Biden says deal only reached due to military pressure on Hamas, Iran proxies

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

US President Joe Biden speaks about the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal in North Charleston, South Carolina, on January 19, 2025.(Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)
US President Joe Biden speaks about the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal in North Charleston, South Carolina, on January 19, 2025.(Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

US President Joe Biden maintains that the deal was finally reached because of the US-backed Israeli military pressure on Hamas and Iran’s other proxies.

In his first remarks following the implementation of the deal’s first three hostage releases, the president addresses what he says was the criticism of his diplomatic approach from those who believed that it would lead to a wider regional war.

He says he heard his critics out but ultimately concluded that abandoning the course he was on — that saw largely backing the Israeli government — would not have led to a ceasefire and would have also resulted in the regional war that he says his critics feared.

Standing by his strategy, Biden says the Middle East is “fundamentally transformed” as a result, with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar now dead, the terror group severely weakened and its sponsors similarly decimated, including Iran and Hezbollah.

Biden asserts that while the US pursued diplomatic solutions, it also provided significant military support to Israel, which allowed the IDF to decapitate Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities.

“Israel’s campaign was so successful that Hezbollah did what it said what it would never do, and abandoned Hamas” by agreeing to a ceasefire with Israel in late November before one was reached in Gaza.

Lebanon is now ruled by a new prime minister and a president who support maintaining the country’s sovereignty, free from Hezbollah control, Biden says.

He reiterates that Iran is at its weakest state in decades and that the US helped Israel twice thwart missile attacks from Tehran over the past year.

Biden claims that the Palestinians now have a “credible path” to statehood, suggesting that this is the result of today’s ceasefire.

Still, Biden says a future in the Mideast where Israel is more integrated with its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, is now possible as a result of today’s hostage deal.

The outgoing president thanks his senior aide Brett McGurk for leading the hostage talks on behalf of the US.

“Now it falls on the next administration to implement this deal,” Biden says, noting that he was pleased that his team and Trump’s team “spoke as one” in the talks’ final days.

The deal was the result of Washington’s persistence, the support of its allies and “diplomacy backed by deterrence,” Biden says, urging Trump to take the same approach.

“The pursuit of lasting peace must always be our calling,” Biden says.

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