On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) responded to Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah by stating that he is worried doing so will hurt the prospects of a ceasefire deal and that “there is no stronger ally of Israel in the world than the United States. And it bothers me, at times, where the Netanyahu government, sometimes, takes that for granted.”
Host Andrea Mitchell asked, “[T]here are new explosions, as you know, in Lebanon today. … And it happened just as Secretary Blinken was arriving in Egypt, trying to negotiate a diplomatic solution. He said today that the U.S. had no advanced warning, he has implicitly criticized anything that would impede a ceasefire. Do you believe that this will impede the ceasefire and hostage release negotiations?”
Warner answered, “Well, Andrea, I have two concerns: One, we were so close, so many times on a ceasefire and hostage exchange. And we lost, recently, six hostages. … And anything that sets that back is enormously challenging, not only in terms of the conflict in Gaza, but also because there [are] a series of nation-states in the region, including Saudi Arabia, that, I think, are looking for a major realignment away from China and Russia, but that’s not going to happen until we can bring a ceasefire in Gaza. What we are also seeing now, and, again, we don’t know — nothing has been confirmed yet about the source of this strike. But we are very concerned about an expansion of the conflict into Lebanon and moving this kind of tit-for-tat with Hezbollah into a full armed conflict, that is not in Israel’s best interests, and it’s obviously not in the best interests of Lebanon and other nation-states in the region.”
Mitchell then asked, “So, what does this mean, with Israel launching this, just, again, as Secretary Blinken was arriving in Cairo, it’s his tenth trip to the region since October 7, this delays any chance of a deal, possibly during Joe Biden’s presidency?”
Warner responded, “I strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself, and, clearly, Israel — Israelis have — approximately 100,000 Israelis have had to move out of their homes in the north, but I also — there is no stronger ally of Israel in the world than the United States. And it bothers me, at times, where the Netanyahu government, sometimes, takes that for granted. And I think that’s not in the best long-term interests of Israel and it is not in the best long-term interests of those of us who have been life-long supporters of Israel. And I’ll leave it there.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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