'What Are You Hoping To Hear?': State Dept Pressed For Details On Blinken Meeting With Yoav Gallant

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State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was asked about State Secretary Antony Blinken's meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

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00:00How many are – I'm sorry, I missed that on Friday.

00:03How many are going?

00:04With – I didn't announce it.

00:05We'll have tomorrow.

00:06With respect to the number, I would defer to the Government of Kenya to –

00:09Mosul?

00:10I will let them speak to that.

00:11More than that, but I'll let them speak to specific operational questions.

00:14Okay.

00:15Moving on to the Middle East.

00:16So the Secretary right now is meeting with the Israeli defense minister.

00:20He is.

00:21What is he telling him, and what are you hoping to hear from him?

00:25So he is emphasizing a few things in his meeting with the defense minister.

00:29Number one, our ongoing commitment to Israel's security.

00:32Number two, the importance of Israel developing robust, realistic plans

00:37for the day after the conflict, plans that include path towards governance,

00:41towards security, towards reconstruction.

00:43We've obviously been working on these same ideas with partners in the region

00:47and engaging in conversations with Israel,

00:49but we think it's important that Israel put forward its own ideas.

00:52He's going to emphasize the need to avoid further escalation of the conflict.

00:56And then he will, as always, emphasize the need to improve humanitarian access,

01:01where we have seen somewhat of a slowdown in access in the south,

01:04and the Secretary is going to emphasize to the minister

01:07that we want to see that situation reversed,

01:09and he'll hope to hear concrete commitments from him to work on that problem.

01:13Okay.

01:14And are you expecting there to be any kind of a result from this meeting?

01:18Look, we always hope to make progress on all these issues

01:21when we have these meetings with our Israeli counterparts,

01:25and we'll look for that today.

01:28Okay.

01:29So no.

01:30No.

01:31Yes.

01:32We look to make progress on all of these issues.

01:34We have – but that said, this is one of a number of meetings

01:39the Secretary's had with the defense minister,

01:41and we've had a back-and-forth with them about all of these topics.

01:45But in each of those meetings, certainly we hope to walk out with commitments

01:48for them to do more to address all of these areas.

01:50Okay.

01:52Thanks.

01:53Yeah.

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