Secretary Antony J. Blinken at a Press Availability

01/09/2024 04:54 PM EST

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken at a Press Availability

Remarks

January 9, 2024

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good evening. 

This is my fourth trip to Israel since the horrific Hamas attacks of October 7th, so I’m here just over three months – 95 days – since those attacks occurred.

We know that for the people who were most affected by the attacks and the conflict that’s followed, time moves differently. 

Immediately before this, I met with the families of hostages being held in Gaza and with hostages who’ve been released.  Several of those families I’ve now met multiple times.  For them, every day, every hour, every minute that they’re separated from their loved ones is an eternity. 

Time feels different for families in Gaza as well, hundreds of thousands of whom are experiencing acute food insecurity.  For the mother or father trying to find something to feed a hungry child, the passage of another day without food is excruciating. 

U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin

Secretary Antony J. Blinken With Nadia Bilbassy of Al Arabiya
01/29/2023

Secretary Antony J. Blinken With Nadia Bilbassy of Al Arabiya
01/29/2023 01:55 PM EST

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Cairo, Egypt

U.S. Embassy

QUESTION: (In Arabic.) Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for giving us this exclusive interview. We appreciate your time.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: It’s very good to be with you.

QUESTION: I wanted to start with Iran. The administration said that this is not the right time to go back to the JCPOA. Your President described it as dead. Yet, you don’t prefer the military option. How can you stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: First, Iran had an opportunity to get back into the JCPOA at the end of this past summer. Unfortunately, they rejected what was on the table and had been agreed to by everybody. Their either wouldn’t move forward with it. Now our focus is on the many things that have happened since, including the horrific repression of the Iranian people on the streets of Iran as young people, women in particular, have been standing up for their basic rights, and very important communities across Iranian society are doing the same thing and are being repressed violently by the regime.

At the same time, we’re also seeing Iran support Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine, providing it with drones and potentially other weapons systems. So that’s where the focus is and that’s the concern of many countries around the world.

U.S. Department of State Weekly Digest Bulletin

 

Secretary Antony J. Blinken with Mary Ann Ahern of NBC Chicago WMAQ-TV 01/22/2023 . Secretary Antony J. Blinken with Mary Ann Ahern of NBC Chicago WMAQ-TV 01/22/2023 03:35 PM EST Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Chicago, Illinois Segment As Aired ANCHOR ONE:  Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Chicago today and says he came to the neighborhood that is Ukraine’s beating heart. ANCHOR TWO:  His visit coinciding with the two-year anniversary of President Biden taking office.  Our political reporter Marie Ann Ahern, joining us now, sat down with Secretary Blinken for an exclusive interview today. MS AHERN:  Good evening to all of you.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken witnessed how this Chicago neighborhood displays its big support for Ukraine.  Here on the city’s northwest side, Secretary of State Antony Blinken witnessed how the Ukrainian Village neighborhood displays its support for Ukraine. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  If that’s allowed to happen in one place with impunity, it could start to happen every place. (Video Clip of Secretary Blinken) As we like to say we’re from Washington.  We’re here to help. MS AHERN:  Senator Dick Durbin alongside Blinken to meet with community leaders. (Video Clip of Senator Durbin) Washington is rarefied atmosphere.  You need to come into communities that are directly impacted by these foreign policy decisions. MS AHERN:  Blinken sees no easy resolution between Russia and Ukraine.  Does diplomacy work with Putin? SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Diplomacy works in this sense: We have pulled together over the last year, now that this war has been going on, dozens of countries around the world; dozens of countries to support Ukraine, to give it what it needs to defend itself. MS AHERN:  Next month, Blinken visits China.  And it was two years ago today that President Biden took office. SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We’re back at the table.  The United States is reengaged.  We’re leading.  And we know what happens when we don’t.  When we don’t, either someone else is — tries to take our place and probably not in a way that advances our interests and values — or no one does, and the world doesn’t organize itself. MS AHERN:  Blinken’s tour included this modern art museum, and as the father of two young children, the artwork from the Ukrainian children especially touched him.