Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed over the weekend that President Donald Trump’s framework for peace in Gaza along with the release of the remaining Israeli hostages being held by Hamas had been accepted by the terrorist group.
Rubio made his comments during a Sunday interview with “Fox News Sunday” guest host Gillian Turner.
“On Monday, President Trump gave Hamas a deadline of 6pm tonight to accept all 20 points of his proposed plan. Then Friday, Hamas came forward and said well, we accept one. Are you concerned at all that this is a play for more time? A stalling tactic?” Turner asked.
“I don’t think that’s an accurate, a fairly inaccurate description of what’s happened here. Two, the way to think about this is two-fold. Number one, is Hamas has accepted the entire construct of President Trump’s proposal for releasing the hostages. That’s number one, ok. Forty-eight, twenty that are alive, twenty-eight that are deceased,” Rubio said.
“There is talks ongoing which will hopefully be finalized very quickly on the logistics of that. You know, who’s going to go in, what time are they gonna be released, how’s all that going to work,” Rubio continued.
“The second part of this, and it’s gonna be a much tougher part of it is, what happens after that. Whose gonna run Gaza moving forward? It can’t be Hamas, it can’t be a terrorist organization,” he added.
Rubio also said that expelling terrorists from Gaza is part of a long-term plan to bring stability to the region.
“Ultimately, that is what permanent peace is going to be dependent upon, and that is that Gaza is no longer controlled by a terrorist organization like Hamas,” he said. “The top priority first and foremost is all forty-eight hostages being released as soon as possible.”
“It seems like a bitter pill for the Israelis to swallow,” Turner responded, noting the release of terrorists in exchange for the return of Israeli hostages.
Secretary Rubio said that efforts to secure the release of hostages often result in difficult or uneven agreements, which in some cases have included the release of captured terrorists by the hostages’ home countries.
“As unfair, as unjust and as unbalanced as a deal like that may be, that is how important life is to them,” Rubio explained.
“And it all happened because President Trump put that on the table and built this international coalition, including Arab and Islamic countries. Without him putting that together, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now,” he said.
In August, Rubio sharply criticized Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro as the country held municipal elections to fill hundreds of mayoral posts and thousands of local council seats.
The elections come just one day before the one-year anniversary of Venezuela’s presidential race, which was widely condemned by the United States and international observers as illegitimate. The Trump administration had been ramping up pressure on Maduro, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accusing him on Friday of leading an organization that supports terrorism against the United States.
Also, President Trump has ordered the U.S. military to begin targeting vessels for destruction originating from Venezuela that were carrying narcotics to nearby countries for export to the U.S.
“One year since dictator Nicolás Maduro defied the will of the Venezuelan people by baselessly declaring himself the winner, the United States remains firm in its unwavering support to Venezuela’s restoration of democratic order and justice,” Rubio said in a statement.
“Maduro is not the President of Venezuela and his regime is not the legitimate government,” he added.
