Secretary of State Antony Blinken‘s final press conference turned chaotic as two journalists were removed after they accused Blinked of allowing ‘genocide’ in Gaza. “Why did you keep your bombs flowing while you had a deal in May? We all knew we had a deal. Everyone in this room knows you had a deal. Why did you sacrifice the rules-based order on the mantle of your commitment to Zionism? Why did you allow my friends to be massacred?” Max Blumenthal of Grayzone News said as Blinke’s aides asked him to leave.
Saif Ali Khan Health Update
“Your father-in-law was an Israel lobbyist, your grandfather is an Israel lobbyist. Are you compromised by Israel? How does it feel to have your legacy as genocide,” the journalist asked as he was taken out.
Then Independent journalist Dam Husseini was dragged out of the press meet. “You pontificate about a free press!” he erupted. “I am asking questions after being told by [spokesman] Matt Miller that he will not answer my questions,” Husseini said. “Criminal! Why aren’t you in the Hague! Why aren’t you in the Hague! Why aren’t you in the Hague!” he shouted as Blinken continued his address.
At his farewell news conference, Blinklen said his regret is not being able to end the Sudan war and hoped that the incoming Trump administration would keep trying. “It is for me, yes, another real regret that when it comes to Sudan, we haven’t been able on our watch to get to that day of success,” Blinken said. There have been “some improvements in getting humanitarian assistance in through our diplomacy, but not an end to the conflict, not an end to the abuses, not an end to the suffering of people,” he said.
“We’ll keep working at it for the next three days, and I hope the next administration will take that on as well,” he said.
On Israel-Gaza ceasefire, he said he’s confident that the ceasefire would begin Sunday, though Isreal held off on a cabinet boted and accused Hamas of backtracking. “I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday,” Blinken said at a farewell news conference Thursday.
Blinken said that he and other officials of President Joe Biden’s administration, which ends Monday, were on the telephone to try to resolve issues in the ceasefire announced Wednesday through mediator Qatar.
“It’s not exactly surprising that in a process, in a negotiation, that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end. We’re tying up that loose end as we speak,” Blinken said.
