Top Biden aide says 2-state solution best way for Israel's security guarantee

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - US President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor said Tuesday that Washington still wants to see normalization in the region "tied to a political horizon for the Palestinian people."

"The strategy post Oct.7, does not deviate very much from that we still want to see normalization, tied to a political horizon for the Palestinian people," Jake Sullivan said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Noting that the current Israeli government has expressed "quite strong views" publicly about the Palestinian question, some of which have met criticism from the US, he said ultimately the Israeli government will have to choose how best to guarantee and ensure the security of the state of Israel.

"It is President Biden's firm conviction that the best way to do that is two states with Israel's security guarantee," said Sullivan.

Touching on tension in the region and the exchange of fire along Israel's northern border, he said Israel sees a "pathway" to a shift in the military campaign in Gaza, a reduction in tensions and the exchange of fire along Israel's northern border, a reduction in the risk of escalation in other parts of the region.

But he said the US will have to continue to "deal with the Houthi threat," which he added goes way beyond being a regional challenge, rather a "global challenge."

"We mobilized a coalition of countries to take strikes to degrade the Houthis’ capabilities," said Sullivan, referring to last week's strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen which resulted in five deaths and six injuries among the Houthis.

But, he added: "We did not say when we launched our attacks, they're going to end once and for all the Houthis will be fully deterred. We anticipated the Houthis would continue to try to hold this critical artery at risk."

Sullivan noted that the US continues to reserve the right to take "further action" but, he noted that it needs to be an "all hands on deck effort."

The Houthi rebel group announced Friday that US and British forces launched 73 strikes on Yemen, killing five of their fighters.

On Saturday, the US renewed airstrikes in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, one day after attacks were carried out by Washington and London against targets in areas controlled by the Houthis in Yemen.

The group said that all American and British interests have become “legitimate targets” for its forces in response to “direct and declared aggression” against Yemen.

The Houthis have been targeting cargo ships in the Red Sea owned or operated by Israeli companies or transporting goods to and from Israel in solidarity with Gaza, which has been under an Israeli onslaught since early October.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, on Oct. 7, killing more than 24,000 victims and injuring over 60,000.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The deadly Israeli onslaught has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.