Blinken says review of arms shipment to Israel continues

At a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is still reviewing a hold on a weapons shipment to Israel over concerns about the use of weapons in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza. Blinken made the remarks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Blinken told him that the U.S. was working to lift the hold on the shipment.

Video Transcript

Mr Secretary Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted about an hour ago, conveniently timed for this press conference, a video talking about us paws and some weapons to Israel and said, you assured him last week that us is working to remove those bottles.

Is this an accurate characterization of what you told him?

If not, what did you tell him?

Will the US remove its hold on these bombs?

It's very important to remember that our security relationship with Israel goes well beyond Gaza.

Uh Israel is facing a multiplicity of threats and challenges including uh in the north, from Hezbollah, from Iran, from the Houthis in the, in the Red Sea, uh from various um groups that are aligned against Israel and in many cases, uh beholden to uh to Iran.

So the president's been very clear uh from day one that he will do everything he can to make sure that Israel has what it needs to effectively defend itself against these threats.

And a big part of that as well is making sure that in providing that assistance to, to Israel, it has a strong deterrent which is the best way to avoid more conflict to avoid more war to avoid what we're already seeing in Gaza, spreading to other uh other areas to other funds.

That's been one of our objectives uh from day one.

So we're committed to that.

Uh We as you know, are continuing to review one shipment.

Uh that President Biden has talked about uh with regard to 2000 bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafa that remains other uh under review.

Um But everything else is moving as it normally would move.

And again, with the perspective of making sure that is Israel has what it needs to defend itself against this multiplicity of challenges.