‘Never give up’: Biden says Israel, Hamas ‘on the brink’ of hostage-ceasefire deal
In final foreign policy address, US president says Iran ‘weaker than it has been in decades’, touts his rebuilding of international alliances in four years since Trump’s first term
US President Joe Biden said long festering negotiations to secure freedom for nearly 100 hostages in Gaza and end fighting there after some 15 months were “finally coming to fruition” on Monday, as he prepared to end his time in office after making the war and hostage crisis one of his main foreign policy focuses.
With negotiators and officials in Qatar indicating that a deal could be inked within days, Biden told a State Department audience that “we’re on the brink” of an agreement along the lines of a US-Israeli proposal he had laid out publicly in May.
“I have learned from my many years of public service to never, never, never, ever give up,” he said during the capstone foreign policy address in Foggy Bottom.
“The deal we have structured would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started,” Biden said.
An official briefed on the talks, who did not want to be otherwise identified, said Qatar had presented the text for a ceasefire and release of hostages to both sides at talks in Doha, which included the chiefs of Israel’s Mossad and Shin Bet spy agencies and Qatar’s prime minister.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have been the key mediators since talks began in the first weeks following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, during which 251 people were abducted to Gaza. According to Israel, 94 of them remain in captivity, though, around half are no longer believed to be alive.
Another round of talks is planned in Doha on Tuesday morning to finalize remaining details, with Biden’s envoy Brett McGurk expected to attend alongside Steve Witkoff, who will serve as Trump’s Middle East envoy once the president-elect takes office on January 20, a date which has become a de facto deadline for the talks. The two attended talks overnight Sunday that saw the sides initially reach a breakthrough, the official said.
An Israeli official said negotiations were in advanced stages for the release of up to 33 hostages in the first phase of a deal. The Hamas delegation in Doha issued a statement after a meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani saying talks were progressing well.
Biden said he held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the issue Sunday and spoke with the emir of Qatar Monday. He was expected to hold a call with Egypt’s president — highlighting top-level engagement often indicative of negotiations reaching their climax.
Many parts of the prospective deal remained unclear on Monday, including the scope and timing of Israel’s military redeployment and withdrawal from Gaza. Biden’s description of a “halt” in fighting broke from previous statements on a deal that includes a ceasefire, though it was unclear if the word choice held any actual significance. Israel has in the past demanded that a deal include only a break in fighting and not an open-ended ceasefire.
The US president noted that Palestinians in Gaza have “been through hell — so many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed.”
“The Palestinian people deserve peace and the right to determine their own futures. Israel deserves peace and real security, and the hostages and their families deserve to be reunited. So we’re working urgently to close this deal,” he said.
While calling for peace and Palestinian self-determination, he notably also left out reference to a two-state solution.
The administration has consistently backed that framework but deprioritized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the onset, deeming conditions not yet ripe for another high-stakes peace initiative. Instead, Biden for much of his term pressed for more incremental moves aimed at boosting prospects for an eventual two-state deal. After Hamas’s October 7 attack, though, the realization that the conflict could not continue to be managed began to sink in and Biden officials increasingly spoke with more urgency about the need to pursue a two-state solution once the war in Gaza ends.
Biden’s remarks did not include mention of a US plan for the post-war management of Gaza, one of the stickiest issues remaining, but which will likely only be addressed in the second and third phases of the deal.
The Gaza war also led to the distancing of an Israel-Saudi normalization agreement, which the Biden administration had worked on intensely and insisted was within reach. Instead, Saudi Arabia raised its demand from Israel for a timebound commitment to a two-state solution — something Netanyahu has insisted he will not accept.
The potential deal didn’t get a direct mention in Biden’s speech, with the president sufficing with a vague reference to it when he urges the incoming administration to “capitalize on a new moment for a more stable and integrated Middle East.”
‘Iran’s air defenses are in shambles’
“Did you ever think we’d be where we are with Iran?” Biden asked rhetorically during the address, recalling the “despicable” October 7 attack by Iran-backed Hamas and Tehran’s subsequent missile attacks on Israel in April and October 2024.
“Twice they failed because the United States organized a coalition of countries to stop them and I ordered US aircraft to come to the defense of Israel.”
“Now, Iran’s air defenses are in shambles,” Biden declared, pointing to its “badly wounded” Hezbollah proxy and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria.
While Iran has moved closer than ever to acquiring a nuclear weapon during his tenure, Biden claimed his administration kept up the pressure on the Islamic Republic through sanctions that have left Tehran’s economy in “desperate straits.”
Biden entered office pledging to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump. But that effort never got off the ground amid what Washington said was Iran’s intransigence.
“All told, Iran is weaker than it has been in decades,” Biden asserted, while urging the incoming Trump administration to “carry forward the commitment that America will never, never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
“I cannot claim credit for every factor that led to Iran and Russia growing weaker in the past four years. They did plenty of damage all by themselves, and Israel did plenty of damage to Iran and its proxies, but there’s no question that our actions contributed significantly,” Biden said.
Biden also touted the coalition he put together to protect civilian ships in the Red Sea from Houthi attacks and urged the incoming administration to “keep the pressure” on the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels.
“Today I can report to the American people that our adversaries are weaker than they were when we came into this job four years ago,” he said, crediting his efforts to restore alliances.
The outgoing US president also took aim at Russia and urged the West to maintain support for Ukraine in the address.
But his unspoken target was Trump as he touted his rebuilding of international alliances over the last four years after his Republican rival’s chaotic first term.
“The United States is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago,” said Biden, after diplomats at the State Department gave him a standing ovation.
“America is stronger. Our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are weaker.”
The Democrat added said US partners in the NATO military alliance were now “paying their fair share.”
Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO countries, at one point saying he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell it wants” to allies that did not pay their way.
The incoming president has also previously expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin — but Biden mocked Putin over the progress of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“When Putin invaded, he thought he’d conquer Kyiv in a matter of days. The truth is, since that war began I’m the only one that stood in the center of Kyiv, not him,” said Biden.
Biden became the first sitting US president to visit a warzone not controlled by American forces when he made a top-secret visit to Ukraine’s capital in 2023.
He said the United States and its allies “can’t walk away” from Ukraine, to which Washington has sent billions of dollars in military aid since the war started in 2022.
“There is more to do,” said Biden.
Trump has vowed to get a Russia-Ukraine peace deal “in 24 hours” and there are fears in Kyiv he may force a ceasefire that sees Ukraine cede territory to Moscow.
Biden meanwhile insisted that China would “never surpass us” and that the United States would remain the world’s dominant superpower.
“According to the latest predictions, on China’s current course they will never surpass us — period,” Biden said.
He added that Washington managed its complex ties with Beijing and that the relationship “never tipped over into conflict” in his four years as president.
The 82-year-old president finally urged the Trump administration to continue Biden’s green energy policies, saying climate deniers under Trump were “dead wrong” and “come from a different century.”
Biden’s foreign policy speech will be followed by a farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office in primetime on Wednesday.
