>> for that afternoon, everyone. this is a sparse crowd today. end of the week, august. let me start with some brief opening remarks. this weekend on august 10th marks two years since my habibie and ryan corbett were taken in afghanistan, two years that they are separated from their families, we are deeply

concerned about the well-being of americans unjustly detained in afghanistan. mahmoud ryan and george. . we raised their detentions in every engagement we have with the taliban. >> every engagement you've had with the taliban, can you see how many engagements are have been with the tell about? >> i would have to take that back. as you know from time to time,

we have engaged with them at international fora. we raised among other issues that need for them to release the americans they are unjustly detaining. >> the frequency of those interruptions -- of those interruptions? >> i'm happy to get that to you. >> brian's wife publicly said in recent days how difficult it's been for family children of possibly desperate levels of attention, painstaking diplomacy were her words, the detainees was profiles may not have reached the level of attention that for example those held in russia had. is it fair to see that these cases in afghanistan have gotten less attention, fewer resources? >> absolutely not. we don't determine the level of attention cases get from the press. you know the media covers in some cases more prominently than others. we control the level of attention we commit on behalf of

the u.s. government and we are absolutely committed to bringing home ryan corbett and the other detainees wrongfully detained in afghanistan as well as detainees wrongfully held all around the world. the secretary has spoken to ryan corbett's wife. she was here just this week. ambassador thomas greenfield met with roger carson. when engaged with the family all the time. and we continue to work through our diplomatic efforts to bring them home. that said, i've said this before, it's impossible for me to imagine what these family members must be going through. i assume it is particularly painful every time they see other detainees brought home. because they can only help -- they can't help but think about their loved ones we were not able to get out at that time. i would point to the primary -- the track record we've had over the past few years and when we say we are not forgetting

anyone, we mean it and we have the records to back that up and will continue to use every resource the u.s. government has to try and bring ryan and other wrongfully detained americans home. >> one has not been able to secure a meeting with jake sullivan despite the promise he made to meet with her. she has not been able to meet with president biden. i don't know if you're in a position to say? >> i can't speak for the schedules of principles out in the state department. we just held a number of meetings with her this week and we will continue to meet with her and engage with the secretary. i've talked with her. our colleagues in the white house will continue to engage with her as well. i can't speak to that from here. >> just to understand, you used

the term unjustly detained referring to the three. are there wrong determinations? >> we have made the terminations that they are wrongfully detained, that is not a determination we have yet made with respect to my mood. -- mahmoud habibi. often times we can't make a wrongful detention determination because we don't have access to certain types of information or because the situation is unclear, there can be other factors as well but i can tell you we are working overtime to try to get his release as well. >> when you say someone is unjustly detained, wrongfully detained? >> wrongfully detained and the legal determination under the factors, there are other people we believe are unjustly detained. mahmoud is one of them.

for whatever reason, we have not been able to apply the factors because they don't meet that criteria in that case or we don't have sufficient information to make that determination but we still have information to believe that it's an american citizen. we will try to get him released and that's what we are doing with mahmoud habibi. >> could actually start with norway, israel and norway? norway along with spain recognized the state of palestine. the u.s. has good relations with israel and norway, do you have a comment on this? >> i think i would just say that norway has a long history of playing a productive role when it comes to engaging with the government of israel and the palestinian authority. engaging with the palestinian people. if you look at their role at they also accordance and justice

this year helping facilitate the release of tax revenues to the palestinian authority, they have long played an important role and we think it's important they continue to be able to play that role and talking both with the pa and israel, we don't think steps to prevent them from playing that role are particularly hopeful and we will continue to engage with both countries. >> and israel specifically? >> i'm not aware of any specific conversation. i'm not aware of any. i'm not going to speak to that. we always believed that diplomatic engagements are important. diplomatic relationships are important. and we've seen diplomatic relationships between norway and israel have been important. is been important norway be able to communiqué with israel and the palestinian authority and we think they can continue to do so.

>> [indiscernible] >> i don't have any specific concern about that at this point. it is something that we will monitor over the days to come. we have seen tax revenue continued to be transferred. i believe some was transferred in the last few days and it's important that revenue continued to be transferred. as we set a number of times, ultimately money to which the pa is entitled. it is something we will continue to monitor. go ahead. >> really specific, does the u.s. have any indication that iran is considering the need to retaliate from the strike? >> two things to that, i'm not going to speak to our private somatic conversations or what

iran may or may not be planning. other than to say the focus of our to blahnik engagements as we continue to make clear to iran that they should not escalate this conflict and should not take any escalatory steps that are not in the interests of the wider region and that is a point we will continue to impress and all of our diplomatic engagements in the region. >> he also stressed the need -- that the help a cease-fire deal would provide in lowering tensions. is it clear how perspective the cease-fire deal is to the iranians? as the appeal of a deal greater than the need to retaliate? >> i don't want to speak for the iranians or try to make an assessment of what is convincing to the iranians or what is compelling to them or what's going to go into their mind when they make their decisions.

i will say that there are two sides of this coin, on one side of the coin, yes, we believe that a cease fire would go a long way towards alleviating tensions in the region, it would obviously have immediate benefits for the palestinian people in gaza have immediate benefits for the hostages and their families. but we think it would allow us to make progress in the diplomatic endeavors. that we have been pursuing to bring calm along the israel lebanon border and it would allow us to ease broader regional tensions on the other side of that coin. certainly any further escalation just makes all of the region's problems more difficult. and one of the problems that we're addressing is the conflict in gaza and trying to reach a cease-fire. so it is true that any time you have an increase in tensions, it makes all of our diplomatic diplomatic efforts more difficult. so i would hope that that's something that iran is paying attention to and something that they're cognizant of and they wouldn't want to do anything to hurt prospects for a cease fire. they wouldn't want to do

anything to further raise regional tensions and risk the -- and raise the risk of this conflict spiraling out of control, but we can't speak for them. >> we spoke yesterday about the need for an in-person negotiator to be designated by hamas before cease fire talks could be taken over the finish line until that person is designated or steps forward or is named, is that u.s. trying to sort of get the israel side of the deal to a final place? so that once there is a designation, all it takes is a signature? >> so it's hard to say getting one side to the deal to a final place when it obviously is a negotiation and you can't get agreement from one party without the other. let me say two things about it though -- yes, we have been in contact with israel about trying to get a deal finalized and we have been in contact with the other two mediators, egypt and qatar, about how we would get potential ways to get a deal finalized and how we might bridge the differences between the two parties. and the second thing i'll say is we continue to emphasize to the government of israel, as we

believe egypt and qatar are emphasizing to hamas that the onus is on them to agree to a cease fire that we have made great headway. but we need to finalize the agreement. we need to finalize it as soon as possible. >> i have one more in vienna, but we'll go ahead. thank you . >> actually, in response to olivia on the deal, the israeli press and the times of israel both reported that the united states is willing to let israel start whatever military operations after phase one of the cease-fire. can you confirm that? >> no, i can't, i don't know to what that is referring. obviously, we've spoken to the framework of a deal a number of times and the framework of the deal is that there is a six week cease fire that would be agreed to once the deal is finalized. and before that six week ceasefire ends, we would enter into further negotiations to try to extend it and try to get into phase two of the agreement.

and so, what we have made clear we want to see happen is for that cease fire to be extended and ultimately provide an end to the war and beyond that provide broader peace and stability. but of course, there is a negotiation process at the end of stage one that has always been clear, we've been, i think quite open about that. >> now these reports claim that prime minister netanyahu insists and having something in writing from you that he said that he can attack basically. that this is a condition that he will not budge from. >> so again, i don't know what those reports are referring to. but s if you look at the very well described architecture of the agreement, there is a negotiation process at the end of phase one that you have to go through and you have to reach to get to phase two. and i think that's been quite clear and they will require as

has been true for getting to where we have before. of course, that will be a negotiation, and israel will want to make sure that its interests are protected in that negotiation. but we have been very clear that we want to see this ultimately lead to an end of the war. >> by all accounts, the negotiations right now are now moving or frozen or whatever are on hold. but hamas said that or sar said they want to go ahead with the cease-fire talks. does that change in any way the pace of what's going on? >> i am not going to get into an underlying discussion about the negotiations themselves other than to say that certainly we want to see them finalized. >> and finally, i wanted to ask you about, you know, the administration is being sued by israeli settlers whom you have imposed sanctions on. i mean, how do you handle a situation like this? and especially, i mean, this morning, mr. netanyahu told the settlers that he is going to do everything possible to reverse the sanctions.

that, in fact, you know, he promised them that he would do that. >> on our underlying policy, we've been quite clear about that policy and the reason for it. but when it comes to the litigation itself, i have to, of course, defer to the department of justice. >> not going to sway the decision one way or the other. the fact that there may be some legal ground? >> i'm not so be clear, i'm not in any way going to comment on litigation because as i said before, when i was at the justice department, i didn't like it when people at the state department podium commented on it. so i'm going to try to respect that equity. that said we have been quite clear that we expect israel to take actions to crack down on settler violence. and if they don't, we will, we have taken those steps and we will continue to do so as appropriate. >> just to clarify, i'm asking policy questions, not that that's why hold on. >> that's why i answered on the policy grounds without speaking to the legal case. >> thank you. >> [indiscernible]

>> i was going to say. we had not gotten a question about that yet. >> although there was some issue with china and the u.s.. but i was just gonna ask the statement from the organization [indiscernible] they're basically criticizing the killing saying that it wasn't supportive of the region. do you have any read about what came out of the meeting? >> i don't want to speak to the meeting in specific other than to say, look, as we have made clear, we were not involved in his death. we were not aware of his death before it happened. and our focus now is going to continue to be to try to convince all parties in the region from taking further steps to escalate the conflict. and it's certainly our hope that at that meeting yesterday, our partners in the region did make clear to iran what we know they believe and what they've told us they believe, which is further escalation only damages

the region and raises the risk of the conflict spiraling out of control. >> coming back to -- just a follow up the question, if the state department sued, you won't comment? >> when the state department is sued the same way any agency of the federal government is sued. they are represented in court by the justice department and we defer to the justice department to speak to matters of litigation. i will still speak to the policy questions which i did, but when it comes to litigation itself, i have to defer to the justice department. >> it's a lawsuit against this department. >> i'm going to let our attorneys speak for us, which is always good advice. >> just to follow up on on on the hostage talks cease fire talks, there's some reporting from the national in the region that after the new head of hamas was appointed, they sent a message through the egyptian mediators of his kind of position on the talks. saying he's got his firm

position that there should be a full israeli withdrawal from gaza and he wants the release of high profile detainees, he's against the deployment of a multinational force. those are some of the things the u.s. has been a supportive. -- has been in support of. it seems to suggest that he's going to have a stronger or you know, potentially there could be an even even more difficult approach by hamas to the negotiations. have you been sort of informed by the egyptians of a message coming to the negotiating team there about any new position or new approach? >> look, i'm not going to negotiate in public at all, but i will say one thing that was true before the death and remains true today is that sinwar was ultimately the decider when it comes to questions on these talks. whether he is sending messages directly or sending messages through intermediaries, he has always been the person who would decide whether hamas agreed to a

cease fire or not and under what conditions they would agree to a cease-fire. so we don't believe that that has changed. >> in vienna, the taylor swift concert in vienna, did the state department have visibility in advance of that plot so it might -- in advance of that plot? >> we are in touch with the austrian government about this. they've said it's an ongoing investigation, so i will leave it to them to speak to the details of that investigation. obviously, the safety and security of americans overseas is our number one priority. we have been in contact with the austrian government about this matter. as a general case, we do share information with our allies and partners about terrorism activities just as they share information with us, that's not to speak to this specific case, but just as a general practice that we always try to work with our allies and partners about information that we may have that's of concern or that they

may have that's concern to us and we will continue to do that. >> they reported the plot was disrupted on the basis of u.s. intelligence that was conveyed to the austrian authorities. i'm just curious whether the department was also apprised of that kind of intelligence given so many us citizens might have been put at risk. >> i certainly wouldn't want to speak to or confirm any kind of intelligence information we have been -- and when i say we, the broader united states government has been in touch with the austrian government. the state department has been in touch with the austrian government. i think it's important to say one other thing about this, which is we do commend the very swift action that they took to disrupt what could have quite obviously been a very serious incident. >> ahead of the tragic attacks at crocus hall in russia, the state department did issue a security alert to us citizens to avoid large gatherings for 48 hours. i guess it's contingent on the question you haven't answered, which is whether you knew that this was a possibility.

why a similar advisory would not have been made in this case? >> i can't really speak to that without getting into the underlying details which i very much can't do. do. i will say we take very seriously the duty to warn american citizens about threats to their safety and security overseas. when we have information that we need to get in their hands, we get in their hands as soon as possible. there are times when intervening events that take place that make it unnecessary to send that information publicly. when we need to, we very much do. >> are there any specific resources at this stage being offered to americans who are still in vienna who are concerned they might be at risk? as the department coordinating any resources? offering any messaging? >> we would encourage all travelers to -- we encourage all

travelers anywhere in the world to enroll in our step program. if we do have relevant information to them and their particular safety situation, get it to them as soon as possible. would encourage travelers to austria to do that. . we want to be very clear. austria remains a level 1 country. it is a country we deem to be safe to travel to. obviously there are risks traveling there just as there are risks traveling around america and being anywhere. it is a country that is safe to travel to. we work closely with austrian law enforcement authorities. they did an incredible job in disrupting this plot and that ought to be remembered. >> next week we are coming up -- >> whenever i hear a tangent. i wonder how big the tangent is going to be. i have gotten some big ones. >> you can disagree with me. we are coming up next week on the anniversary of -- being

taken in syria. i wonder if the prisoner swap last week with russia created any movement or potential movement on his case. >> i never want to speak to the details of underlying cases from the podium just because they are all incredibly sensitive. we work to bring detainees home. we have been working for years of course to try to bring austin tice home. i cannot speak to any underlying details. > this might not be on the top of your radar. there are these two college students from texas who were in mexico last week on thursday. they are both back in the u.s. now but their doctor is treating them in dallas and thinks they were poisoned by synthetic fentanyl while in mexico at a hotel where they were saying. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, just tell me. i have managed to get a statement from you guys telling

us the state is aware that is the case. they are back here in the u.s. receiving treatment. i know the embassy helped them sort of escape the mexican hospital that was trying to extort them. do you have any updates on that or any cautionary words for americans traveling to cancun or cautionary words on synthetic fentanyl? >> i do apologize. i have seen limited information about the case. i am reluctant to speak about it for fear of misspeaking. i will take it back and see if we can get you any more information. with respect to mexico, the same thing applies to mexico as applies to every country in the world which is we ask travelers before they travel anywhere to check the state department website and look at the travel advisories for where they are intending to travel which can be broad and sometimes are specific to specific regions of the country. yes to enroll in our step program so they get real-time

information when there are relevant updates we can push out to them. the risk of fentanyl is something that is a broad risk to americans here. it is a risk to americans when they are traveling overseas and something we continue to spend great resources trying to fight. >> you said the message to iran to de-escalate with hezbollah, to de-escalate or reliant on iran. > we don't communicate directly with hezbollah. but we have sent messages to everyone in the region. of course there are partners in the region that do talk to hezbollah that we talk to. we have encouraged in all of article medic engagements with our partners either region for them to do anything they can to bring down tensions. that includes sending the escalatory messages to anyone who might be thinking of escalating this conflict.

>> relations with ukraine. i wonder what you think of that and whether you think there is a trend of countries in that region turning more toward russia. >> obviously we have seen russian involvement in various countries in that region. when it comes to relationships with ukraine, i spoke earlier in the briefing -- not with respect ukraine but in general. we always believe diplomatic relations are important it is good for countries to talk to each other and have the ability to resolve disputes and resolve issues. that is why diplomacy is important. we encourage countries to continue to talk to each other. when it comes to russia's presence in africa, we have seen a destabilizing prescience -- destabilizing presence by russia. . we have seen a destabilizing presence by the wagner group. what we have noted is every time wagner comes in come every time russia comes in to west africa

as is true around the world, we see them so chaos and instability in their wake. >> the russian foreign ministry spokesperson accuses ukraine of opening a new front against russia in africa. >> i don't have any assessment on the. -- on that. >> angola under the leadership of the president fully mediate the cease-fire between the democratic republic of congo and rwanda. yesterday secretary blinken praised secretary lorenzo for his leadership role. he also expressed the u.s. support to angola. can you give us more insights on the u.s. view of the angolan government's mediation work to achieve the cease-fire? >> secretary blinken had a chance to speak directly to president lorenzo yesterday to thank him for the role angola played in helping mediate this

conflict and reach a cease-fire in the eastern democratic republic of congo. this was a follow-up to previous conversations that terry had with president lanza. he traveled to angola in january and met with the president and talked with him about the important role angola was playing in trying to mediate the conflict. thanked him of them for the -- thank him then for the work they were doing. encouraged angola to continue to play that role. when he called him yesterday, part of the purpose of that call was to think the president for his engagement which has borne fruit and encouraged him to continue to stay engaged. >> how do that united states intend to continue to work with angola so that cease-fire can reach its full potential which is to bring peace in that region? >> we are going to continue to consult with the president and other leaders in the angolan government. it is something we know the president has spent a good deal of personal time working on.

trying to get the cease-fire over the line. we will encourage them to continue to stay engaged. >> is there any u.s. strategy to help so the cease-fire can last? >> ultimately, it is the parties that need to commit to ensuring the cease-fire last. we will continue to engage with our partners either region to impress upon the parties it is in the interest of everyone in the region the cease-fire holds and turns into a permanent end to the war. >> officials are tightlipped. what is your assessment? also perhaps a reaction to how the russian propaganda machine -- >> when it comes to your reference to the ukrainian government being tightlipped

about their operation, you can understand the ukrainian government is not speaking it and i'm not going to speech operations they are conducting. we strongly support ukraine's effort to defend against russia's aggression. that continues to be the case. nothing is changed from the comments i made yesterday. >> intelligence suggests russia has been using nuclear power plant to keep iranians. does this raise concern? >> i'm not going to speak to ukrainian intelligence. certainly we have seen russia launching attacks from the region just across the border where ukraine is currently operating. >> do you have more on russia? [indiscernible] a reaction to what this means to liens of russians. >> it is something we have seen russia take for some time and undertake in some fashion after

the full skill invasion of ukraine in february 2022. what they have done is try to consistently crackdown on the ability of russian citizens to access information about what their government is doing. we continue to to condemn these crackdowns. we continue to urge the equipment to stop blocking access to -- we you to urge the kremlin to stop blocking access to information. when you are cracking down on your own citizenry's ability to access information about those operation. >> one more comment if you don't might. -- if you don't mind. the u.s. is promoting a destructive agenda with the goal of dividing the region. >> when you refer to that quote

is coming from my colleague come i thought you were starting with someone from the state department. very much you were not. so we often hear these quotes from the russian government. i wonder who they are talking about. the quotes you hear from them describe russia's own destabilizing activities in the region. i would remind the entire world it is russia that has invaded its neighbors. that has occupied its neighbors territory and continues to conduct war against its neighbors. >> following up on the region offensive. can you give us an example of a russian attack launched? > i am not going to speak to those from here. speaking to that region, we have seen russia launch attacks from the region. >> from the border? >> it is something we do. we never speak to specific strikes. i'm not going to speak to any specific town. in the region where ukraine is

operating, we have seen russia launch attacks from there. >> you said u.s. policy has not changed. earlier when the policy was actually announced, to a lot of people it sounded more limited. it has been described by the pentagon as the ability to fire back when fired upon. in this case, whether it is right or wrong, russia has invaded ukraine and crossed its borders. the policy was the u.s. weapons were not to be used across the border. that policy was relaxed with the caveat this is for firing back when fired upon. has ukraine been fired upon from this area that has caused them -- > i will not speak to why they launched the offensive. that is for the ukrainian government to speak to when it comes to their decision-making around this offensive. the policy that we announced was to allow ukraine to respond to attacks coming from just over the russian border. in the area where they are currently operating across the

russian border we have seen attacks come from there. >> the wall street journal is reporting the u.s. has warned iran its government and economy would suffer a devastating blow in case it retaliates against israel. i was wondering if this is necessary to go that far to hurt the economy which typically and naturally affects the people to deter iran. >> i am not going to speak to messages israel just as messages real or imagined. we have the ability to deliver messages when it is in our interest but we typically don't speak to those messages in public and often times we see messages not described accurately. . of course escalation is a conflict. has the ability to hurt iran's economy it has the ability to hurt the economy of every

country in the region. or has the potential impact of hurting economies. something i said yesterday is every problem the region currently faces is made worse by further escalation and that certainly includes economic impacts. >> are member asking the same question. -- i remember asking the same question. why are you not willing to speak to the syrian government? the country that you still recognize. they claim they don't know anything about him. i assume if you work with them -- >> i will say we are taking every step we believe is productive to try to secure his return. we don't speak to all the steps publicly. we don't speak to most of those steps publicly everything we

believe can be productive in securing the release of any wrongfully detained american we try to take. >> sworn in as the interim leader as bangladesh. has there been any medication with him? >> there has been given a case in with the interim government. attended his swearing in today. she did attend. he was only sworn in to the government an hour ago. >> what was the nature of the committee case and? was it in terms of the path forward in bangladesh? >> on the going to speak to private the medic conversations. were the things we have made clear is we want to see the interim government chart i democratic future for the people

of bangladesh. -- chart a dip the medic future for the people of bangladesh. >> it is anniversary tomorrow of the atomic bomb in nagasaki. ambassador emmanuelle as well as the british ambassador and the european ambassadors are not going to attend because the israeli ambassador was not invited. nagasaki mayor says this is logistical. why is it so important the israeli ambassador is present? > we thought important the israeli ambassador is invited. no country should have been cycled out to not be invited. that is why the ambassador took the step you did. i presume why the ambassadors of other countries took the steps they did in deciding not to attend. >> in terms of to play devils advocate -- u.s. dropped the bomb on an august hockey -- the bomb on an august hockey. he was there at hiroshima. >> he was there.

multiple different presidents of the united states have spoken to this and attended events commemorating that solemn event i think our position on it and our respect for japan when it comes to this anniversary is well documented and goes far beyond the ambassador not attending one event. >> a different topic in asia. the move forward already being banned. our goodly the most popular politician in thailand been banned from politics. i terms of the future relationship, how do you assess the relationship going forward? will this have an impact on cooperation? >> i don't want to especially about the impact. we do have a close relationship with him. we are able to cooperate with him in a number of areas. we were concerned about that step. it was a step that hurts democracy. we will continue to make that concern clear both publicly and

privately to the government of thailand. >> sudan? >> one of the parties has agreed to attend. the sas has not agreed to attend. the secretary spoke to the general and stressed the importance of attending the talks and reaching the cease-fire. as well as the importance of not hindering access to humanitarian assistance the sudanese people need. we will continue to impress on all the parties there can be no military victory through this war. every day goes on. it is further tragedy for the sudanese people. we hope the saf will decide to attend the talks in geneva next week. go ahead. >> yesterday was the call between secretary-general and secretary of state about the readiness to assist in the process. can you give us a little more details on what that will look like in terms of assistance from

the united states? we understand the secretary will have to get a letter. but how that engaged. >> i cannot speak to any detail beyond what we said in the readout other than to say the secretary engaged with the sick terry general in the same way we have been engaging with partners in the region about the fact that we are ready to support an inclusive venezuelan led process to reestablish democratic norms. we are going to continue to coordinate with international partners about the best way to do that understanding and needs to be a venezuelan led process. >> yesterday the organization that protects journalists was in venezuela. several journalists have been detained. they are concerned about not we their persecution but according to that, they are prevented from getting private counsel. the government is the prosecutor

at the same time as who is providing them their lawyers. they are allowed to get private counsel. is that a concern that this is another tactic by the government of maduro to intimidate the freedom of the press and reduce the excess of journalists? >> certainly we have been concerned about the government's crackdown on fruit of information, freedom of press and freedom of assembly. we have seen them taking increasingly repressive steps in the over a week now since the election. we would encourage them to reverse the steps. it is not a sign of confidence in their belief in the nobility of their actions. we are going to continue to support the venezuelan people in making sure their votes are fairly counted. >> the last question. the u.s. had conversations before the elections. environment venezuela has

released some of the information that was talked in private. is this a possibility to retake those conversations that were ongoing? is that something that is being paused? >> i don't want to speak to those conversations other than we are talking to partners under the region and some partners around the world about the best way to establish democratic transition in venezuela. let me do more and then i have to wrap for the day. >> a good day for bangladesh. just took his office as chief advisor in the bangladesh government. are you congratulating from the state department our president to the new government? >> as i said, our -- attend of the president today. we welcome his call for an end to the recent violence and stand ready to work. with the government. -- ready to work with the government. >> tactical advisory --

[indiscernible] attempt to instill fear in journalist along with the recent gang violence in colombo. are you concerned? >> let me take that question and get back to you. thanks, everyone.