Claim: President Joe Biden began his farewell address by praising the success of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Verdict: Mostly false. A ceasefire was reached, but Biden's State Department acknowledged that President-elect Donald Trump's team was “absolutely critical” to reaching the deal.
For months, the Biden administration has been unable to reach a cease-fire despite threats of significant domestic political pressure from the progressive anti-Biden “Uncommitted” movement. Mr. Trump's team reportedly led the deal, which comes five days before Mr. Biden is sworn in as president again, but on Wednesday night Mr. Biden claimed credit.
“After eight months of nonstop negotiations, my administration has reached a cease-fire and hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said hours after news of the deal was reported.
“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be implemented primarily by the incoming administration. That's why I told my team to keep the incoming administration well-informed. Because it should be,” he added.
But hours earlier, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller praised the Trump team's involvement and credited them with completing the deal.
“The involvement of President-elect Trump's team was critical in getting this deal over the line,” Miller said.
israel outlet Haaretz Notable in Monday's report was that the Biden administration allowed President Trump's incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to take the lead on negotiations last week.
A week before President Trump's inauguration, Jerusalem is already seeing the rules of the game change and the deadlock in hostage negotiations broken. Unusually, the outgoing Biden administration gave Witkoff control of the process on the grounds that the United States' obligations fell to Trump, not Biden.
Mr. Witkoff is a Jewish real estate investor and developer who is close to Mr. Trump. He does not have the background of someone who would normally play the role of a diplomat. Witkoff is not a diplomat. He doesn't speak like a diplomat and has no interest in diplomatic manners or protocol,'' said a senior Israeli diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He wants to reach an agreement quickly and is an unusually aggressive businessman.
Miller noted Wednesday the unusual nature of having envoys from both the outgoing and incoming administrations at major foreign policy negotiations.
“I don't know if it's unprecedented for envoys from the outgoing administration and the incoming administration to sit down at the same table and negotiate a ceasefire of this kind, but if it's unprecedented, it's certainly unusual,” Miller said. Ta.
“And, of course, we thank the Trump team for working together on this ceasefire agreement. We think it's important that they have a seat at the table,” he added.
