaos and maybe similar retaliatory – or something that is really a major U.S. interest?

MR MILLER: So we are discussing with Israel the scope and nature of their response, and I think I’ll leave those discussions private.

Yeah, go ahead. Come to you next, Tom. Go ahead. I’ll work my – just kind of work my way left to right?

QUESTION: Is the U.S. response – is the U.S. response to the attacks yesterday by Iran limited to sanctions? And if so, what sanctions are there left to levy against Iran at this point?

MR MILLER: So we can always look to identify new ways to impose sanctions on Iran or to increase enforcement of our existing sanctions. Those are the measures that we’re looking at right now. You saw in the President’s statement that’s what he made clear we, along with the G7, are considering. When we see Iran take new actions, we work with our partners to identify new ways to respond to that. And I think I should make clear – and this is clear, I think, from the statement the President put out – it’s not just a question of U.S. sanctions. It is a question of other entities, some of which don’t have as strong a sanctions regime as the U.S. has imposed, taking their own measures as well.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Just briefly, first, Israel Katz’s statement this morning that António Guterres will be banned from entering Israel. Do you have any response to that?

MR MILLER: I don’t find that – or we don’t find that step to be productive in any way.

QUESTION: I wanted to ask you, I mean, with getting onto a year now from October the 7th, when you reflect on a year of U.S. diplomacy when it comes to Israel and Gaza, how do you characterize what you have and haven’t accomplished in that time?

MR MILLER: So there have been a number of things. If you go back and look at the statements that the Secretary made and that others in the administration made in the immediate aftermath of October 7th, there were a number of lines of effort and strategic goals that we identified. One of them is to ensure that Israel has the ability to defend itself against terrorism. And we have worked hard to establish that right and to support Israel in defending itself against terrorism.

Another is to ensure that humanitarian access makes it to citizens in Gaza who needed it. And now, of course, that applies to people in Lebanon as well. But we’ve made clear we want to see humanitarian access get into Gaza. And while that, of course, has been a very difficult process and with lots of hurdles and obstacles, I think it’s through the intervention and the involvement and the hard work of the United States that we’ve been able to get humanitarian assistance in to those in Gaza, which is not to say that this is a – whenever I talk about this, I never want to make it sound like it is a game over, mission accomplished. It is very much not. It is an ongoing process. We were constantly having to break through new hurdles and find additional ways to get humanitarian assistance in.

The other one of the overarching goals that we identified is try to keep the conflict from spreading and really turning into an all-out regional war. And we have faced a number of days in the nearly year since October 7th where that goal seemed incredibly difficult, and the situation was incredibly fraught. And through a combination of diplomacy and deterrence, we have been able to calm tensions when they’ve been threatening to spiral out of control and prevent the outbreak of an all-out regional war. And now, obviously, is one of those times when we are again at a very fraught moment, and we’re going to continue to pursue diplomacy and deterrence to try and prevent escalation into that full conflagration.

QUESTION: I mean, you’re very well aware of the very loud criticism there as being particularly over humanitarian aid, and on the failure to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal. But, I mean, on that final point about regional war, it feels much closer now than it has been. I mean, do you see this process and your diplomacy over the last year as a success?

MR MILLER: So I will say with regard to the question about all-out regional war, I was getting those same kinds of questions in April when it looked like we may – might be very close to a direct war between Israel and Iran. And I made clear at the time, and others in the administration made clear at the time, that while we never make any predictions about what the future is going to hold, we were going to spend all of our time working through diplomacy, through deterrence, through the relationships that we have built with our partners in the region, to try and prevent an outbreak of that full regional conflict. And we were successful then, and we’re continuing to pursue that today.

It’s not to say that tensions aren’t high. Obviously, this is a region where tensions have been high going back decades. It’s not something that started on October 7th. It’s not something that started at the beginning of this administration. So I will let others pass judgement on the success of our efforts. I will say that from our standpoint, we will continue to work to try to advance those goals. And I would also say when it comes to humanitarian – getting humanitarian assistance into Gaza, yes, of course the results have not been sufficient. The outcomes have not been sufficient. There are things that we’re trying to improve all the time. But it is because of the United States’ involvement that we have gotten humanitarian – that we got humanitarian assistance in in the first place; that we’ve seen it increase at various times; that we’ve seen it sustained. And it is through our continued involvement that we will try to address obstacles as they come up.

I will say, with respect to a ceasefire, yes, it has been a major priority of the United States to get to a ceasefire, but that requires the two parties themselves to come to the table. And there have been times when Israel has thrown up obstacles that have made it difficult, and we’ve been working through those and applying all the diplomacy we can to try and overcome those obstacles. And there have been times that Hamas has been the obstacle. And obviously, we don’t have a lot of influence on Hamas’s decision-making process. There are others that do – Iran, chiefly – and it’s when – I would – I would hope that others in the region would step up to the plate as well. Obviously, that’s not what we’ve seen them do.

QUESTION: And finally, I just wanted to put it to you. Ronald Reagan’s diary entry for August the 12th, 1982 describes how he phoned Prime Minister Begin of Israel and told him to stop bombing Beirut or the U.S.-Israel relationship would be endangered. I mean, to the accusation that you have simply not used leverage to get what you want, what do you say to that? And bearing in mind some precedents like that.

MR MILLER: So there have been a number of times over the course of this conflict where direct U.S. intervention with the Government of Israel has led them to take steps that they were not previously doing – to take steps when it comes to humanitarian access, to take steps with regards to the shape of their military operations. I’m not going to speak to all those publicly. Some of them have been reported over time.

But I do think it is often simplistic to reduce the calculus of other country – to reduce the understanding of what’s happening to the bilateral relationship between any two countries. Every country in this region is a sovereign country that makes their own decisions based on their interests. That was true before October 7th. That remains true. The United States will continue to work to advance its own interests. We’ll continue to work to advance peace, advance stability in the region, but ultimately, all the countries in the region – this includes Israel; this includes other countries – make their own decisions. They’re responsible for their own decisions. They’re responsible for the consequences of those decisions.

QUESTION: I mean, Reagan did stop the bombing of – I mean, Begin stopped it 20 minutes later.

MR MILLER: I think we have made – we have made clear on a number of occasions with the Government of Israel what we believe, and there have been times when our intervention has led to direct action by the Government of Israel. There are times when they have disagreements with us. And by the way, that was true in the Reagan administration, too. There’s no administration that you look back through history will tell you that they have a perfect record in influencing any other country’s behavior or decision-making. There are times when we make our opinion known to the Government of Israel and they act on it; there are times they disagree. It’s true with other countries and that was true in other administrations, both with Israel and other countries as well.

Alex, go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you, Matt.

MR MILLER: And I’ll keep going.

QUESTION: I understand you don’t want to talk about sanctions, but can you help us understand its scope? What is your ultimate goal, targeted goal, in it? Is it just to express your anger or to actually take away from their capabilities?

MR MILLER: So I’m not going to really – you’re right. I’m not going to discuss sanctions that we have not yet announced. You saw the President make this statement today that we are working with the G7 on sanctions, but our goal continues to be to hold Iran accountable. And they are one tool in our diplomatic arsenal. We’ll continue to use them.

QUESTION: Okay. May I ask about Ukraine? Is it too early?

MR MILLER: Sure.

QUESTION: But –

MR MILLER: Or why don’t we do this. Why don’t we keep going –

QUESTION: Please come back to me. Appreciate it.

MR MILLER: – and then we’ll come back to Ukraine.

Yeah.

QUESTION: I have several questions on Iran and Lebanon. First, on Iran, why is the U.S. against Israel attacking the – their nuclear sites?

MR MILLER: So we have made clear for some time that we do not want to see a full-blown regional escalation. Israel has a right to respond to what happened yesterday. It was an unprecedented action by Iran to launch nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, a state-on-state attack the likes of which we haven’t seen directed against Israel from Iran, and so Israel of course has a response. And we are going to continue to discuss with them what that response might look like, but we don’t want to see any action that would lead to a full-blown regional war.

QUESTION: And on Lebanon, are you talking to Israel to keep the airport open and not bombing it?

MR MILLER: So I’m not going to talk about any specific site, but we have made clear to Israel that we do not want to see civilian infrastructure targeted. We don’t want to see obviously civilian sites targeted. The airport is playing a crucial function in helping get American citizens out of Lebanon as well as citizens of other countries who want to be able to leave, and we think it’s important that the airport stay open for those purposes.

QUESTION: And did you understand from them the scope of their military operations in Lebanon and their goal or goals there?

MR MILLER: So we have had – obviously had a number of conversations with them about that, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to speak to those conversations. It – those are private consultations between our two countries. To the extent they want to publicly discuss their operations in Lebanon, I think it’s appropriate for them to do so, but it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to do so from here.

QUESTION: And is the ceasefire offer still on the table or it’s already –

MR MILLER: We ultimately do want to see a ceasefire that leads to a diplomatic resolution. That has been – we have been clear that, that’s how we see this conflict ending. Now, we do support Israel’s right to target members of Hizballah, to target Hizballah infrastructure. But yes, we do want to see a diplomatic resolution.

QUESTION: And my final question: Do you trust the UNIFIL and the Lebanese army to implement the 1701 UN Security Council Resolution in the future?

MR MILLER: We do believe they’re both very important actors for ensuring stability, for ensuring the full implementation of that resolution. Obviously, if you look at the long history since that resolution was adopted, we’ve seen Hizballah refuse to comply with its obligations. And so we would call again, as we have over many years going back, predating this administration, for Hizballah to pull back from the border, to comply with the requirements of 1701, and UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces play a very important role in ultimately implementing that resolution.

I would just say – the only thing I would say is that we are in the middle of a dynamic situation right now. Obviously for some years you’ve seen this difficult situation where the LAF were – and UNIFIL were not fully able to enforce that resolution because of the presence of Hizballah forces who just refuse to fulfill their obligations. We are in a dynamic situation right now. It’s hard to say how it’s going to shake out. But look, ultimately what we want to see is that resolution implemented.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR MILLER: Yeah.

QUESTION: First I want to press you on your answer to Tom. Israel declaring the secretary-general of the United Nations a persona non grata – not talking about the head of UNRWA; we’re talking about the head of the UN itself. You said your – your answer to him, you said that’s not productive. You don’t think that this – delegitimize an international body that provides an essential work, humanitarian work, for civilians during this current war, whether it’s in Gaza or Lebanon?

MR MILLER: We don’t think it’s a productive step at all precisely because of the reasons you identify, which is the UN does incredibly important work in Gaza, it does incredibly important work in the region, and the UN – when it’s acting its best – can play an important role for security and stability. So we think it’s important that Israel be able to engage with the UN.

One of the things we’ve always said that Israel needs to be cognizant of throughout this conflict is its standing in the world, and steps like this are not productive to improving its standing in the world.

QUESTION: Sure, but do you condemn it? I mean, my point is: Can you use any leverage to reverse this decision? Because –

MR MILLER: So I – so I have made clear – I don’t always like when people put other words in my mind – I’ve – or in my mouth. I made quite clear what we think about this, and let’s see what happens moving forward.

QUESTION: Okay. The second question is – the Secretary and you often say that Israel has the right to defend itself, but how it does it, it matters. So this morning, there were six first responders were killed in Lebanon – civilians. In Gaza it’s over 40,000; 70 percent are women and children. In Lebanon there’s 1 million people are homeless. So when he says how it matters, if there’s no consequences in Israel, doesn’t his word carry no weight? Does it mean that it’s really a statement for public consumption?

MR MILLER: Absolutely not.

QUESTION: Why?

MR MILLER: Absolutely not. Look, wars have horrific consequences. They always have; they always will. And these wars have had horrific consequences for the people of Gaza and now for the people of Lebanon. It is why the U.S. has worked so hard to try to reach a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon. And what you saw going back months is Hizballah refusing to stop its attacks on civilian targets inside Israel. It’s why we’ve tried to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza that would ultimately lead to the guns being silenced, hostages coming home, humanitarian assistance surging in. We will continue to pursue both of those things.

But in each of these cases, it is just a little more complicated than the question – than the question concedes. It is more complicated when you have terrorist groups that hide inside civilians. Look at – when you look at the death of Hassan Nasrallah last week, where was he? Was he on a military compound? Was he on a compound that Hizballah built where there are only members of Hizballah? No, he was underneath a civilian apartment building. And when you look at what has happened over and over again in Gaza, you’ve seen Hamas hiding not just in apartment buildings but mosques and schools.

Now, we’ve been very clear with Israel that that doesn’t lessen their obligation to do everything possible to be mindful – to minimize and reduce and eliminate civilian casualties. But it is an extremely tough situation. It’s – every military in the world would face extremely, extremely challenging circumstances trying to take on a terrorist organization that was committed to targeting civilians – not just targeting members of the military but targeting civilians – and at the same time they do it, hiding among civilians. That’s what makes this – the situation so difficult.

QUESTION: And just finally, do you see this current escalation and military conflict as a result of U.S. failed diplomacy, or is it Netanyahu’s government trying to drag the U.S. into a bigger war?

MR MILLER: So again, it’s a little bit of a simplistic question about a complicated situation. There are two parties to this conflict. It –

QUESTION: I don’t know it’s a simplistic question.

MR MILLER: There’s – Israel is one party to this conflict, and Hizballah is the other party to this conflict. When you look at the conflict in the north, it’s a conflict that Hizballah started on October 8th, that they could have ended any day since then. It’s not a conflict that Israel started; it’s a conflict that Hizballah started that they could have stopped by stopping firing rockets.

So I will say, as I said in response to an earlier question, we’ve been at similar situations over the past 12 months where situations were incredibly high and it looked like we might get into a full-scale war. And the combination of our deterrence and diplomacy and the hard work – not just of the United States, but our allies and partners in the region – has been successful in preventing that from happening, which is never a prediction of future success, but to us it tells us that we ought to stay at it and keep working and stay at the diplomacy and the deterrence work with our partners, and that’s what we’re going – we are going to continue to do.

QUESTION: Can I ask –

MR MILLER: Yeah, go ahead, and then I’ll come – yeah.

QUESTION: – just one very specific one on – because you have been talking about – you’ve been asked about one year on. You talked about how one of the challenges that the U.S. faced was to help get more aid in. Reuters was – has been reporting that sources who work in aid delivery say that Israel has introduced this new customs rule that makes individuals who are delivering aid now have to sign forms to say that they – to accept liability for false information. =And then there’s lots of individuals working on delivering aid who don’t want to sign it because they fear they could be legally liable if any of that aid falls into Hamas’s hands, and as we know, aid has fallen into Hamas’s hands. It has apparently had a knock-on effect and is reducing the amount of aid that’s being delivered, particularly in the last two weeks and particularly by the – the route from Jordan. Do you have any comment on that? Are you aware of that impact?

MR MILLER: So I’m not going to comment on that specific report other than to say that our Special Envoy for Humanitarian Issues Lise Grande has been working on a number of potential obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, including intensely over the past week, 10 days, including some new measures that we’ve had to respond to and that we have been working on. And I will just – and it’s not just Lise; it’s others from the State Department and across the government who have been working on those.

I will just make clear Israel has an obligation under international humanitarian law to ensure that humanitarian assistance makes it to the people in Gaza, to ensure that there are not unnecessary barriers to the delivery of humanitarian assistance. That is their obligation. It’s not the United States telling them that; it’s their obligation under international humanitarian law. And we expect them to comply with that obligation.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Can you come –

MR MILLER: Go ahead. I promised I’d call on him. I’ll come to you next. Go ahead.

QUESTION: But just before I start my questions, I have a follow-up on Michel and Said question regarding the oil – oil facilities and nuclear facilities in Iran. Do you consider them legitimate targets? Because they are civilians infrastructure, isn’t it?

MR MILLER: Look, I just don’t think it’s productive for me or appropriate at this point to talk about our ongoing discussions with the Government of Israel. It’s clear that this was an unprecedented escalation by Iran. Israel has the right to respond to it. We’re going to have discussions. We’ve had – we’re having discussions with them about what that response will look like. And at this point, I don’t think I should talk about those discussions.

QUESTION: All right. And the reason why we ask about it, because it’s not just Senator Graham who mentioned that – reports in Israel saying that the retaliation will be in couple of days and it will target oil facilities and –

MR MILLER: Look, we’re obviously not responsible for the comments of members of Congress. It’s an independent branch and they say all sort – various members say all sorts of things. And I’m certainly not going to speak to reports, anonymous reports, that may or may not be accurate. We are having conversations with them about the nature of their response, and I really think it is most productive – most productive for a variety of interests that we keep those conversations private.

QUESTION: All right. I want to talk about the ground incursion, the Israeli ground incursion, in Lebanon. When it started or hours before it started, it was reported that it was an understanding between the United States and Israel to keep it limited and targeted toward positions of Hizballah in the south. But now, after two – 48 hours, the IDF’s taken casualties, missiles from Hizballah still flying over to inside Israel. Does this risk that this limited incursion turns into a full-blown invasion to southern Lebanon?

MR MILLER: Look, there has always been the risk, even before – I mean, even before these limited incursions began, there’s always been the risk of a full-blown war between Israel and Hizballah. And it’s something that we have been engaged with for some time. So – and if you look at history, the history of Israeli invasions of Lebanon and how those have rolled out and how Israel has occupied Lebanese territory for extended periods of time, everyone here is well aware of the history of this region. And it is why we are continuing to work ultimately to pursue a diplomatic resolution to this. I don’t want to try and predict what the future is going to bring because it’s impossible for anyone to do that, let alone me. I’ll tell you what we’re trying to pursue.

QUESTION: My final question. I got – I received a text yesterday from a friend of mine from the other part of the world. She was in shock that for her it seems that the United States is so weak and helpless in influencing Netanyahu. I know that I asked similar question about it yesterday and you – your answer was that they are sovereign, they take their own decisions. But you are involved in that area militarily as well. You defend them. You shot down missiles that – directed at them, but you don’t seem to influence them, even to your interest. And I’ve been – a lot of people in the area, in the region there lost faith, and they are – there are a lot of talks about that you’re not actually trying to, you’re just complicit, and all that you talk about about de-escalation and humanitarian situation and all that is just a smoke to allow Israel and enable it to do whatever it wants.

MR MILLER: Well, I obviously don’t agree. And I will say when it comes to the answer that I gave about them being a sovereign country, it’s not my answer, it’s reality. It’s a fact. Israel is a sovereign country. Every other country in the region is a sovereign country. There is no country in the world that the U.S. dictates to how they conduct their security policy, how they conduct their foreign policy. We present what we believe are in the best interests of the United States, what we believe at times are in Israel’s interest, what we believe are in the interests of other countries in the region. But as I said, ultimately Israel has to make its own decisions and they have to bear the consequences of those decisions for good and for bad.

And there have been a number of decisions they have taken we have agreed with. There have been a number of decisions we have taken – they have taken that we disagree with. And we have very clear conversations about them, but they – it’s just not that simple that any country in the world – I shouldn’t say any country, but that countries in the world take their direction from other countries. We don’t have that type of relationship with Israel; we don’t have it with other countries. We don’t expect any country in the world to do exactly what the United States thinks is in their best interest. All we can do is make clear what we think is the right path forward and what we think are the risks – and there are real risks of pursuing alternative paths. That’s independent – independent, sovereign countries get to make their own choices, and as I said, they have to live with the consequences of them.

Yeah, go ahead.

QUESTION: Just wanted to follow up on some of the questions on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Do you believe that Israel is doing everything it can to allow sufficient aid into Gaza?

MR MILLER: I think we have seen for some time various obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Sometimes those have been bureaucratic obstacles where one arm of the Israeli government or of the security services isn’t talking to another arm, and we’ve tried to work through those. At times, we’ve seen security hurdles that we don’t agree with, so provisions that Israel puts in place that are supposedly to improve security inside Gaza that we actually don’t think will have that effect and that we think are counterproductive. And we engage with them to try and get those measures reversed or, in some cases, modified. Sometimes Israel has very real concerns about smuggling or they have concerns about diversion, and we work with them to try to make sure those concerns are addressed, but in a way that doesn’t keep humanitarian assistance from coming out – or from coming in, I should say.

QUESTION: And do you have any – any update on the number of trucks entering Gaza that Israel –

MR MILLER: I don’t. I know the UN makes that number available every day. I don’t have it at my fingertips here.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Thank you, Matt. Since the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the mood in Iraq is the mood of anger and mourning. So soon after the attack yesterday, the Iraqi resistance group, they issued a statement and said if the U.S. get involved into this conflict, so all American facilities and interests in the region will be a target for us. And how do you view this? And what do you – what response do you have for this resistance group in Iraq?

MR MILLER: So we have been – we have made very clear a couple things. Number one, that no entity in the region should use this moment to target American interests, and that we will defend American interests and American personnel in the region. And we’ve also made clear that the forces that are in Iraq are there at the invitation of the Government of Iraq, and it is the Government of Iraq that must in – bear the first line of responsibility in holding any entity that seeks to target U.S. forces accountable for those actions.

QUESTION: And some Iranian-backed elements in Iraq get involved into this conflict. They joined the Houthis and Hizballah in attacking Israel. So there’s a big fear in Iraq and in the region that Iraq might be the next destination of this conflict. Do you have the same fear, and what will the U.S. do in preventing the expansion of this conflict into Iraq?

MR MILLER: Well, so we are going to continue to pursue diplomacy and deterrence to try and keep it from expanding. But I would say the – we of course have been concerned for some time about the various proxy groups that Iran funds, arms, and controls throughout the region. That includes in Iraq, the Iranian proxy groups inside Iraq that play a major destabilizing force to – inside that country. And so we will continue to defend our interests there, and we will continue to work to try to lower tensions. But of course we’re concerned about the role that proxy groups play inside Iraq.

QUESTION: Sorry, two really brief things.

MR MILLER: Yeah.

QUESTION: I can’t remember – Camilla’s question about an American being killed was in – was that in the West Bank or in Lebanon?

MR MILLER: In Lebanon, in Lebanon.

QUESTION: Okay, and it’s an LPR, right?

MR MILLER: It’s an LP – yeah, a legal –

QUESTION: Not an American citizen?

MR MILLER: Not an American citizen, to our knowledge.

QUESTION: And that’s the only one that you’re aware of, right?

MR MILLER: Correct.

QUESTION: Okay. And then secondly, just on the whole PNG and Guterres thing, you said that you didn’t think this was helpful in any way. Why? Are you aware that the secretary-general wanted to visit Israel?

MR MILLER: So –

QUESTION: Do you know when the last time a secretary-general visited Israel?

MR MILLER: So I am not aware of any upcoming travel by the secretary-general to Israel. But in any event, even aside from the question of travel, it’s just not, I think, a productive step for Israel to be engaged in that kind of activity.

QUESTION: Okay. Well, what about the Russians banning people like you from ever entering – is that not productive? I mean, you have no intention to go there. Was there – so I can imagine that you would say, well, this is pointless, so too bad; I’m not going to be able to go Sochi –

MR MILLER: Well, I –

QUESTION: – on my next vacation. But obviously, this is a little bit different.

MR MILLER: Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you think that this is going – this decision by the Israeli foreign minister is going to make any difference in – negative difference in the diplomacy that’s going on?

MR MILLER: Probably not.

QUESTION: Probably not.

MR MILLER: Probably not.

QUESTION: So then why – I don’t understand. Why do you even care?

MR MILLER: Because one of – because one of the things that we have made clear for some time is that Israel has to think about a number of things as it handles its relations with the world, as it handles these conflicts. One, of course, is its security situation. Another really important one is its standing in the world. And steps like these just aren’t productive and not helpful to improving Israel’s standing in the world.

QUESTION: Okay. And you might recall that in 1973 a former UN secretary-general named Kurt Waldheim did visit Israel, and you remember what his history was, right?

MR MILLER: So I do remember his history. I can’t say I recall that specific incident. I wasn’t alive yet.

QUESTION: Yeah, well –

MR MILLER: Didn’t miss it by a lot, but I wasn’t – (laughter) –

QUESTION: Well, he did, but the Israelis let him in and whatever, so –

MR MILLER: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR MILLER: All right.

QUESTION: Can I just follow up, just –

MR MILLER: Sure.

QUESTION: – on one point on that very briefly? But just to ask if you’re aware, because Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA – and I asked him about this at UNGA, United Nations General Assembly – about visas for lots of UN workers in Israel. And he talked about a lot of restrictions, not just UNRWA but other UN agencies. People have really – having limits put on visas, some not being able to get in, a month or two months at a time, which appears to be having quite a big impact. I mean, are you guys aware of that? Are you saying anything to the Israelis?

MR MILLER: Yeah, it has been an issue for some time. And on a number of occasions, we have intervened with the Government of Israel to get visas approved so humanitarian workers could make it into Israel and ultimately to visit Gaza. It has been at times a problem, and we have intervened directly to make clear that humanitarian workers need to be allowed in to do their job and have seen their visas approved. That’s not to say in every case they’ve had visas approved, but in a number of cases we have seen that happen.

Yeah.

QUESTION: So –

MR MILLER: We only have time for – let me come to Alex. I said I’d come here, and then we have to wrap in a few.

QUESTION: Thank you. I have a couple of questions on Ukraine. I want to start with there are reports about the largest mass execution of Ukrainian POWs in Donetsk. Do you have any reaction? Ukraine started investigation.

MR MILLER: So –

QUESTION: They have murdered 16 of them.

QUESTION: On the victory plan that you guys have received last week – about one week after that, did you guys have the Secretary’s blessing to move forward, to start implementing its victory plan?

MR MILLER: So the victory plan that the – that Ukraine presented is not just a question of actions that Ukraine would take. It’s a question of actions that other countries around the world would take as well. Ukraine hasn’t detailed that victory plan publicly yet so I’m not going to do so from here. It’s appropriate for them to do so. But we took that plan, we reviewed it, we saw a number of productive steps in it. We’re going to engage with them about it.

QUESTION: With everybody watching the Middle East last couple of days, they have been seeing that it’s in fact possible to help non-NATO ally to shoot down missiles. I know you and I had this discussion last time, but Helsinki Commission called Ukraine’s right to shoot back –

MR MILLER: Has – what was the –

QUESTION: Helsinki Commission called it –

MR MILLER: Yeah. Right.

QUESTION: – “common sense.” So to ease your restrictions, that’s the common sense. Is that an opinion that you share, you subscribe?

MR MILLER: So we have made clear that we support Ukraine’s right to defend itself not just in words but in deeds, and we have provided them with the equipment they need to shoot down missiles. If you look at the air-defense systems that we have provided, including an air-defense system that we announced – a new air-defense system that we announced just last week, we’ve actually provided them with that capability and we’ll continue to provide them with that capability.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Israel follow-up.

MR MILLER: Yeah.

QUESTION: Yeah, thank you. So for Italian television, I have a question. We are in a very important point in the Middle East that can change it forever at the moment. So what is the position of the U.S. in terms of, like, more military support, more diplomacy, where – what are we trying to reach at this stage?

QUESTION: Can I do a follow-up about the G7 regarding the talks that were ongoing this morning with the G7? What did you ask to do your European allies?

MR MILLER: So that was a call that –

QUESTION: Specifically.

MR MILLER: – the President held; the Secretary attended, but the President held. I would – I would leave it to the White House to speak to that call in detail, but one of the things they did discuss and put this in the public readout is coordinating together on a response to Iran’s actions, including sanctions.

QUESTION: Israel.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR MILLER: All the way in the back.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Hi, Matt.

MR MILLER: Yeah, you.

QUESTION: Yes.

MR MILLER: There’s no one behind you.

QUESTION: Back to the incursion in Lebanon, shortly before the Israelis gone into Lebanon, the President said he is comfortable with the Israeli troops stopping their operation. Now that they are in Lebanon, I’m wondering: What is the United States going to do? Are you going to give advice to the Israelis in terms of how they prosecute their operation, or are you simply telling them to act with restraint and act proportionately? Thank you.

MR MILLER: We are going to continue to have discussions that I won’t read out privately about doing what they can to ensure that they can degrade Hizballah and prevent Hizballah from being able to launch attacks into Israel as they have been doing since October 8th, and of course that they were doing for a number of years before that. And we’re going to continue to press on them the need to make decisions that are in not just their short-term but their long-term strategic interests.

Go ahead, Jahan.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, sir. Secretary Blinken met with Indian Minister Jaishankar yesterday. Could you provide some details, like what kind of message conveyed to him regarding the involvement of Indian agents in assassination attempt on U.S. citizen? And anything about violation of human rights and religious freedom?

QUESTION: Sir, former foreign minister of Pakistan – excuse me – Bilawal Bhutto Zardari – accuses Shehbaz Sharif government of corruption and mismanaging $400 million meant for flood victims, and a big portion of this aid was provided by United States. So isn’t it check-and-balance when you release funds for specific cause?

MR MILLER: Let me take that one back and get you an answer.

QUESTION: All right, thank you.

MR MILLER: Go ahead here and then I’ll –

QUESTION: Thank you, Matt. Just a couple questions here, briefly here. Given that Hizballah has murdered 220 Marines and countless other Americans and have fired 9,000 missiles at Israeli communities in the past year, including 12 Jews – children – murdered in one missile attack – that’s according to State Department, NPR, and AP reports – why has Secretary Blinken not publicly demanded that the Lebanese government stop the – or these – or eradicate Hizballah? And why does Secretary Blinken not demand that the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 be enforced by Lebanon’s government to push Hizballah north of the Litani River? And a follow-up question.

So we do continue to support efforts to degrade Hizballah’s capability. They’re a terrorist organization with the blood of American citizens on their hands. And we want to see 1701 implemented.

QUESTION: Okay. Since the Palestinian Authority, which has a U.S.-trained police force, paramilitary force, has done nothing to stop Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Judea and Samaria, why does the State Department continue to funnel millions of American dollars –

QUESTION: – to Abbas? What?

MR MILLER: You mean in the West Bank?

QUESTION: Okay. The Palestinian Authority is referring to the West Bank, yeah.

MR MILLER: Yeah. Yeah.

QUESTION: Which – they have a U.S.-trained police force, paramilitary force. So why has the U.S. department done nothing to stop Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Judea and Samaria? Why specifically does the State Department continue to funnel millions of American dollars to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority?

MR MILLER: So we have made clear that Israel has the right to conduct legitimate counterterrorism operations in the West Bank. But when it comes to the Palestinian Authority, ultimately the role that we have seen the Palestinian Authority play in the West Bank is a role of providing stability. And if you look at the security situation that Israel has faced – with challenges in Gaza, with challenges on its northern border – the last thing that is in Israel’s security interest is further instability in the West Bank, which is why, on a number of occasions, we have made clear to Israel that they should not take actions to undermine the Palestinian Authority and, in fact, should take actions to strengthen and bolster the Palestinian Authority because it’s a key to Israel’s security interest to do so.

QUESTION: Well –

MR MILLER: Let me move on. Only – I’ve got one – time for a couple more. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you very much, Matt. As you heard about the prime minister corruption, she has a niece as well that is also known for corruption. And you had called her a milestone. CPJ on June 11 said about the press laws condemnation they issued against that milestone lady. The other day there was a protest. She arrested her – the police under her arrested an 80-year-old woman for protesting and put her in a physical remand as well. And she ordered $20 million vehicles while they are – the government is begging for money; $20 million vehicles were purchased for government officials. I just want to give you opportunity once again to take that milestone and for her –

MR MILLER: So I’m just going to say I apologize sometimes because I know this is often my answer to your questions. I am not tracking any of the details that you laid out for me here, so of course I’m not able to comment on them.

QUESTION: Okay. There’s this one extremely popular scholar named Dr. Zakir Naik who has been literally kicked out since Prime Minister Modi took over in India. He’s visiting Pakistan right now, and he has floated this idea, while looking at this whole Middle East situation, that the Muslim countries should also have something on the lines of NATO. Would the U.S. support an idea like this where at least the Muslim countries, whether one Muslim country like Iran is involved in some –

MR MILLER: So I haven’t seen any serious proposals along those lines, and I think it’s a – well, I’ll leave it at that. I think I’ll –

QUESTION: Okay. Just one last question – just one last question. Balochistan Bar Association president yesterday said that the chief justice should not get extension beyond 25 October. Today there was a big lawyers’ protest rally outside supreme court. This extension of the judiciary, does the U.S. at all look at it with – worried, or no, no –

With that, we’ll wrap for today.

QUESTION: Thank you so much, Matt.

MR MILLER: Thanks, everyone.

QUESTION: Thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 2:14 p.m.)

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