Sullivan: Hamas has refused to provide names of hostages it’s holding

13 December 2024, 11:37 pm

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says that “for many months, Hamas has not been prepared to even do the basic things of coming to the table with the names of hostages.”

The comments in an interview with Channel 13 come amid reports earlier in the week that the terror group has passed along a list of hostages it is prepared to release in the first stage to the mediators.

An Arab diplomat denied a Wall Street Journal report claiming as much.

Sullivan spoke in the present tense, saying “has” and not “had,” but it wasn’t entirely clear whether he was revealing that Hamas has still yet to provide names of the hostages to date or whether he was referring to previous months before talks were jumpstarted last week.

Pressed on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been an obstacle in the talks, as Arab mediators have told The Times of Israel, Sullivan gives a diplomatic answer.

“Israel negotiated hard to defend and justify its position in this negotiation,” he says.

He is less generous regarding Hamas, asserting that the terror group “has been deeply intransigent,”

“We have seen Hamas repeatedly, time and again, when the opportunity was there to do something, not be prepared to step up and do it,” Sullivan says.

“But we have also seen Israel and the Israeli government choose to drive a negotiation where it had its perspective on what was required in order to get the hostages home and ensure Israel’s security,” he adds, without elaborating what he means by that.

Asked whether Donald Trump’s election and the threat that the president-elect issued to those holding hostages in the Middle East are the reasons why there has been renewed optimism regarding the chances for a deal, Sullivan disagrees.

The top Biden aide points to the fall of the Assad regime, the ceasefire in Lebanon and Israel’s killing of Hamas leaders. “My view on why we are in [this] position… is not about American politics or the outcome of the election… It’s about the regional situation here.”

“My conviction is that because of developments in the region, the moment is ripe; and it is my job to seize that moment to bring these people home, including American citizens, who have been away from their families for too long.”

As for the call from some hostage families to have a one-phase deal that sees all 100 captives released at once, Sullivan says the US still believes that the three-phase framework that it has been pushing since Israel proposed it in May will be the most effective.

“Our judgment is that trying to proceed in phases and getting this thing started so people start coming out — that is the best way to get to the end of the process,” he says.

“We will obviously test that… and we will see what happens. But it’s the judgment of the US and of the mediators that operating in this way is the most likely method of getting everyone home safely to their loved ones in the shortest possible time.”