A reporter asked Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesman, about reports that Hamas members that Washington sanctioned on Tuesday were transferred to Turkey “as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, which was mediated by the United States and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.”
“According to Turkish sources, this transfer was made at your request in 2011. So could you please provide a clarification or elaborate on this?” the reporter asked at Wednesday’s State Department press conference.
“With respect to sanctions, that is an issue separate and apart from any prisoner exchange deal. Members of Hamas who are engaging in terrorist activities are sanctionable whether or not they were ever part of a prisoner deal,” Miller said.
The reporter asked the State Department spokesman to confirm whether Foggy Bottom sanctioned those transferred, at the U.S. behest, to Turkey.
“No, I’m not going to—so I wasn’t around here in 2011. I can’t speak to the substance of that deal. But what I can tell you is that it’s really a separate question,” Miller said. “Someone that’s part of a prisoner exchange deal—which I’m not confirming because I don’t know the specifics of it, but let’s just stipulate that it were true for a minute—that does not in any way give them a free pass to get out of sanctions for supporting terrorist activities 13 years down the road.”
“The members of Hamas that we designated yesterday, we designated for being involved in terrorist activities,” Miller added.
