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Department Press Briefing – September 4, 2024 [ https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-september-4-2024/ ] 09/04/2024 06:17 PM EDT
Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson
Home [ https://www.state.gov ]Department Press Briefing – September 4, 2024 hide
Department Press Briefing – September 4, 2024
September 4, 2024
2:06 p.m. EDT
*MR MILLER:* Good afternoon, everyone, and sorry to be late. I’ll just start with a couple of announcements before we take questions.
The United States has long known that Moscow utilizes a vast collection of tools, including malign influence campaigns and cyber activities, to undermine the interests of the United States, our democratic institutions, and those of our allies.
We’ve seen them do that over many years both here and abroad.
And today, in concert with the Department of Justice and the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury, we are revealing the latest actions by the Kremlin to attempt to undermine our democratic institutions.
According to information made public today by the Department of Justice, we now know that RT, formerly known as Russia Today, has moved beyond being simply a media organization. We know that RT has contracted with a private company to pay unwitting Americans millions of dollars to carry the Kremlin’s message to influence the U.S. elections and undermine democracy. RT’s leadership has created and directed this enterprise.
Because of this development, the Department of State is taking three concrete actions today to protect the integrity of our democratic institutions.
First, we are announcing a new policy to restrict visa issuance to certain individuals who, acting on behalf of Kremlin-supported media organizations, use those organizations as cover for covert activities, and are responsible for or complicit in these malign efforts. Consistent with U.S. law, visa information is confidential, and the department is not at liberty to name these specific individuals.
Second, the department has designated the operational presence of Rossiya Segodnya and its subsidiaries – RIA Novosti, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik – as foreign missions, as they are effectively controlled by the Government of the Russian Federation. As Foreign Missions Act-designated entities, they will be required to notify the department of all personnel working in the United States and disclose all real property they hold.
Finally, the department is announcing a Rewards for Justice offer to seek information on potential foreign efforts to interfere in U.S. elections, including by organizations such as RaHDit – also known as Russian Angry Hackers Did It – which has previously engaged in covert election interference, influence abroad, and poses a threat to the 2024 U.S. elections.
These actions are in addition to law enforcement actions announced today by the Department of Justice and new sanctions imposed by the Department of Treasury.
As Secretary Blinken said in a statement released just moments ago, foreign governments should know that we will not tolerate foreign malign actors intentionally interfering and undermining free and fair elections. The United States will continue to both expose these state-sponsored actors who attempt to undermine our democratic institutions and hold them accountable for those actions.
Turning to travel, Secretary of State Blinken will travel to Haiti and the Dominican Republic tomorrow and Friday. In Haiti, the Secretary will meet with Transitional Presidential Council Coordinator Edgard Leblanc Fils and Prime Minister Garry Conille to discuss forthcoming steps in Haiti’s democratic transition and U.S. support to the Haitian people through humanitarian assistance and Haitian-led stabilization efforts.
He will also meet with the leadership of the Multinational Security Support mission, emphasizing U.S. support to reestablish security in Haiti, while also underscoring the significance of promoting respect for human rights.
From Haiti, Secretary Blinken will travel to the Dominican Republic to meet with President Luis Abinader. In Santo Domingo, the Secretary and President Abinader will reinforce our close and longstanding partnership, and discuss collaboration to advance inclusive economic growth, champion human rights, and promote good governance, security, and climate resilience in the region, including through the U.S.-Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis and Caribbean Basin Security Initiative.
With that, Matt.
*QUESTION:* Right. Let’s – I’ve got a bunch of different things, none of which will take a lot of time, I don’t think. But I’ll start with the Russia stuff. What was the name of this – Russian Angry Hackers Did It?
*MR MILLER:* Yeah, RaHDit, I believe is the acronym. It’s a group of hackers who have attempted to undermine democratic governance both here and abroad, and so we have a Rewards for Justice —
*QUESTION:* Well, they weren’t very tricky —
*MR MILLER:* — offer seeking more —
*QUESTION:* — about concealing their identity, were they?
*MR MILLER:* It’s not – it’s not the most covert name, correct. (Laughter.)
*QUESTION:* I mean, doesn’t that give you some pause? I mean, I’m not suggesting that the group doesn’t exist or that they stupidly —
*MR MILLER:* They —
*QUESTION:* — identified themselves —
*MR MILLER:* They very – they very much exist, but identified – the point of our – the Rewards for Justice offer is identifying the name of the group and identifying those individuals who are involved in it and actions they might take are a different thing. And so we are offering this reward for anyone who can bring forth information —
*QUESTION:* All right.
*MR MILLER:* — and I should make clear – either about their activities or the activities of other similarly situated organizations attempting to undermine our democratic institutions.
*QUESTION:* All right. Then – and then I realize that visa information is confidential, but I mean, can you give us some idea of how many people?
*MR MILLER:* I can’t —
*QUESTION:* Is this —
*MR MILLER:* — unfortunately. They are confidential and I can’t give you a number.
*QUESTION:* Right. Yeah. Well, what’s not confidential in the visa is the number of people —
*MR MILLER:* Number – and I don’t have a number to announce today.
*QUESTION:* Well, is it dozens? Is it a handful?
*MR MILLER:* I just – I —
*QUESTION:* Is it one? Is it more than one?
*MR MILLER:* I just don’t have a number to announce. But I would note – I do want to note with respect to the visa action that we have taken today, that it is one step the State Department has taken, but all of this should be looked at as one of a number of steps the Untied States Government has taken. So the visa actions are taken in concert with the sanctions imposed by Department of Treasury, and of course, the law enforcement —
*QUESTION:* Right.
*MR MILLER:* — announcement the Attorney General made just a half hour or so ago.
*QUESTION:* But in terms of the visa restrictions that you’ve announced, you do realize it’s really impossible for us to know what the scope and scale of this is if you can’t give us even a general idea of —
*MR MILLER:* I do, and unfortunately I’m just not able to, but they are carefully targeted to those individuals, as I said in my opening statement, who we believe are involved in this activity. And as we’ve made clear before —
*QUESTION:* Right, well is it more than one?
*MR MILLER:* — these are the types of things that we —
*QUESTION:* Is it plural?
*MR MILLER:* It is plural. And beyond that, I don’t have any further information.
*QUESTION:* Okay. If anyone else has something on this —
*MR MILLER:* Yeah, Simon.
*QUESTION:* Yeah, slightly separate issue, but the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, has said that she requested the expulsion of China’s consul general in New York and had spoken to the Secretary of State about that. Can you confirm that that’s happened?
*MR MILLER:* So I saw the governor’s statement. She actually spoke to the Deputy Secretary of State earlier today. The – so first of all, the consul general was not expelled. Our understanding is that the consul general reached the end of a regular, scheduled rotation in August, and so rotated out of the position – but was not expelled. But of course when it comes to the status of particular employees of a foreign mission, I would refer you to the foreign country, but there was – to speak to it, but there was no expulsion action.
*QUESTION:* Okay, and I – presuming this is related to someone in her office who was working for the Chinese Government, there’s been law enforcement action on that. But is that – you say he – the consul wasn’t expelled, but was there – is there a sort of grounds for expulsion or is that something that the department has considered?
*MR MILLER:* So, I’m not going to speak to anything that we might have considered or – especially when it comes to an action that wasn’t taken. In this case, this particular individual was not expelled, just reached the end of a regular, scheduled rotation. That said, foreign interference, including attempts to influence by – through covert activities that should be registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and are not registered – are things that we take very seriously, as you saw by the action the Department of Justice took yesterday.
*QUESTION:* Do you know when that happened, when he left?
*MR MILLER:* It was the end of August, is my understanding.
*QUESTION:* Okay, and is there a new consul general who’s – who you guys —
*MR MILLER:* I would defer – I would defer to the foreign mission to speak to their employees. I assume that there’s a new consul general rotating in. That’s the general course of action. But whether one has arrived already, I just don’t know.
*QUESTION:* Okay.
*QUESTION:* So, which deputy secretary did she speak to?
*MR MILLER:* To Kurt Campbell.
*QUESTION:* Because you know there’s more than one.
*MR MILLER:* I’m aware of that.
*QUESTION:* Okay.
*MR MILLER:* Janne.
*QUESTION:* Thank you. Thank you, Matt. The U.S. and South Korea extended deterrence strategy consultative group meeting was held at the State Department today. What specific discussions took place at —
*MR MILLER:* Let me take that back and get you a readout of that particular meeting.
*QUESTION:* Okay, and also U.S. extended deterrence for South Korea is very important, but 65 percent of South Koreans support South Korea arming itself with nuclear weapons to counter North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Will the United States authorize tactical nuclear weapons in the South Korea in the near future?
*MR MILLER:* So, I’m not going to speak to a poll, obviously, but our commitment to full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula has not changed.
*QUESTION:* Thank you.
*MR MILLER:* Yeah – Simon.
*QUESTION:* Can we come back to Haiti?
*MR MILLER:* Leon, excuse me.
*QUESTION:* So the Secretary is going tomorrow there. This – in in support for this multinational force, which is slow in being deployed – there’s, I think, 400 Kenyan police so far out of potentially 2,500 policemen from various countries. There’s also issues on the – financing the force and the equipment and what have you. There’s talk about changing the mandate of this force into a UN peacekeeping force, which is something that the U.S. and many other countries were always opposed to because of the UN side of it. Has that changed? Is the U.S .willing to change the mandate of this force?
*MR MILLER:* Let me take a couple of the premises of the question before I get to the question itself. So first of all, when it comes to the deployment of troops and the funding of the mission, we have always anticipated that the deployment of troops would roll out step by step, that there would be initial deployment of Kenyan forces that would be followed by supplementary forces over time – that is still on track – and then forces from other governments as well, which are still on track to deploy at a later date. That is – that has not changed, and those are all still deploying in the schedule that we expect them to follow.
When it comes to funding, so I’ll speak just on behalf of the United States funding. So we committed $309 million to support the Multinational Security Support mission – $200 million of that was in-kind support from the Department of Defense. That support has already been delivered. And then of the remaining 109 million, which is State Department funding for things like radios, night vision goggles, police gear, a very large tranche of that – tens of millions of dollars – has already been deployed, has arrived in Haiti – arrived in Haiti, and more will continue to deploy over the course of the coming weeks and months. So we are well on track with both the funding and the deployment of personnel.
When it comes to the mandate and the oversight structure, so we have always been willing to consider whatever options were appropriate to ensure that this mission had the appropriate oversight structure to ensure that it could fulfill and maintain security for the Haitian people. That hasn’t changed. We’ll always look at all the available options. But I don’t have any announcements to make today.
*QUESTION:* On Haiti?
*QUESTION:* Oh, I was going to switch regions.
*MR MILLER:* Yeah, go ahead, and then – yeah.
*QUESTION:* Sorry, Matt. Can you talk a little bit more about the timing of this trip? Is there a specific policy announcement or deliverable we should be looking for, or is it just that the security situation has gotten to a point where it’s finally feasible?
And second, Brian said this morning that significant progress has been made, and you want to acknowledge that. But can you talk a little bit about what progress hasn’t been made and what steps you need to see in Haiti before you think they can hold a successful election?
*MR MILLER:* So I would say that is one of the things we are going there to assess, one of the things the Secretary is going to do, which is to talk directly to political leaders in Haiti about the progress they have made towards a democratic transition and what other steps need to get to – get to an election; and what we, the United States, and what other partners in the region can do to support Haitian – Haiti and Haitians on this path; that he’s going to ask questions and find out those kind of answers.
When it comes to the timing of the mission, look, I would say you’ve already seen other officials from the State Department travel to Haiti. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield traveled there; it was either early in August or late in July. And so with the timing of this – of this trip, the Secretary just thought it was important to go check in both, as I said, on democratic progress and governance and also on the Multinational Security Support mission, and see how it’s actually working and what more we can do – both on the funding side and on the oversight side.
*QUESTION:* Thanks.
*QUESTION:* Can I go?
*MR MILLER:* Go ahead.
*QUESTION:* Can I switch to the Middle East?
*MR MILLER:* Yeah, you can switch.
*QUESTION:* Netanyahu again doubled down today, saying they would not leave the Philadelphi Corridor. How do you expect to bridge the gap on this, given his continued insistence that Israeli forces are staying there?
*MR MILLER:* So, what I’m not going to do is negotiate in public on this question. I will just reiterate what we have said before, which is the Government of Israel, from the prime minister on down, have accepted the proposal put forward by the President and the bridging proposal, which included the withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas throughout Gaza – the Gaza Strip. And what we are working on every hour of the day is trying to figure out how we can bridge these remaining divides, and find a way to get a ceasefire agreement over the line.
But as you heard me say yesterday, that is going to require flexibility from the Government of Israel, just as it’s going to require Hamas to finally find a reason – a way to get to yes. And so we’re going to continue to engage with the Government of Israel on this question. We recognize the very real security needs that Israel has to ensuring that there can’t be smuggling across the Philadelphi Corridor. We think that there are ways to address it that, and it’s also important that we recognize the very real security imperatives to Israel in reaching a ceasefire that allows us to hopefully reach a diplomatic resolution to the situation on the Israeli-Lebanon border and hopefully helps us calm broader regional tensions, all of which are a threat to Israel’s security.
And so I bring all that up just because oftentimes this discussion gets focused on this one particular threat to Israel’s security, which is the potential for smuggling across the Philadelphi Corridor, which we think is important to address. But it shouldn’t be discussed in absence of all the other improvements to Israel’s security that we believe a ceasefire agreement would bring about.
*QUESTION:* What makes you think they’ll show any flexibility, though, given that Netanyahu again and again and again insists that there will be a presence in the Philadelphi Corridor?
*MR MILLER:* Well, that is the point of negotiations, and that is the – that is why we are engaged in these negotiations with Israel and with our fellow mediating countries, Egypt and Qatar. Not going to try to hammer through that in public, but we’re going to continue to have these negotiations because we believe getting a ceasefire and finding a way to bridge these divides is in the interests of Israel, just as we believe it’s manifestly in the interests of the Palestinian people and the broader region.
*QUESTION:* And when do you expect higher-level negotiations or in-person negotiations to get underway again?
*MR MILLER:* I don’t want to put a timetable on it. We want to get this proposal developed as soon as possible and get it over to Israel and Hamas, and try to get a final agreement.
*QUESTION:* Netanyahu also said he would not change his policies to minimize civilian casualties. This flies directly in the face of your continued calls for him to stem those civilian casualties. So how do you intend to hold him accountable to actually stop the civilian casualties in Palestine?
*MR MILLER:* So, I want to see that direct quote and see exactly the context that it was in before I respond specifically to it. But I will say we think it is absolutely imperative. It is a moral imperative and it is a security imperative to Israel that they minimize civilian casualties. And we have, at a number of times through the course of this campaign, gone to them with specific recommendations of things that they can do to minimize civilian casualties, and we have seen them implement some of those recommendations to bring down civilian casualties.
So, there have been times in the past where they have implemented specific recommendations that we have made. That said, the number of civilian casualties in Gaza remains far too high despite these improved measures, which is why we continue to push for a ceasefire.
*QUESTION:* Matt?
*MR MILLER:* Yeah.
*QUESTION:* The U.S. keeps saying that the Israeli Government accepted the U.S. proposal. I mean, you present a proposal and make that the first, and whatever version comes after that. But what we hear from Netanyahu today or what is reported by Israeli sources that Netanyahu keeps adding more conditions, keep changing his position all the time. What is the – what is the version here? Is it – is he accepting it or he is changing his mind all the time?
*MR MILLER:* So I am, as I said in response to Jennifer’s question, not going to negotiate in public. And I know that’s not what you asked me to do, but it does require me to get into some underlying details which I’m just, unfortunately, not able to do here. But what I will say is – I said this – I know you weren’t here yesterday, but I did say this in the briefing yesterday – the Secretary made clear when he was in the region, just as the President made clear when he outlined the proposal on May 31st, that neither one of those were the end of the process, that there were very important steps that still remained to be litigated and discussed among the parties and that – on which we needed to reach agreement. The Secretary made that clear that when the prime minister accepted the bridging proposal, there were still a number of implementing agreements that we were going to need to reach – to outline how that bridging proposal would actually be implemented in practice, and those discussions are ongoing.
So, all I can tell you is what the United States is going to continue to impress upon the parties, and that is that a ceasefire is in all of their interests; that a ceasefire is, of course, in the interests of the Palestinian people, but it is very much in the interests of the Israeli people, too. But ultimately, the Government of Israel is going to have to make decisions about what it signs up to, and we’re going to impress upon them what we think is in their interest; but those are decisions that the prime minister, in consultation with other leaders in the Government of Israel, is going to have to make.
*QUESTION:* And I want to go back to the Philadelphi Corridor. I mean, Netanyahu today, as Jenny noticed, he doubled down that Israel needs to control this area, and this is complicating the negotiation process and also the Egyptian role as a mediator because Egyptian is – that Egypt is rejecting that. Are you trying to give proposals, for example, as from the U.S., a solution for this impasse?
*MR MILLER:* We are and we have. We have presented a number of possible solutions to the various parties to how – for how to ensure the – or ensure security in the Philadelphi Corridor and to prevent smuggling along that corridor. And I would add, without getting too much into the details, that a number of those solutions do not require the ongoing presence of Israeli forces. And we have made clear that we are opposed to the – to the long-term presence of Israeli forces inside Gaza. It’s one of the principles the Secretary outlined back in November just a month into this war.
So, if you look at the way that the proposal is set up, it recalls – it calls for, in phase one, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas, and in phase two, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from other areas of the Gaza Strip. There’s a negotiation from phase one to phase two. Obviously, that’s not going to be an easy negotiation, just as getting to phase one has not been an easy negotiation. But we are going to continue to push for a resolution, because – as I said in response to your earlier question, it is, we believe, self-evidently in the interests of Israel as well as, of course, the Palestinians and others in the region.
*QUESTION:* Very last question. Just I want to go to the West Bank. There is an ongoing Israeli security operation there. I mean, (inaudible) down, but it was for the last four days in Jenin and Tulkarm and other areas. But at the same time, there was also a settlers’ movement that seized thousands of dunams – I don’t know what is that square meters or kilometers – in the area. And as we know from previous – previous attempts, once they seize it they don’t – they don’t leave it, they don’t get away with it. I know that the U.S. policy is against it. You always raise this here on this podium or somewhere else. But you don’t do anything about it. So what are you going to do to stop this settlers’ movement inside the West Bank?
*MR MILLER:* So a number of things. One, I think it’s important to restate the principle, which is we believe that the Government of Israel’s settlement program is inconsistent with international law. It’s a point that we’ve raised publicly and also made clear is the conclusion of the United States directly in meetings with the seniormost leaders of Israel. We have also made clear that Israel needs to do more to crack down on extremist settler violence, and you have heard us say from this podium, and you’ve heard other leaders in the United States Government say, that if Israel doesn’t need – doesn’t take additional steps to stop settler violence, we will. And you have seen us impose sanctions on extremist settlers who have engaged in violent activities. You have seen us sanction organizations involved in violent settler activities. And we will continue to take those steps.
And I can tell you the Government of Israel – you’ve seen some of their public complaints about those steps – have made quite clear to us that they strenuously object to those measures that we have taken; and we have made quite clear in return that we need to see more action from them to stop settler violence and hold settlers accountable – extremist settlers accountable. And if they don’t take those actions, we will take the actions available to us.
*QUESTION:* Thank you.
*MR MILLER:* Yeah, Simon.
*QUESTION:* Just to follow up on some of the corridor talk that we’ve had, you – and you talked about this yesterday a little bit. But in – so in the bridging proposal, the first phase, there is a – the language is that the IDF would be removed from densely populated areas. And you said that includes the Philadelphi Corridor. In your view, is it possible to evacuate soldiers from all densely populated areas but still have a military presence all along the border between Gaza and Egypt?
*MR MILLER:* So I don’t think I should get into a public discussion of matters that very much remain a subject of ongoing negotiations.
*QUESTION:* But it’s a factual question that you’re saying —
*MR MILLER:* I understand, and I hope – I very much understand it’s a factual question, but I think you can understand that that is very much the underlying – the underlying nature of that question is something that remains a very important part of the ongoing negotiations, and I think we ought to keep the details of that private despite some of the public statements made by other parties.
*QUESTION:* And then I’m just going to push on that again, but the – have the Egyptians expressed a willingness to go along with a solution that leaves Israeli troops along that crossing, that border?
*MR MILLER:* I think I will let the Egyptians speak for themselves as to what they may or may not support.
Yeah, Guita.
*QUESTION:* Change of subject?
*MR MILLER:* Mm-hmm.
*QUESTION:* The Pentagon has confirmed that a member of the U.S. Navy was arrested in Venezuela – he was on personal leave – and that the Pentagon is working with the State Department. I was wondering if you can tell us anything on the subject.