National Security spokesperson John Kirby said Sunday that cease-fire talks with Israel and Hamas have not been “achieving any progress” in recent weeks.
Kirby joined ABC’s “This Week,” where he was asked if negotiations have gone cold even as tensions rise in the region and an all-out war in the region becomes more of a possibility.
“I would say that we are not achieving any progress here in the last week, two weeks,” he said, adding that it’s “not for a lack of trying.”
Kirby said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar appears not to want to negotiate, even after six hostages were killed in a tunnel in southern Gaza late last month.
“So, it doesn’t appear as if he’s willing to move this … forward, but it doesn’t mean that we’re not trying,” he said.
Kirby said the United States is still working with Qatar, Egypt and Israel to move talks forward.
His comments come as tensions in the Middle East rise. Last week, Israel was responsible for an attack on handheld pagers of Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria. Hezbollah has responded with airstrikes in Israel, and concerns about a larger regional war have been raised.
“We’re watching with concern, the escalating tensions in the region and across that border here in the last week or so,” Kirby said.
He said the U.S. doesn’t believe further military action from either side is in anyone’s “best interest,” but certainly not in Israel’s interest of bringing the remaining hostages home alive.
“There’s a better way forward here and we’re going to keep trying to proffer that,” Kirby said.
