Hamas cannot continue to exist in Gaza “with a gun, without a gun,” Tammy Bruce, the new U.S. State Department spokeswoman, told reporters on Thursday in her first press briefing.
Until Hamas returns all the remaining hostages held in Gaza, “there is no path forward,” Bruce said, calling it “an impossible situation” with “monsters, who are controlling and destroying Gazan lives and the lives of people around the region.”
The Foggy Bottom spokeswoman’s comments come a day after U.S. President Donald Trump held an Oval Office meeting with a delegation of freed Israeli hostages. He vowed shortly after the meeting to destroy Hamas if it doesn’t immediately free the remaining captives.
Bruce said that the Trump administration’s posture toward the region, including Trump’s controversial plan for a post-Hamas Gaza, is necessary.
“There’s been nothing new,” Bruce said of the stagnant politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “It’s wash, rinse and repeat, back and forth for generations, and the approach now, in this dynamic, is that it has to be a new approach.”
“That is what President Trump has said from the beginning—that we’ve got to think differently about how things proceed in the region,” she said.
New ideas have emerged, but “one thing stays the same and is unmovable, and it is the existence of Hamas as a factor on the ground in that region will make it impossible to continue” with progress, Bruce said.
Asked about Trump’s harsh Wednesday statement in light of the White House’s confirmation, hours earlier, that the United States engaged in unprecedented, direct negotiations with Hamas, Bruce said that Trump’s rhetoric didn’t change anything.
“There was no change of position. It was the conveyance of the existing American position about Hamas and how it cannot exist in Gaza,” she said. “Whether it is through a tweet or a diplomatic cable or on television or through envoys or in a meeting, that message can be conveyed.”
Bruce said that the Arab plan for Gaza, which was released this week after a summit in Cairo, “does not fulfill the requirements and nature of what President Trump was asking for, but it was a welcomed effort.”
She struck a note of optimism, stating that “we have a very good chance at accomplishing” a successful outcome with the Arab leadership. “We’ve articulated to leadership regarding what’s acceptable and what is not,” she said. “So these conversations clearly will have to continue.”
Moving across the region, Bruce said that the Trump administration is reviewing all existing sanctions waivers that provide Iran with “any degree of economic or financial relief.” Washington is also urging the Iraqi government to end its reliance on Iranian energy sources, she said.
Bruce was asked if a sanctions waiver, which allows Iraq to pay Iran for electricity and which expires this week, would be renewed.
“The Iraq sanctions waiver, as you’ve noted, for Iran gas imports expires on the 8th. We have, at this point as you might imagine, we have nothing to announce with regards to the current electricity waiver that expires on the 8th,” she said.
“In line with National Security Presidential Memorandum No. 2, we are reviewing all existing sanctions waivers that provide Iran any degree of economic or financial relief, and we are urging the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible,” Bruce said.
She added that Washington welcomes “the Iraqi prime minister’s commitment to achieve energy independence. Hopefully, the United States is leading the way when it comes to that kind of an approach.”