Kaine: We Need Israel to Do a Prisoner Swap to Stop Houthis Since Biden Isn’t Stopping Them

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) stated that the Biden administration “is saying that they don’t expect the Houthis to stop” launching attacks despite strikes by the U.S. and the “only thing” that has actually worked to get the Houthis to stop launching attacks is a deal where Israel frees Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of hostages.

Kaine said, “It’s clearly not going to stop. You see the U.S. taking action with allies against the Houthis and then the Houthis responding in kind. And the administration is saying that they don’t expect the Houthis to stop. The only thing that has stopped the Houthis recently has been a hostage release deal. So, when we got the hostage release deal a month or so ago, where hostages were released by Hamas, Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel, and then there was a pause in hostilities to get humanitarian aid to Gazans, the Houthis stopped. That’s the only thing that’s shown there to be de-escalation, which is why I’m also upping my calls again, let’s focus on the lynchpin of this whole thing, which is hostages, let’s really engage with the Israelis, the Qataris, the Egyptians, and everybody to get hostages released. If we do that, it’s likely to come accompanied with a pause in hostilities so we can get more humanitarian aid to suffering Gazans. That will also probably stop the Houthis.”

Earlier, on Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Kaine said, “I think the key right now is really redoubling efforts to get hostages released, because I think, to get hostages released, as in the first instance, there would be a trade of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and there would be a cessation of hostilities for some period of time. And when that happened, remember, the Houthis stopped their escalation campaign during that pause in hostilities.” And that a release “will require a trade, as the first tranche of hostages did, where Palestinian prisoners get released, but then you also buy time, you stop the hostilities, you can get more humanitarian aid to suffering people. You’ll likely stop the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.”

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