US National Security Council spokesman rebukes Israeli finance minister as ‘dead wrong,’ amid push for ceasefire talks
CNN
John Kirby, the spokesman for the US National Security Council, issued a stark rebuke Friday of the Israeli finance minister over comments undercutting a ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hamas, calling Bezalel Smotrich’s comments “dead wrong.”
John Kirby, the spokesman for the US National Security Council, issued a stark rebuke Friday of the Israeli finance minister over comments undercutting a ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hamas, calling Bezalel Smotrich’s comments “dead wrong.” “Some critics, like Mr. Smotrich, for example, have claimed that the hostage deal is a surrender to Hamas, or that hostages should not be exchanged for prisoners,” Kirby said. “Mr. Smotrich essentially suggests that the war ought to go on indefinitely without pause and with the lives of the hostages of no real concern at all – his arguments are dead wrong. They’re misleading the Israeli public.” In a post Friday, Smotrich called the proposed ceasefire deal a “surrender deal,” writing on social media platform X, “I call on the Prime Minister not to fall into this trap and not to agree to a shift, even the slightest, from the red lines he set just recently, and they are also very problematic.” Smotrich’s comments followed President Joe Biden and the leaders of Qatar and Egypt releasing a joint statement Thursday calling on representatives from Israel and Hamas to resume ceasefire talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Israel will send a delegation to the talks. Hamas has yet to state publicly whether they will participate. The exchange also comes amid the threat of retaliatory strikes against Israel after a pair of high profile assassinations in Lebanon and Iran in recent weeks. Israel last week killed the top military commander for Hezbollah, Fu’ad Shukr, in Lebanon. The next day, Israel is widely believed to have assassinated Hamas’ political leader in Tehran. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in that incident.
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