Dept. of State’s Daily Press Briefing: June 24, 2024

Dept. of State’s Daily Press Briefing: June 24, 2024

good afternoon everyone happy Monday uh as you all know the secretary earlier today rolled out the 2024 trafficking on persons report um we have here with us today a guest Ambassador Cindy Dyer who leads the Department’s office to Monitor and combat trafficking in persons who’s going to give some opening remarks and then take your questions and then when she finishes I’ll come back up and uh take questions on other topics in the world master thank you sir good afternoon I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak with you all today this morning secretary blinkin released the state Department’s 2024 trafficking in persons report or the tip report as we call it which examines government’s efforts to meet the trafficking victims protection acts minimum standards to com comat human trafficking using a 3p framework of Prosecuting traffickers protecting victims and preventing the crime the report reflects the US government’s commitment to Global Leadership on these key human rights law enforcement and National Security issues it remains our principal diplomatic and diagnostic tool to guide our engagement with foreign governments on human trafficking the theme of this year’s report examines the challenge Alles associated with digital technology and how it has created new opportunities for traffickers to exploit individuals for profit it also focuses on how technology can be used by the global anti-trafficking community in prevention and mitigation strategies to counter nefarious actors in this space the report further explores opportunities for partnership across the public and private private sector and stakeholders I would like to especially thank the human trafficking expert consultant Network for their ongoing contributions to the tip report and for sharing their expertise for the last three years they have provided content and feedback throughout the process of drafting the introduction to the report Beyond digital technology this year’s report highlights themes including balance ing prosecution prevention and victim protection priorities in the criminal justice system the intersection between forced marriage and human trafficking and forced labor in Cuba’s labor export program we also highlight Key Human Trafficking issues in the Western Hemisphere to describe shared issues in the region and help Focus the anti-trafficking efforts of governments and other stakeholders unprecedented irregular migration affects many Western hemisphere countries including the United States we encourage governments to prevent trafficking and prioritize screening among migrants who often assume debts to pay migrant Smugglers and are then vulnerable to trafficking when they are unable to repay the money this year’s report assessed 188 countries in territ iies including the United States upgrades as well as tier maintenances are based on government’s increasing efforts that have delivered concrete positive results while downgrades represent decreasing efforts often including systemic gaps caused by lack of training of key officials weak victim identification and referral procedures and gaps in comprehensive Services all of which which impede critical prosecution and protection efforts unfortunately some governments are part of the problem this year the secretary determined 13 countries exhibited a policy or pattern of trafficking bellarus rejoined this list and Sudan was newly added to the list while several other governments including Cuba the PRC and Russia remained on the list from previous years the 2024 tip report also documented several emerging Global trends for example Forest labor in online scam operations continued to grow with scam centers previously located mostly in Southeast Asia emerging also in South America Europe South Asia the Middle East and Africa with hundreds of thousands of trafficking victims from now more than 60 countries another troubling Trend highlighted in this year’s report is the coercive or fraudulent recruitment of Fighters for Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine Russian authorities middlemen private military companies or Russian Affiliated forces reportedly used coercion deception and in some cases force in the recruitment of foreign Nationals particularly Central and South Asian migrants as well as citizens from Cuba and Syria to fight in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine to end on a more positive note though Global law enforcement and victim identification data demonstrates that many governments are making improvements to their anti-trafficking response overall law enforcement victim law enforcement and victim identification data increased across the 2024 tip report total prosecutions and convictions were up over overall and victim identification reached the highest level ever for the third consecutive year there was notable progress to combat labor trafficking with labor trafficking convictions and victim identifications substantially increasing from last year to reach their highest levels ever I am so grateful to our colleagues at embassies around the world and throughout the department who worked diligently to gather data and analyze trafficking Trends and efforts This truly is a joint collaborative effort and one that I feel has real impact on people’s lives around the world I look forward to your questions all right mat um I just have two brief ones um one uh you noted bellus and Sudan appear were there any U you know big drops from the watch list to tier three or uh or big gains um the other way around and then um secondly when you talk about Russia using um suspect recruiting tactics to get people to go to Ukraine you said you use the word reportedly who whose reports are those are they yours or are they NGS I’m going to answer in reverse order sir thank you very much so with regard to Russia’s reports our tip report is based on a very broad um release of information we accept information directly from governments themselves that in this case could be governments Russia could give it or countries who have had individuals leaving their countries to go fight so we receive it from governments we receive it from International organizations we receive it from ngos and Civil Society members and then we also receive it from media reports and so we don’t base our information just on one source we have it based on multiple sources and we actually work all year long to collect this information so that that information can even um grow and and improve throughout the year in answer to your second question with regard to notable was my f my first question oh the first question thank you sir um in answer to the question about notable upgrades and downgrades I think I’ll mention just a couple um there were three upgrades to tier one now it’s important to note that tier one is our highest tier but even tier one countries do have improvements that they still need to make and our narratives very clearly point out the areas where increased progress is made but um there were three upgrades to tier one one was the Republic of Korea one was Poland and one was Surinam I’ll call out Surinam in in particular because as you may know this is the 20y year anniversary of our trafficking in persons Heroes program we have 10 trafficking and persons Heroes here to participate they were honored at a ceremony this morning with secretary blinkin and they’re participating in an ivlp and one of our heroes is from Surinam um and that was one of the countries that was upgraded to tier one um with regard to the downgrades we had a few sort of notable downgrades you had wisely mentioned we had five um we had five upgrades from tier three which is also good because we do that tier three is our lowest tier but we did have um upgrades from there which is great we had 17 countries downgraded from tier two to tier 2 watch list each of those is noted and then we have 19 countries in territories that are remaining on tier three which of course as you know is the lowest um ranking and subject to uh sanctions nonhuman non-humanitarian non-trade related sanctions okay so no no no no country got taken down from the the watch list to tier three there were a couple of countries the government of brunai was moved down to tier three and Sudan was subject to a double downgrade they went from tier two all the way down to tier three skipping tier 2 watch list because we assess a policy or pattern of trafficking in the government of Sudan as it pertained to the recruitment of child soldiers and so that was the result of their double downgrade thank you yeah thank you um I have a couple of questions about uh Vietnam uh they’ve Vietnam has been upgraded two years in a row from tier three to the watch list and now to to tier 2 um the a lot of uh NOS advocacy groups working on Vietnam would challenge you know the assessment of the department on this um particularly there was a report uh came out on Friday uh sorry Thursday last week by project 88 which cited Vietnamese official um government documents basically appearing to show that the Vietnamese government was trying to manipulate the process uh in its responses to tip um and uh withholding information on certain cases now I guess they they’ve said they’ve given this information to the state department to review have you have you looked at it does that does that influence the way that you think about that that ranking yes sir we uh we acknowledge those concerns we were aware of those concerns that were raised by that NGO um and I think that the ultimate decision to upgrade that country Vietnam was a country that could not stay on tier 2 watch list so it had to go to tier 2 or go down to tier three those are the two options given the tvpa Mandate with this in mind we look at not only the document ments and the information that the government gives us but we do look at to your question the information that we receive from NOS we look at information received from Civil Society organizations survivors groups we have a very broad range of sourcing and we are looking importantly not just at one of the PS not just protection or not just prevention not just prosecution but we are mandated by the tvpa to look at it as a whole and we use you know honestly our staff in DC and the staff at post work on this all year round it’s not something we’re scrambling to do just at that last minute um We Gather it all and we then try to make an objective assessment across all of the three PS in the case of Vietnam we determined that it was more appropriate for them to go to the tier two and I think some of the reasons that we determined that was one of it was from increasing investigations prosecu ions and convictions for suspected trafficking crimes but we also had an increase number of identification and assistance provided to victims so that is covering both the prosecution section as well as the protection section we also had noted that this is a place where there have been a lot of the online scam compounds which we have spoken about and there was a repatriation and assisting of more than 4,000 potential victims from those onl online scam compounds in the neighboring countries and after Consulting with Nos and international organizations they advise us that there was also significant amendments made to the trafficking persons law which has been um which was revised in 2011 we certainly note that there are areas for improvement as there are in every country we will specifically call out that we feel like the government did not proactively or consistently screen identify and uh and provide services to trafficking in persons but as I said when taking this as a whole over all year and all the three PS we did determine to do a tier two on Vietnam and there’s a specific uh you know you site in in the in the reporting on Vietnam that they didn’t launch any in you know you say they they launch more investigations in general but it’s specifically on investigations prosecutions or convictions of of government employees comp complicit in trafficking they didn’t launch any and the one investigation that was ongoing on the from the previous report has been dropped and the official got reinstated in the ministry um yes that seems like a pretty big concern that the government is not uh investigating its own officials who are you know accused of being complicit in trafficking complicity is a big concern and in fact specifically as it pertains to complicity one of the specific areas for improvement that we mentioned in this year’s chip report was that they did not report any invest investigations prosecutions or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes and concerningly authorities closed an investigation into a diplomat without having proper criminal sanctions held against them that is definitely a concern of ours and we did take that into account in addition to the other more positive numbers that I mentioned just sorry just to just to to sort of underscore this you know I think I think a lot of people would say lot of these Advocates would say well if you’re failing on that really important part why give two upgrades in two years you know and I think one of the implications and some of the criticism is that you know Vietnam is seen as a country that’s really important to the US because of its position with regards to China your the broader Asia Pacific indopacific strategy is that something that’s playing a role here I can honestly say that when it comes to Vietnam or really any other country the folks here in DC and at the embassies and in neighboring countries embassies who are seeking assistance for individuals trafficked to neighboring countries we take it all into account and we really do our very best to make an objective assessment according to the minimum standards set out in the tvpa which doesn’t allow us to put overemphasis on just one we are required to look across the full um aperture of prosecution prevention and protection across all of the submission that we receive um to be honest it’s not easy it’s not easy every country I mean most every country has some things that they’ve done that were positive and some things that that they did that were negative and need Improvement and we do our very best to look at the whole picture and given the most objective assessment that we can J thank you uh on uh human trafficking on China almost all North Korean defectors staying in China are exposed to human trafficking uh what effort is the United States making to prevent these um thank you for mentioning it and the the PRC remains a country of great concern to us it of course is on tier three and it is one of the countries where we have assessed that there is a policy or pattern of government sponsored trafficking um you mentioned one critical vulnerable Group which is individuals from North Korea we are also very concerned about forced labor among weer Wagers Tibetans and other ethnic minorities specifically we are tracking as noted in the report an increased number of Labor transfers in the shinhan region where between January the January of 23 to September of 23 more than 3 million transfers occurred um we are also concerned about the uh treatment of PRC Nationals in the belt and Road initiatives that specific program has been you will see that it’s brought up in 16 of our country narratives um we are in suggesting that any countries participating in the BR initiatives really engage in increased oversight and screening I think it’s important and I hear you saying what are we doing about it one of the things that we’re doing about it is releasing this report with as much information as we can possibly gather um what’s one of the things that we’re doing but the other thing that we’re doing which I think is equally or even more important um the the the state department participates in the forced labor enforcement task force this task force is implementing the weager force labor prevention act and this act creates a rebuttable presumption that if there is any um sourcing from the shinjan region of CH there is a rebuttable presumption that that uh that those goods cannot come in they they’re kept at the border and in addition to that we the state department along with our inter agency colleagues are adding um more entities to this list and it’s really making an impact so in addition to calling it out in the tip report we are implementing that ufpa most recently we put on a large Chinese seafood manufacturer that was just added to that list last week um and then we are also working with industry Partners I have personally spoken at the Chamber of Commerce and because we really want our good industry partners and colleagues to monitor their own Supply chains don’t don’t rely on us to do it so we are trying to take a whole of government approach that is both reporting on it addressing it but also preventing it so thank you for flagging that thank Ambassador the report highlights on Russia the report highlights two particular groups of Russia’s victims Ukrainian citizens and the North Korean workers on Ukraine K is put it into numbers it says tens of thousands of Ukrainian children do you have bare number for us um and how much of this finding will be he for ongoing ICC investigation on Ukraine on North Korea we just saw a lavish trip of Putin in North Korea are they acting in in concert I am going to answer first your question about Russia and you are smart there are number of concerning Trends in Russia that we are tracking um obviously one of them is Russia’s war against Ukraine and the increased vulnerability of refugees that are fleeing that war especially women and children so that is something that we are specifically addressing both um calling it out in the trafficking and persons report but also targeting our International programming and targeting assistance to specifically Ukraine but to the countries in Eastern Europe that many of those individuals are fleeing to we are also really closely tracking Russia’s forces um specifically using children for military purposes in Ukraine we have noted that there have been reports of children being forced to perform armed Duty as well as serve as informants and human Shields we are very concerned about that for all children who have been taken we know that they are at extreme risk of trafficking and we are calling for all for that to stop and for them to be returned to their families in the Ukraine and third you did mention and and one thing that we had flagged is Russia’s war on Ukraine and the use of foreign Fighters reports do indicate that Russian authorities middlemen private military companies and Russian affili ated forces are using coercion and deception and potentially Force to recruit foreign Nationals we know that many countries have actually stopped uh Visas so that their foreign Nationals can’t even go to Russia because of this particular this specific concern um all of these things are are highlighted in the report and it is the result of their remaining on tier three with a policy or pattern finding all right we’ll do one more second and North Korea part very quickly thank you for doing this I have a qu you said that you use a broad formula definition and I wonder if let’s say these domestic workers that are sometimes are contracted let’s say in Southeast Asia in many places to work in the Middle East especially the oil rich countries and so on and sometimes you know under dubious circumstances uh and then they end up with their passports being taken away for years and so on do you deal with that issue I I appreciate you bringing that specific group up they um because domestic workers are uniquely vulnerable even more so than other sorts of forced labor domestic workers are often extremely isolated they’re not working in a group with other people from their country or other people on a construction site they are so very isolated their movements are watched they don’t have access to a phone to even call for assistance if assistance were available so I appreciate your focus on this very unique population um additionally what we are noticing is that sometimes domestic workers are specifically excluded from worker protections that are available for everybody else and this is something that you will see us call out in the countries where it is relevant for and this gives me an opportunity to kind of brag on one more of our trafficking and persons Heroes um Edith mogu from Kenya in addition to working on this for 20 years has specifically worked with and even began her work really focusing on domestic workers recognizing as you pointed out their unique vulnerability and their unique isolation so I appreciate you keeping this top of mind thank you thank you Ambassador for being here okay so before we turn to questions I just have a few additional opening comments on Friday the Kenyan government announced the first MSS Mission Personnel contingent will arrive in Port of Prince during the week of June 24 they will depart Kenya tomorrow June 25th this is just the first of several milestones in the process to restore security and prosperity in Haiti the arrival of the MSS Mission marks the start of a firstof its- Kind Mission requested by Haiti and authorized by the UN Security Council this is a truly International undertaking with the arrival of MSS Mission Personnel we hope to see further measurable improvements in security particularly with respect to access to humanitarian Aid and core economic activity this will help create the security conditions conducive for future free and fair elections we applaud the transitional presidential C the transitional presidential council’s partnership with Kenya on this Mission we stand with the International Community in supporting this historic effort to support the Haitian National Police in their fight for Haiti’s future with that Matt oh I think you said you had a couple things it’s like plural a couple comments one set of remarks Ken com a few comments embedded in that Kenya and Haiti so two okay a few comments embedded in in that set of well just on that how how how many I’m sorry I missed that on Friday with how many are going with I didn’t announce with respect to the number I would defer to the governor of Kenya to I will let them speak to that more than that but I’ll let them speak to specific operational questions okay uh uh moving on to the Middle East so the secretary right now is meeting with the Israeli defense minister he is what is he telling him and what are you hoping to hear from him so he is emphasizing a few things in his meeting with the defense minister number one our ongoing commitment to Israel’s security uh number two the importance of Israel developing robust realistic plans for the day after the conflict plans that include path towards governance towards security towards reconstruction we’ve obviously been uh working on these same ideas with Partners in the region and engaging in conversations with Israel but we think it’s important that Israel put forward its own ideas um he’s going to emphasize the need to avoid further escalation of the conflict and then he will as always uh emphasize the need to improve humanitarian access where we have seen uh somewhat of a Slowdown in Access in the South and the the secretary is going to emphasize to the minister that we want to see that situation reversed and he’ll hope to hear concrete commitments from him to work on that problem okay and are you expecting there to be any kind of any kind of a result from this meeting um look we always uh hope to make progress on all these issues when we have these meetings uh with our Israeli counterparts um and um we’ll look for that today okay so no no yes I mean we look we look to make progress on on all of these issues we have um but that said this is one of a number of meetings the secretaries had with the defense minister and we’ve had it back and forth with them about all of these topics um but in each of those meetings certainly we hope to walk out with commment for them to do more to address all of these areas okay a yeah yeah the Israeli private Minister said that the fighting uh specifically in Rafa is winding down the intense fighting is winding down uh what have they told you specifically on that issue or given have they given you a timetable or what have you and you what is your assessment of what that means exactly that it’s winding down according to his and with the risk playing up North so I don’t want to get into too I don’t want to get into too much detail about our conversations with respect to these matters but they have told us much the same of what you have seen them now say publicly which is that they are getting close to an end to major combat operations in Rafa and so I will let them speak to what that means and what future deployments will look like but from our perspective what it means is the importance of working on all these plans for the day after the conflict because we don’t want to see in Rafa what we’ve seen in Gaza City and what we’ve seen in conun which is the end of major combat operations and then the beginning of Hamas reasserting control and reasserting activity uh in those areas and we have been quite consistent that for there to be uh an enduring defeat of Hamas there needs to be a plan for what replaces them and what replaces them needs to be Palestinian L governance uh it needs to be realistic security plans it needs to be realistic reconstruction plans and that’s what we continue to work towards with our aab partners in the region and as we continue to push the government of Israel to properly consider thank you uh the prime minister of Israel also said over the weekend claimed that the US um uh that Israel has seen a dramatic decrease in US Munitions to Israel um could you explain to us what the Biden Administration understands from his word decrease um and whether that’s correct I don’t understand what that comment meant at all in the same way that I didn’t understand the comments that um uh we discussed last week when we heard them make similar claims we have paused one shipment of high payload Munitions that shipment remains on pause it remains under review there are other weapons that we continue to provide Israel uh as we have done going back years and years because we are committed to Israel security there has been no change in that so I’m not sure what those comments refer to can you comment at all on whether the there is there has been a change in the amount or surging of weapons at the start of this conflict versus now and whether that might haveen so I can’t give you a kind of week by week month by Monon uh outline of the amount uh of weapons um there are weapons commitments that we have made to the government of Israel going back years we’ve talked about this some before about how there are times when they order from us pay the United States for let’s say you know let’s say just for example 20,000 of a particular munition and they take delivery and the when they make the order of 5,000 and they were there remain 15,000 and they come back to us and ask for more obviously they were making intense requests at the beginning of the conflict and we were fulfilling those requests they continue to make requests and we continue to fulfill those requests so I can’t tell you whether they are lower today than they were in October it may be either because they have requested less or they’ve run up against Headroom I can’t give you that kind of sort of you know graphic description but overall the programs have not changed we continue to meet the requests that they have made to us we continue to meet our statutory obligation to ensure that Israel remains a qualitative military Edge over other countries in the region and that will continue to be our policy because our commitment to Israel security is Ironclad um do you have a specific response uh to in in Gaza um there was a strike overnight on a medical clinic um reportedly killed the director of the ambulance emergency department obviously this there’s been a lot of uh comments from from the US about the importance of protecting uh humanitarian workers you know have you been able to verify anything about that incident and and and do you have a comment on so I don’t have an assessment of what actually happened this looks to be another one of these uh incidents where it’s very hard to get at the bottomline truth and it goes to the very nature of this conflict so you have disturbing reports and videos from the ground you have claims uh a strike on humanitarian workers and you have the government of Israel saying that they were targeting a legitimate Hamas Target and that there were militants in this facility hiding behind civilians uh obviously militants should not hide behind civilians that has been the case from the beginning um and Israel needs to take all precautions to minimize civilian harm this goes to the problem of this it goes to the very nature of this conflict and why it is so difficult and the the the problem that Israel faces is so difficult but again it doesn’t minimize their need to do everything possible to minimize civilian harm I would just say this gets back to why we continue to push so hard for a ceasefire because as long as you have ongoing conflict you were going to face this problem uh where Israel is going to Target legitimate military targets militants uh but at sometimes those militants are going to be in close proximity to civilians um and as long as that is the case you’re going to continue to have these tragic incidents which is why we want to see a ceasefire um just specifically on on the defense minister Gant um he’s talked about in some of his public comments uh the a phase C in the conflict is there like a joint understanding of what that means what is I will I will let him speak to what he meant by that obviously we talked to them about what their military operations look like and we talked to them about when they transition from one phase to the other and how they hope to get to a point where they’re not in major combat operations where they you know they hope to get to to a place in Rafa where they are in the north and where they are in conun where you don’t have brigades actively on the ground engaged in day-to-day combat but in terms of what they mean by that I will I think it’s appropriate for let speak to there has been some comments from Israeli officials talking about um you know over a long period but but you know talking about the future security Arrangements in in Gaza um you talked a little bit about about the sort of postwar future I wonder is there is there an agreement between the US and Israel on on what you know what that might look like who’s actually going to be in charge in the meantime when they they seem to be moving towards that you’ve been talking about this as something that’s going to happen you know off in the future but but you know if they’re actually moving to that uh situation I think you’ve said before you know you don’t want to see the Israelis reoccupy Gaza isn’t that kind of what we’re heading towards so there is no agreement we do not want to see them reoccupy Gaza um which is why we continue to push for an alternative to that and you’ve heard the secretary say this that absent a plan for security in Gaza after the conflict and absent a political path forward you will be you will end up with one of two things one is Israeli occupation or two is this state of Anarchy where Hamas can reassert control and neither of those are are acceptable to us we don’t think Israel we don’t think either of those are in Israel’s interests obviously either which is why we continue to work on plans for an alternative proposal just following up on that specifically um Netanyahu said over the weekend that there’s the possibility that Israel would need to just to establish temporary military control over civilian life in Gaza is that something that the US would temporarily support we Oppo we oppose military control look they have temporary military control now but we want to see that end we want to see it transition to um a different security environment and ultimately ultimately transition to a reunified Gaza and the West Bank now you’re not going to get there overnight there has to be a transition plan there has to be a path to get there what that looks like and when um a different Authority could take control are all things that we need to work out with our partners in the region and ultimately with the government of Israel do you think he’s talking about this um uh for a limited amount of time or do you think he’s trying to talk about this for an extended amount I wouldn’t want to speculate okay and then um he he also made comments that uh after this intense phase of the conflict in Gaza uh concludes in the near term here uh Israel will continue mowing the lawn in Gaza does the us know exactly what Israel means uh by continuing to mow the lawn and do you support that if there’s no ceasefire in place so I don’t know what he means exactly by that but I think it probably means continued military engagement in Gaza and for us that’s just a recipe for continued conflict continued instability and continued insecurity for Israel uh it is obviously um uh extremely harmful to the people of Gaza who want to be able to rebuild their lives and rebuild their homes and want to be able to chart a different future but we think continued military action in Gaza um just makes Israel weaker makes it harder to achieve a resolution in the north it adds to instability uh in the in the West Bank it makes it harder for Israel to normalize relations with its neighbors and so that’s why we will continue to put forward what we believe is an alternative path that uh actually helps Israel’s security not one that weakens it and then just last question you’ve obviously expressed us concerns that Israel hasn’t been fully focused on the day after conversations is that changing at all do you think Israel is taking any more seriously those conversations given that they are planning to wrap up these intense operations um you know do those conversations look a little bit different now um they are a little bit more they are I should say a little bit they are somewhat more focused on it now I think just by nature of the fact that they by their own uh admission are nearing the end of major military operations so by Nature you have to look at what is going to come next um we want them to engage seriously on that we want them to engage seriously with us on it we want them to engage seriously with Arab countries in the region about it because we do think there are ways to rebuild Gaza to provide security for Gaza um to provide Palestinian L governance in Gaza that ultimately will not just realize the aspirations of the Palestinian people but will strengthen Israel’s security and so it’s very much in their interest to engage in these conversations in good faith and we um will encourage them to do so sorry I one more I forgot um there are these reports of increased looting and gangs in Gaza you know and I wonder who the United States thinks the onus is on to try and drive that down I mean is it the IDF that should be um creating more Law and Order is there a body that can do that like how do you tackle that problem so it is a that is an incredibly difficult question obviously um because it goes to the heart of what comes next who provides security for the people of Gaza who just want to go about their daily lives and right now in the places where Israel has uh conducted military operations but no longer is there on the ground you do see this Anarchy and you see Hamas in some cases reasserting control which is obviously something that is incredibly dangerous for Israel it’s incredibly dangerous for the Palestinian people just look at the ramifications of the war that Hamas launched on on October 7th they’ve been um uh no one has suffered more than the Palestinian people from that decision so that said we don’t want to see Israel occupy and have Israel soldiers providing security because we think that just increases tension it’s not going to be make Israel safer it’s certainly not going to benefit the Palestinian people so we are working on proposals with our partners uh in the region I don’t want to detail them here for I think obvious reasons we’ll keep those conversations now but it’s a it’s a very important question that we are working uh quite hard on on answering and those proposals might have to go into effect even if the ceasefire is not yet in effect uh I just wouldn’t want to speculate we want to get a ceasefire we want to work on the day after things obviously we would hope that they would align okay yeah s thank you let me Begin by asking a question that I’ve raised here for the past four years on this occasion today marks the fourth anniversary since the AG 80s killed the cousin of mine Ahmed arap for on his way to pick up his mother and they kept his body 4 years later do you think that whatever he did he did not do anything but you know whatever he did warrants to keep a body and prevent the family from having closure so first of all my condolences to you s um for uh the loss of your family member I don’t know the specifics of the case but obviously we want to see every family be able to to grieve for uh their lost loved ones and properly uh bury them and pay their their respects but such a practice is not condoned in any way by anyone I I just I I as I just said we want to see every family be able to pay their their and very quickly on your response to Simon now you’re saying that the Palestinians or Hamas you know uses human or whatever you know civilian facilities and so on for their own purposes and so on are you because this is the person that was killed Dr hany Al jefra you know in a missile he he works for the Ministry of Health which is you know a Hamas run but he’s a civilian he’s been doing this job for 35 years and so on does that make that clinic a legitimate Target no of course not what what Israel has said is that there were Hamas militants who were also there and were operating out of there we don’t have the ability to litigate the the claims but as I said that’s what poses such a difficult problem for Israel in conducting these operations which in no way lessens their B burden but it also makes it difficult in these situations to look at what happened and understand without having all the facts who is ultimately responsible Israel’s responsible for carrying out a strike Hamas bear is responsibility if in fact they were embedding themselves among civilian targets and so it is it is very difficult in all these which is why there is no simple answer and you have to look at each of them and make determinations based on the facts of of each case you know over the weekend we saw that the Israeli Army and the occupied West Bank had a a wounded Palestinian man strapped to the Jeep and so on so this is really by the way I I raised this issue many many times before this war many times because the Israelis have done this practice since 1967 I don’t want to go into details of every incident and so on but isn’t that basically the Army using Palestinians as a human Chief so I will say we saw that video uh it was shocking the practice was absolutely unacceptable humans should never be used as human Shields the IDF should swiftly investigate what happened hold people accountable I saw the statement they put out that the actions were inconsistent with the orders those solders received that it is being investigated and the people involved will be dealt with accordingly that is absolutely appropriate uh you know just couple couple more issue if you allow me I want to ask you on the you know the new legal powers of the settlers facilities and the West Bank and you know the Apparently annexation is underway under you know everybody’s eyes and so so so you’re referring to the um the act the reported actions by the finance minister so I we have seen the Finance Minister who also is a minister inside the defense Ministry attempt to further administratively integrate settlements into Israel we have made quite clear that settlements are counterproductive to peace that the governor of Israel settlement program is inconsistent with international law and we will continue to make that clear yeah but yet the Israelis are never deterred by the opposition and so on can could we expect some sort of leveraging some of you know I’m I’m not going to uh speak to Future actions that we may or may not take I will just say we will continue to make the case to them that actions like these don’t just harm the Palestinian people but they ultimately are self-defeating they ultimately hurt Israel’s interests they ultimately weaken Israel they weaken Israel’s security and so that’s the case that we will continue to make make to them and finally I promise finally uh Mr only promise is you can’t keep sorry I have so many yesterday the Prime Minister the Israeli Prime Minister basically rejected the whole uh Biden plan and he said okay we want to to exchange some some of the hostages for few prisoners and that’s it that’s the end of it so do you still think that the bull is in hamas’s court not in Israel’s court so I saw the comments the Prime Minister made yesterday and then I saw the statement his office put out uh uh clarifying that they wanted to secure the release of all hostages and then I saw the further statement the Prime Minister said today where he said made clear he supports the proposal that Israel put on the table and the president laid out so I will just say I think all of us that speak publicly at times make mistakes and misspeak and when we do so we have an obligation to come clarify and we’re glad he did thank yeah thank you Matt I have a couple of questions too uh first will the US support Israel in in case of a full scale War breaks with Hezbollah so we don’t want to see further escalation we don’t want to see a full-scale war with Hezbollah we think there ought to be a diplomatic resolution to the conflict across the Israel Lebanon border that is keeping tens of thousands of families on each side of the border from returning to their homes and so what we will continue to press to the government of Israel is that we don’t want to see further escalation and um actually as I’ve said as I said earlier achieving a ceasefire in Gaza will help achieve a diplomatic resolution in this but in case the war breaks I’m not going to do it in cases or ifs or hypotheticals or anything like that I’m going to make clear what our policy is that our policies we don’t want to see further escalation uh second the telegraph has reported that hisbah is storing a large quantity of Iranian weapons at the airport can you confirm this report so we’ve seen the report we’ve seen the statement from the government of Lebanon that the report’s not grounded in fact um we take these issues extremely seriously and uh monitor them very closely but I can’t give you a factual assessment from here theane authorities arranged a tour of the airport today the US ambassador did attend why we did not attend but we are aware of the tour and we’re actively in touch with the Lebanese government about the issue including um the underlying question and claim that was put forward in that Telegraph article and finally om Mani foreign minister was in Iran today did he deliver any us message to the Iranian regime no he did not thanks just quickly going back to uh prime minister netanyahu’s statements on how quickly us arms are flowing into Israel based on your ongoing engagements across levels of government with Israeli officials can you say if you assess that that’s a sentiment that’s broadly held across the Israeli government so I really don’t want to speak to um diplomatic conversations which ought to remain private and certainly don’t want to speak for the Israeli government I’ll just tell you that in some of our diplomatic conversations including quite recently we’ve pointed out to them specific shipments that we have made in recent weeks um to to continue to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to Israel security and uh that’s not going to change and going um off of the video that s raised uh the state department said last month that although it’s aware of many investigations that the Israeli government has launched it’s unaware of any uh conclusions of cases any sentencing that’s come down can you say if that’s changed in the last couple weeks so we have seen um I think that was a reference in the NSM to um criminal cases that the uh government of Israel was investigating we have seen cases where the IDF has disciplined soldiers including after the world Central Kitchen strike where they did um there have been others uh for actions in the West Bank where they have publicly announced that they’ve disciplined soldiers um as it pertains to any of the criminal investigations I’m not aware of any update I think those would be publicly announced so we would all see them um but I can check and see whether there’s anything we know that’s not in the public sphere let me actually let me let me stay in the region before I come to thank you Matt um it’s been reported that the political leadership of Hamas Iraq and Iran have decided that Hamas moves uh move its offices in Qatar to Iraq to Baghdad and that Iran is going to be providing the security and all of that I was wondering if the if you’re aware of this and what you think I saw the reports and I don’t want to speak to their validity but we have made clear to every government in the region that there should be no more business as usual with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7th and that applies to everyone including youa appes applies to everyone um any more in the region yeah go ahead we’ll do these and then I’ll UK based research group concluded Israeli tank likely killed six-year-old Palestinian child H rajab investigation revealed that rajab’s car was hit with 355 bullets and it’s not plausible that Israel Israeli tank couldn’t see uh children inside the car have you seen the reports and do you have any updates on the investigation it’s been more than 4 months and a lot of my colleagues have been asking about yeah so we have the reports and I will tell you what our latest interaction with the government of Israel is about this so we went to the government of Israel uh and pressed them for information and they told us that there were no IDF tanks operating in the area no IDF forces operating in the area at the time of that attack which I believe is something they’ve also said publicly uh after further reporting we went back to them and pressed them again and so um what they told us is that they went to the UN organizations they went to the Palestinian red crescent they asked for information um because you’ve seen all those organizations quoted in stories they asked for information that could you that they could use um to further an investigation and no one provided them with any information that’s the latest that we have on the so who shot the 355 tank bullets I’m not able to I look I’m not on the ground I can’t offer any kind of assessment about this uh that’s why we’ve called for an independ we called for the government of Israel to conduct an in investigation um I can’t speak to what their internal processes look like all I can tell you what all I can tell you is what they’ve told us and what they’ve said is they went to the UN and the Palestinian red and asked them to supply information that would help them uh and what they claim is that they were were given none but it’s not concluded the the investigation or is it I would refer you to the government of Israel for that I can I can only tell you what we what they have told us okay uh one last question so the municipality of Gaza fixed the water pipes last week but two days ago Israeli forces Dropped a Bomb on the team who worked on restoring the water system and the bomb killed anir lendi which is the director of water and environment at Gaza municipality and four other uh water technicians I know you’re going to tell me that maybe there were Hamas uh uh people next to next to them Ed but isn’t this excuse like um is is this still valid after 8 months of and like hundreds and hundreds of healthc care have died because of that so I can’t tell you anything about this specific strike because I don’t have any details about this specific strike but as I said earlier the underlying challenge of this war hasn’t changed and it’s going to continue to be there as long as you have this difficult Urban environment where does operate as human Shields and I I I don’t think that’s a on I just I don’t think that’s a controversial assessment there have been reports going back before October 7th we talked about them in this briefing there was a uh report from The Washington Post several years ago about Hamas firing from mosques um we have seen our own intelligence information and released our own intelligence information about Hamas embedding under a hospital how can you verify in each one that Hamas was there is investigating this that is my point I can’t I can’t give you information about each strike I tell you that um it is an underlying problem that this difficult terrain imposes and so we see conflicting accounts all the time and we don’t have people on the ground to operate ultimately it’s why I get back to this we have to reach a ceasefire because as long as you have continued military operations and you have Hamas embedding itself in human Shields firing at soldiers launching terrorist attacks you’re going to see tragic incidents of Civilian casualties and the conclusion to this um is to reach a ceasefire that will end this suffering PR go ahead thank you Matt um firstly just to F on this is it really an independent investigation if the alleged culprits are the ones conducting so what I said it’s it’s um we thought it’s appropriate for the government of Israel to investigate they have said to us and again as I said I’m not testing to any of these facts I can tell you that we intervene with them they provide us answers I’m providing them to you what they have said is they went to these agencies and asked for information and it wasn’t forthcoming sure so on that note on on you said that you know they’ve they the red Cresent the UN hasn’t provided answers will you move to verify those claims it is not for us to do it look I would hope that hold on I would but I would say I would hope that those agencies can come forward and provide information it’s easy easy to do so um if it is in fact if if in fact they have information they should come forward and do it um and provide it and we’ll be happy to look at that okay and then uh nearly 70 Democrats are calling on the administration to open Refugee status for Palestines F Gaza um through the United States Refugee uh admissions program through the state department um and so I’m wondering if if you’ve seen this call and what the state department is thinking in response uh I have seen the call and we will respond to the members of Congress and do coures we and then finally one more question um on on a few weeks ago the US announced that the aav Brigade passed Le law considerations um and will be allowed to receive military aid a photo from December props to show and this was posted by isov um themselves in the telegram to show us special Operations Command Europe giving aav training so when exactly was the Ley law considerations made um that aav would be allow so I know you asked about this once before and I will be happy to come back and and get you the uh full details on this we can do it offline my understanding is that the AO Brigade is a different Brigade than the one um that was originally formed in 2014 but for any further details I’m I’m just not familiar with them myself so I’m going to have to get back to you on them okay um yeah let me go ahead Janny go ahead and we’ll thank you very much at I have a couple of question first question the US senator Richard G proposed the bill to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism saying that all countries that have signed defense treaties with North Korea should be designated as a state sponsors of terrorism and Senator Roso wicker also mentioned the need to arm the Korean Peninsula with nuclear weapons and deploy nuclear weapons in the Asia Pacific region in order to keep North Korea and China in check what is the state department position on this so I don’t have a comment on with respect to the second with respect to the first um we continue to believe there are more effective ways to hold Russia accountable for its actions than designating them as a state sponsor of terrorism which can have um uh a number of of downside effects and so we continue to pursue those in terms of sanctioning uh Russian officials sanctioning Russian companies uh imposing export controls that weaken Russia’s military uh machine and we will continue to to uh one more quick follow up uh to evasion sanctions from the west and the United States North Korea and Russia signed an agreement to pay for their transactions in Russian currency luul or China’s currency wean what is the US’s reaction to this and does the also apply to un sanctions so we have made quite clear that we are concerned about the increased cooperation between Russia and the dprk um uh including actions by Russia that would violate multiple un Security Council resolutions uh and will continue to make that clear and continue to work with our allies in the region to to respond sorry talk about sponsor of terrorism de designation downsides what what can you explain what those downsides are as it relates to actually North Korea and Cuba I can’t speak to as it relates to North Korea and Cuba but we have this in the other cont okay but there are downsides there are downsides that would limit limit the provision of uh humanitarian Aid and other how much humanitarian Aid are you providing to Russia I don’t believe the United States is providing any but we’ve seen that it makes it difficult for Relief workers and Aid workers and stuff hold on let just in some context if there’s a natural disaster it can make it difficult for Are there natural disasters in North Korea to do their job and so we have looked at the upsides and the downside and ultimately think that when you look at the the case of Russia all the other consequences that we have imposed on Russia uhuh making them a state sponsor of terrorism really doesn’t get you much more and it brings with it other downsides and so when you look at the you look at the the benefit plenty of people can make the argument that you’ve also imposed just as many sanctions if not more on North Korea Iran and Cuba and so what what’s the point of the if they downsizes to the ssot designation for Russia why are there not the we we look at each country and make individual determinations and with respect to Russia that’s and then just one other one briefly in a very early answer to the Middle East questions you talked about Israel’s qualitative military Edge and how you’re what uh what’s the US belief what what country in the in the region does Israel not have a qualitative milit Edge over none because of the uh continued support that we provide them oh but so so you’re but but you say that if you didn’t continue to give them weapons they would lose that edge ultimately they could yes which is why we continue to support them and and okay do they have equ qualit qualitative military Edge over Hamas uh of course they do yeah would they without would would they without all the additional weapons that you’re sending not not you know I’m not going to get into those kind of Assessments up here but that’s said we hold on hold on Matt when I listed the qualitative military Edge I was listing it in a range of things that we support we support Israel’s right to defeat Hamas and there there are there are Munitions and equipment we give them for that fight there are military capabilities we provide to them when you look at the provision of airplanes and others that are that are important to maintaining their qualitative military Edge against Iran which continues to escalate and pursue more advanced technology so military Edge over Iran right now so they so we are committed to I can’t cannot give you that type I would defer to the Pentagon for that type of assessment but my point is this gets back to when we talk about the Munitions that we provide to Israel provide them a host of capabilities some are for the conflict in Gaza but often times you see people writing stories about capabilities that we have provided Israel that have nothing to do with Gaza but that have to do with our equipping them for the other security challenges they face including the fa the threat to Iran and I was speaking to all of those in the okay would you AC do you do you accept that more Palestinian civilians have been killed in Gaza in the Gaza War than Hamas militants uh I don’t I can’t give you that type of assessment well then how about the answering this then does does Israel have a qualitative military Edge over the Palestinian people non non Hamas the Palestinian the when you look at qualitative military Edge you’re looking at militaries and there is no Palestinian military okay go back to Russia Department of response the moscow’s latest accusations as they s US ambassador today saying that the US is quote unquote waging a hybrid war and it’s part of their War so I’ve seen the the comments from the government of Moscow I think they pertain to the um reported strike uh in uh Crimea I will just tell you what the Ambassador said and when she uh met with the Russian foreign Ministry Ministry and that is of course that we lament any civilian Lo loss of life in this war we provide weapons to Ukraine so it can defend its Sovereign territory against armed aggression uh that includes in Crimea which of course is part of Ukraine and Russia could stop this war today and in the suffering caused by the war Russia launched today if it would stop its occupation of sovereign uh Ukrainian territory and stop launching attacks on civilians thank you they also try to blame Ukraine for dastan attack how much do you know about what happen and what you reaction I don’t have any uh assessment of the underlying attack including who was responsible for it but I will say you have seen Russia make ridiculous claims about responsibility in the past you might recall that after the terrorist attack in Moscow in March they blamed the United States despite the fact that the United States had warned them about the attack in advance so it’s not unusual for the governor of Moscow to make uh ridiculous hyperbolic claims about responsibility that aren’t born out by fact than a final topic from me on the secretary’s recent call to aliev what what trigger the call is there any any hope that you know secutive was you know hoping to hear something new about the peace process so I’m not going to get into the private um diplomatic conversations but as we said in the the readout that we put out we continue to support uh engagement between aeran and Armenia and continue to work to try to resolve that dispute in the secretary also said that was the last one just last topic yeah the secretary also in said that only only because like we are over an we’re at an hour now so let me let me let me actually go on because I need to get some more people thank you yeah go ahead three Iranian back Mila in Iraq part of the socalled ex of resistance had have said they will fight alongside hisbah if there is war between Israel and hisbah what is your comment and your position first of all um terrorist organizations should stop making threats against Sovereign countries and um uh that includes terrorist organizations operating in Iran as it does Hezbollah but it does go to the point that we have been trying to make which is we don’t want to see any escalation of this conflict we think a ceasefire would help us resolve the situation uh in the north but of course um uh uh terrorist organizations should stop making these threats and they should be held responsible for their actions um me go to someone I haven’t got go ahead in the back no thanks Matt I want I want to follow up on your answer to Michelle regarding Lebanon you are saying that you’re seeking a diplomatic solution for what’s happening in the on the Northern borders but you are talking to the Israeli government who are you talking to in Lebanon um so we’ve SP talked to various parties in Lebanon including members of the government you’ve seen uh the president’s special Envoy alos Hawkin travel to Lebanon meet with the speaker of the Lebanese Parliament we continue to engage with other figures uh in Lebanon about uh the need to get a diplomatic resolution so are the Lebanese politicians now the mediators between between you and hasah so I’m just not going to speak to that in detail other than that we want to achieve a diplomatic resolution um and so you have to talk to parties in the re in the region that can help you uh reach such a resolution that’s what diplomacy is all about but with respect to specifics I don’t think I want to characterize it any okay one more question on Yemen yesterday the sent comp spokesperson on in an interview with the on 60 Minutes he said there are irgc officers in Yemen training the huis while the H huis now attacking the US Navy and all these commercial ships in the Red Sea do you still consider that Iran is not directly involved in this conflict in the region um so we have always made clear that Iran is responsible for the actions by the houthis because Iran has continued to arm the hthis and continue to support the houthis acts of terrorism so um whether you can speak show direct engagement with any one attack is a different thing but we do hold Iran responsible for its support for terrorism including the houthis including Hezbollah including Hamas and the actions that those terrorist groups take and that’s why you’ve continue to see us take action not just against the terrorist groups but also against Iran for their malign activities than uh let me do one more and then we’ll finish for two more two more and then we’ll finish today thank you m very too quick question China issued new judicial guideline on Friday that include that death penalty those supporting taiwan’s Independence Taiwan president said China has no right to punish and democracy is not a crime so what is your stats so we strongly condemn the escalatory and destabilizing uh language and actions from PRC officials we continue to urge restraint uh and no unilateral change to the status quo um and uh we urge the PRC to engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan threats and legal Warfare will not achieve peaceful resolution to cross rate differences recently on Bangladesh recently the Bangladesh Police Service Association issued a threatening statement aimed at media Outlets reporting on police corruption this is minimal minimal compared to the widespread corruption involving Tom top regime personel which the control media often ignores a leading English Daily Newspaper editor publicly said that they cannot publish known corruption story is bang as you know Bangladesh ranks 165 out of the 180 country according to International press Freedom Act index what action will United State state take to address these threats against press freedom and combat corruption we strongly support the role of a free and independent media in maintaining effective Democratic institutions and promoting government transparency we object to any efforts to harass or intimidate journalists to prevent them from conducting their important work go ahead go ahead go ahead uh president Duda met uh with President shei uh today in Beijing uh signed a series of commercial agreements I I wonder if you you know there was there any coordination of messaging ahead of this visit and apparently um she said that China wants peace in Ukraine uh I don’t know do you have any comments on that so I don’t want to speak to this visit in particular but obviously we have been engaged with um our NATO allies about China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine by rebuilding Russia’s defense industrial base and we have heard a great deal of concern from our NATO allies uh about that and have heard consistently from our NATO allies that they plan to raise that issue with China and make clear how unacceptable it is that China continues to to fuel the largest threat to European security since the uh World War II one more and then we’ll wrap thank you so much about this it me it was you until somebody interrupted which I would ask you again not to do go ahead uh thank you it’s about India Bangladesh renew commitment to free inclusive Indo Pacific region uh The Joint statement issued after the meeting between prime minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik hassina during her State visit to India reaffirming both countries commitment to a free open inclusive secure and uh uh rules based in the Pacific region recognizing their partnership contribution to Regional peace security and stability does this commitment mirror us interest in promoting a similar vision for the Indo Pacific

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Defense Now June – 2024

Department of State Daily Press Briefing – June 24, 2024.

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