Biden administration still negotiating ceasefire deal, doesn’t assess Haniyeh killing

‘Our team is continuing to work very hard to narrow and close gaps. We continue to believe a deal is possible,’ said Vedant Patel, principal State Department deputy spokesman.

By Andrew Bernard, JNS

White House and U.S. State Department spokesmen reaffirmed the Biden administration’s commitment to achieving a ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas during press briefings on Wednesday, following the killing of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders overnight.

Vedant Patel, principal State Department deputy spokesman, told reporters that it was too soon to assess the impact of the death of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh but that mediated negotiations with Hamas are ongoing.

“Through appropriate channels, we have been able to continue to communicate with Hamas, and Israel of course, as it relates to the contours of the deal and negotiations that’s on the table,” Patel said.

“We continue to have confidence in our ability to do so and our ability to participate in these talks and work around the clock to get this deal done.”

“Our team is continuing to work very hard to narrow and close gaps. We continue to believe a deal is possible,” he added. “Getting a deal done is of vital importance.”

John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, told reporters that the administration continues to believe that the gaps between the parties are narrow enough to reach a settlement.

“We still believe the details can be hashed out,” Kirby said. “It’s too soon to know, based on the reporting over the last 24 to 48 hours, what impact any of this is going to have on the ceasefire deal.”

“It was always complicated,” he added. “It remains complicated, and reports coming out of the region, as we’ve seen over the last 24 to 48 hours, certainly don’t make it less complicated.”

Both Kirby and Patel insisted that Washington was neither involved in nor had foreknowledge of the strike on Haniyeh at a Tehran guest house.

Neither attributed the strike to Israel.

As is common with operations in Iran, the Jewish state has not claimed responsibility for the assassination, although both Iran and Hamas blamed it for Haniyeh’s death.

Israel did take responsibility on Tuesday for killing Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described in a speech on Wednesday as the terror group’s chief-of-staff and as “directly responsible” for the rocket attack that killed 12 children and wounded more than 40 others on Saturday in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli Golan Heights.

Hezbollah confirmed Shukr’s death on Wednesday following an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in a suburb south of Beirut the day prior.

JNS asked Patel about Shukr’s death, given the U.S. government offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to his whereabouts.

“This was an individual who was involved in the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks bombing and certainly has American blood on his hands,” Patel told JNS.

“I think an important thing to note, again, is that the U.S. was not involved in the planning of the attack and this was an action taken by the IDF based on Israeli intelligence.”