On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby stated that Hamas finally agreed to a ceasefire and hostage deal because Israel has “dramatically weakened” Hamas since back when President Joe Biden laid out the deal in May, Hamas has been isolated from Hezbollah and Iran, “And then there was also the undercurrent of all this intense diplomacy that we have stayed engaged at since May to get this over the finish line.”
Kirby began by saying, “There’s an awful lot of credit here to go around, Wolf, and it’s not just on the American side, but in the region. Prime Minister Netanyahu himself made some important compromises to move this forward. The Qataris, the Egyptians were very much involved in this.”
Host Wolf Blitzer then asked, “President Biden laid out the basic elements of this deal back in May. So, why did it take so long, John, for this agreement to be finalized today?”
Kirby answered, “There [are] a couple of factors here, Wolf: Number one, Hamas is a radically different organization today than it was back in May. They were stronger in May and throughout the summer. But over the course of those many months, due to IDF military action, Hamas became dramatically weakened. They lost their leader, Sinwar. They lost other fighters and leaders on the battlefield, tunnels absolutely flattened, infrastructure destroyed, they’re in a much weaker state now. The other thing that was different between then and now, Wolf, is that Hamas is even further isolated. They couldn’t count on Hezbollah anymore to be their cavalry because we brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which is still largely holding. And Iran is much more weaker because of the attacks that they conducted on Israel. There were retaliatory strikes, their air defenses were greatly diminished. Iran could not come to their aid any more than Iran could come to Assad’s aid when his regime fell just a couple of weeks ago. So, more isolated, definitely weaker. And then there was also the undercurrent of all this intense diplomacy that we have stayed engaged at since May to get this over the finish line.”
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