White House’s Sullivan says he will discuss war ‘timetable’ with Netanyahu in Israel

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan says he will speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about timetables for ending major combat in Gaza when he visits Israel later this week.

Sullivan says he will be carrying US President Joe Biden’s thoughts on the matter and will also be looking to hear from Netanyahu and Israeli officials on the issue.

“The subject of how they are seeing the timetable of this war will certainly be on the agenda for my meetings,” Sullivan says during an appearance at a forum hosted by The Wall Street Journal.

Sullivan suggests that at some point Israeli forces will shift toward more focused operations to achieve their objectives.

“It doesn’t have to be that you go from that to literally nothing in terms of putting pressure on going after Hamas targets, Hamas leadership, or continuing to have tools in your toolbox to try to secure the release of hostages,” he says. “It just means that you move to a different phase from the kind of high-intensity operations that we see today.”

Sullivan says he will also speak to Netanyahu about his recent comments that the IDF will maintain open-ended security control of Gaza after the war ends.

“I will have the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu about what exactly he has in mind with that comment, because that can be interpreted in a number of different ways,” Sullivan says. “But the US position on this is clear.”