U.S. prepares response to Jordan attack as Qatar pushes for Israel-Hamas ceasefire

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• Geoff Bennett:

  The U.S. has moved closer tonight to retaliating for a drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan. President Biden said today he has decided how to respond. As he left the White House this morning, he said Iran shares the blame because U.S. officials believe an Iran-backed militia launched the attack. But he stopped short of saying that Tehran is now a target.

  Joe Biden , President of the United States: I do hold them responsible in the sense that they're supplying the weapons to the people who did it. I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That's not what I'm looking for.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Later, the Iraqi militia blamed for the attack announced its suspending strikes against U.S. forces in the region. The Pentagon responded, saying — quote — "Actions speak louder than words."

  Meantime, in the occupied West Bank surveillance video showed Israeli commandos inside a hospital in the city of Jenin disguised as civilian women and medics. Three Palestinian militants were killed. And in Southern Gaza, fighting raged again around Khan Yunis, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any military withdrawal.

• Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (through interpreter):

  I hear sayings about all sorts of deals, so I want to make it clear. We will not end this war without achieving all of our goals. We will not pull out the IDF from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists.

• Geoff Bennett:

  For his part, the leader of Hamas said he will meet with mediators in Cairo to review the latest cease-fire proposal.

  We're joined now by our own Nick Schifrin.

  So, Nick, let's start with the attack that killed those three U.S. soldiers in Jordan. What more do we know about how the administration is planning to respond?

• Nick Schifrin:

  Administration officials say that the challenge is to re-establish deterrence against these Iranian-backed groups without going to war with Iran itself.

  So what could that look like? And what I'm about to describe are kind of the broad categories of targets. A group of categories, number one — a group of targets, number one, is Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria. So, these are Iraqis and Syrians who fight for these groups whose weapons, intelligence, and financing often comes from Iran.

  The second category is Iranian assets in Iraq and Syria. Now, what's the difference? There are Iranians from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, that run centers in these places, that run weapons sites in these places. And these are obviously Iranians running these places. Some of them are in Damascus and Baghdad in the capitals where these commanders fly into, but there are also more rural targets, I'm told, as well.

  And then the third category would be Iran itself. We're talking about everything from the IRGC headquarters in downtown Tehran to Iranian naval ships, including a ship that a former military official tells me is helping the Houthis in Yemen. So, again, those are the broad categories. We don't know, of course, know what the final target's going to be.

  But, today, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the response would be tiered, multiple actions over a period of time. And that suggests more than one round. They are also looking at that statement that you mentioned, Geoff, maybe Kataib Hezbollah, the most likely group that targeted the troops in Jordan this weekend, saying that, look, we're not going to fire on U.S. troops.

  This is a sign, some regional officials believe, that Iran doesn't want to escalate. But a senior administration official tells me they're monitoring that statement, but they don't take it as face value. And, as you said, the Pentagon say, actions speak louder than words.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Well, as we mentioned, Hamas announced it will go to Cairo to engage in those hostage talks.

  What does that signal, that they're taking this seriously?

• Nick Schifrin:

  The mediators certainly hope and believe that this means Hamas is taking it seriously. And these details that we have on the hostage talks now have been provided to me by an official briefed on the talks. This is how they would unveil.

  The hostage releases would occur over three phases. Older women and children would be the first phase. Men and younger women would be the second phase. And soldiers and dead bodies would be the third phase. The first phase would last six weeks. What does that mean? The war would actually stop for six weeks, with assurances that the pause in the fighting would carry on to phases two and three.

  Now, despite what you just read, Geoff, about what Netanyahu said, Israel has agreed to this framework on paper. And that's why the ball is in Hamas' court right now. That meeting is absolutely key and will decide whether this deal goes forward. And it's all being mediated by Qatar, as we have talked about.

  And just a short time ago, I spoke with Dr. Majed Al-Ansari the spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs in Qatar. And I began by asking him how significant it was that these principles were now in place.

• MAJED BIN MOHAMMED AL-ANSARI, Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesman:

  I can tell you that we are at a good moment now. It's been — we are at a point where a lot of things that have eluded us for a couple of months now we are at.

  We are seeing a draft being circulated, as you saw today, Hamas announcing that they have received the draft and are discussing it. And that is a point that we were very far from a couple of weeks back. Now we have a general understanding of what the next phase of the pause will be and how that will play out.

  And I would say that this is very significant, because, as long as the process is ongoing like this, as long as we're having ideas going back and forth, we can be sure that at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel where we can get to a sustainable pause at the end.

• Nick Schifrin:

  As you said, Ismail Haniyeh today said he was going to review the draft, and he's flying to Cairo, presumably to discuss with Hamas' military commanders about the draft.

  But Haniyeh and Hamas in general have reiterated the same point, that they want a permanent cease-fire as part of this deal and that, until that is in the deal, they will reject it. This deal does not have the words permanent cease-fire. So how do you get over or how do you convince them to go over that concern that they have had?

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  You know Nick, we have been mediating between the two sides since 2006, when the United States asked us to open this channel of communication.

  And we have grown to understand the patterns of the negotiations that go through. Obviously, on both sides, you will hear a lot of statements. You will hear grand positions over a lot of issues. The important thing is, is that the mediation in its entirety has always been key to the process itself.

  So we are listening to what we are getting from both sides. We believe that the language we have right now builds upon the proposals that came from both sides during the past couple of months.

• Nick Schifrin:

  But is Hamas still insisting that the drafts have a permanent cease-fire?

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  Usually, what happens is that you get a "yes, but" from both sides.

  So, it depends on the sides of that ask that is going to come back. But I'm quite sure that we are on the right track.

• Nick Schifrin:

  We heard from the other side, so to speak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterating Israel's goals of — quote — "eliminating Hamas" and releasing the hostages.

  And as we heard earlier, he said the Israeli military will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip. That's what he said today. Does that prevent this deal from happening?

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  I think it's very important not to take everything said in front of cameras at face value. I know we're speaking in front of cameras here.

  (Laughter)

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  But there's a lot of propaganda. There's also the politicization of this and trying to adhere to one's voter base, rather than the reality of the situation.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Let me zoom out and look at some regional issues. President Biden said today he has decided how to respond to this attack that we saw over the weekend in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members.

  Yesterday, the prime minister, speaking here in Washington, he urged de-escalation. What is your message to the Biden administration today as they are about to launch this strike?

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  I can tell you that this attack came as — and we all understand how dangerous it is and how problematic it is.

  And we — as you know, we are members in the coalition against ISIS, and, therefore, our military personnel are in the same operations as U.S….

  (Crosstalk)

• Nick Schifrin:

  Because these U.S. soldiers who were in Jordan are actually counter-ISIS mission. That's what they're doing.

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  Exactly.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Right.

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  And, therefore, we can't take this lightly, obviously, but we have to understand also the bigger picture here.

  All of this is a byproduct of what is happening right now in Gaza, this region, the Middle East. We — it's a cliche to say that the Middle East is the capital of all crises in the world, but right now we are at a situation where the people of the region can't take any more refugee crisis, can't take any more security challenges, can't take any more wars.

  What's happening in the region right now is that you have a failure of the central state. And it's very important for us to make sure that we de-escalate. Any escalation right now in the region could result in open war. We are — we fully understand, of course, that the United States has to reestablish the deterrence in the region.

  But we also are talking to our partners in the administration, our partners around the world the need to — for any response to be measured and for us to be able to talk about this and to get the messages across on all sides.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Many U.S. officials don't believe that this is actually about Gaza. This is about Iran, Iran pushing these or supplying the information, the intelligence, the weaponry to these Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq and Syria and the Houthis in Yemen to be able to launch these attacks.

  Iran has been helping these groups. The U.S. is about to hit these groups and perhaps Iran itself. What is the off-ramp, in Qatar's view, for what we're about to see, increasing escalation?

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  Well, the important thing here is for a measure of response and not to antagonize the — all the sides in the region for open war.

  While I fully understand that there is a lot of emotion also linked to this, we have to understand that, when this crisis started in Gaza, this is when this escalation started. And unless we diffuse the original crisis here, unless we diffuse the war on Gaza, a lot of escalations will utilize that in the region, a lot of proxies will utilize that in the region to conduct such attacks.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Finally, sir, I will ask you about comments by Benjamin Netanyahu recently.

  This was leaked audio to a group of family members of hostages being held in Gaza. He said — quote — "You don't hear me thanking Qatar. They have leverage because they finance Hamas."

  I have asked you a version of this question before, but there are critics of yours who say you are both arsonist and firefighter; you are coming in to try and mediate today, but you are the arsonist, in the sense that you're supporting Hamas. What's your response to that?

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  If you are going to accuse Qatar of supporting Hamas with the funding that was done through aid, then the same accusation would go to Israel itself, because all the funding that went into aid into Gaza was done in complete coordination with Israel.

  The money went through Israeli banks to make sure that we have enough calm in Gaza that we can work on mediation. And this is what we have been doing since 2006. But I can tell you that, sadly, when we hear these words coming from Prime Minister Netanyahu, the only thing we can see there is the politicization of this crisis.

  He has made such statements about Qatar on the eve of — and he doubled down on these statements on the eve of the meeting in Paris, when he is sending his chief of intelligence to meet with Qatar in the mediation.

  And while he is engaged in that mediation, if he is sincere about what he is saying in Qatar, can he answer the question of why he worked with Qatar on the funding of the aid programs in Gaza, why he is working now in the mediation, and why, even on the 28th of September of last year, so just a week before the 7th of October, his government was engaged in mediation that Qatar was doing between Hamas and Israel?

  It is totally unacceptable, but, sadly, we have grown accustomed to it.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Dr. Majed, thank you very much.

• Majed Bin Mohammed Al Ansari:

  Thank you for having me.