Kirby slams Hamas chief Sinwar as ‘the major obstacle’ to cease-fire, hostage release deal with Israel

White House national security spokesman John Kirby deemed the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, “the major obstacle” to achieving a cease-fire deal in recent weeks. 

During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Kirby responded to The Wall Street Journal’s reporting that senior U.S. officials who hoped for months for a cease-fire and hostage release deal now do not expect Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement before the end of President Biden’s term. The report cited administration officials as saying Hamas makes demands and “then refuses to say ‘yes’ after the U.S. and Israel accept them.” 

“It’s certainly apparent to us that Mr. Sinwar remains the big obstacle here to getting a deal. And it certainly is the case that he has done nothing in the recent weeks to prove that he’s willing to move this forward in a good faith way. He is the major obstacle, no question about it,” Kirby said Sunday. “It’s tough to get them to say yes to things that he’s already said that he wanted. So it’s very, very difficult.” 

“But as the president said the other day, everything’s unrealistic until all of a sudden it’s not anymore. And we’re gonna keep trying at this,” Kirby added. “And this idea that we’re just throwing up our hands and ‘well, it’s not gonna happen before the end of the term,’ I can tell ya that’s not where the president is. It’s not where Jake Sullivan or Tony Blinken are. We still believe that there’s a possibility of moving this forward, and we’re gonna keep trying. Those hostages need an effort to get them home. We’re not going to give up on that.”  

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Kirby reiterated the administration’s position that Israel has a right to defend itself, but acknowledged that some of the criticism of how Israel is handling the conflict has come from the Biden administration as well. 

“They absolutely have a right to defend themselves. And we are still providing them the tools and capabilities to do that. But how they do it matters,” Kirby said.  “President Biden has said that, Vice President Harris has said that to our Israeli counterparts. They need to be doing it in as precise and as discriminant a way to avoid damage to civilian infrastructure and more critically, to civilian life. So it does matter a lot to us.” 

“Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream also asked Kirby to respond to the death of Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs Friday. 

Bream pointed to criticism from Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who suggested Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in expressing fear of escalation to Israeli officials after the strike, was not grateful enough to Israel for taking out a man responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans during the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings. 

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“Nobody, including Secretary Austin, is shedding a tear over the death of Mr. Akil, who does have American blood on his hands. I think the world’s better for not having him walking around on the planet anymore. But that doesn’t mean we want to see a full out war. We don’t believe, again, that that’s in the best interest of the Israeli people,” Kirby said. 

Akil was one of the Lebanon-based terrorist group’s top military officials, in charge of its elite forces, and had been on Washington’s wanted list for years.

The strike Friday came as the group was still reeling from an attack targeting Hezbollah communications earlier last week when thousands of pagers exploded simultaneously. The attack killed 12 people, mostly Hezbollah members, and injured thousands, according to Hezbollah officials. Israel is suspected of being behind that attack but has not claimed responsibility. 

As Hezbollah has been launching rockets into Israel since October 2023, Kirby said the U.S. has been working at “intense diplomacy here now for months to try to prevent an escalation in the conflict up at the blue line with Lebanon.”  

“We still believe that there should be a strong effort to work on that diplomacy and to try to get that – that escalation to stop, to get the situation to stabilize, ” Kirby said. 

Kirby also defended the Biden administration’s handling of Iran, despite criticism from Republicans. 

“Iran is one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world,” Kirby said. “And that’s in part, actually large part, to what President Biden has done. Six hundred sanctions alone just in this administration, 60 sanction regimes. So I don’t buy the argument that we somehow turned a blind eye and just given them cash.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.