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The White House on Monday reiterated President Joe Biden\u2019s pledge to appropriately respond to the fatal attack on a US base in Jordan last week while pressing forward with negotiations that could free hostages held by Hamas and bring about a pause in fighting between Israel and the militant group.<\/p>\n
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the daily White House press briefing that there was \u201cno reason\u201d that the work by US negotiators, including CIA Director William Burns, over talks in Paris with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials, would be impeded by the drone strike by Iran-backed militants, which claimed the lives of three US soldiers and injured dozens of others. <\/p>\n
President Joe Biden has vowed that the US \u201cshall respond\u201d to the attack, which is widely believed to be part of a campaign orchestrated by Tehran to escalate tensions and inflict damage on the US and its\u2019 allies in the Middle East region. <\/p>\n
But Mr Kirby said any US response should not factor into what happens with the talks, either<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason why our work on a hostage deal needs to be affected or impacted by what happened over the weekend or what we do about what happened over the weekend,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe still want to keep the work going [with] our shoulders to the wheel on this hostage deal, and we\u2019ll just have to see where it goes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The US-led talks have reportedly brought Israeli and Hamas leaders closer to a deal that would see Israel pause hostilities in the Gaza Strip for roughly two months, with Hamas releasing more than 100 of the hostages it has held since the 7 October terrorist attacks plunged the region into tumult and killed more than 1,000 Israelis. The Israeli response to the attacks have killed more than 25,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory\u2019s Hamas-run health ministry. <\/p>\n
Mr Biden has repeatedly dispatched top emissaries from his administration, including Mr Burns and Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, to the region for talks with officials from Egypt and Qatar who have served as intermediaries between the US, Israel and Hamas. <\/p>\n
Last week the president spoke separately with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatar\u2019s prime minister, about the ongoing conflict and their respective countries\u2019 roles in the efforts to secure the release of the hostages. <\/p>\n
Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government is still committed to securing the freedom of those hostages who were not released during a series of pauses in fighting in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of today, we have returned 110 of our hostages and we are committed to returning all of them home,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are dealing with this and we are doing so around the clock, including now\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington email The White House on Monday reiterated President Joe Biden\u2019s pledge to appropriately respond to the fatal attack on a US base in Jordan last week while pressing forward with negotiations that could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n