Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman, opened Monday’s press briefing discussing how his children met President Joe Biden that day at the turkey pardon, ahead of Thanksgiving.
“With that important news of the day out of the way,” said Matt Lee, the AP diplomatic reporter, shifting the discussion to the status of ceasefire negotiations in Lebanon.
“We have made significant progress with getting towards a resolution. That includes progress from where we were when I spoke to this last week, but we’re not done yet,” Miller said. “Nothing is final until everything is final. We continue to work to try and get an agreement over the line, and we’re hopeful we can get one, but we need both of the parties to get to ‘yes.'”
“Do you have—off the top of your headany—an idea of how many times you guys, U.S. officials, have said exactly those words as it regards to Lebanon, dating back to late September,” Lee said, “and as it regards Gaza, going back to almost a couple days or a week or so after the Oct. 7 attacks?”
Miller said that Foggy Bottom is “painfully aware, because this has been an incredibly frustrating process—both getting to a ceasefire and a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon and, also, the many rounds of negotiations to get a ceasefire in Gaza.”
“There are any number of stages where we have hoped that the parties would get to an agreement. And remember, that’s what it requires in these cases—it’s not the United States, but the parties to the agreement to say ‘yes,'” he said. “There have been many times when we thought we were going to be getting to ‘yes’ in both cases, and for various reasons the parties didn’t get there.”
But Foggy Bottom believes that a deal is close.
“That’s why you heard me come out and say nothing’s final until everything is final, because we know we don’t have a deal until there is one that has been fully agreed to by both sides,” Miller said.
Lee dug in. “Why do you think it is—and I’m not asking you to get inside their heads, necessarily, but—that there are people in this government who are running around on background, repeatedly giving overly optimistic assessments of where things stand?” he asked.
Miller said that he is always hesitant to speak to comments others make on background. “As you know, there are any number of government officials with oftentimes,” he said, “different assessments about the same situation.”
“I will say, speaking to where I believe we are, I’ve said we’re close because I do believe we are close, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get there,” he added. “We need the parties to say ‘yes,’ and hopefully that will happen in—that will happen soon.”
