US Senator of South Carolina Lindsey Graham said on Friday that President-elect Donald Trump wants a hostage release-ceasefire deal before his inauguration on January 20.
Graham made these statements in an exclusive interview conducted by Axios after the senator returned from visiting Israel, where he was quoted saying that "Trump is more determined than ever to release the hostages and supports a ceasefire that includes a hostage deal. He wants to see it happening now.
"I want people in Israel and in the region to know that Trump is focused on the hostages issue," he continued. "He wants the killing to stop and the fighting to end." Graham also noted in the interview his hope that both Trump and the Biden administration will work during the transition period to get a ceasefire-hostage release deal and that the current US President will continue pushing for a deal until his final day in the White House.
The Axios report also noted Israeli officials' belief and preparedness of the incoming Trump administration's approach to the war in Gaza and that it may differ from Biden's and what the "day after" the war would look like. The South Carolina senator noted that the president-elect would have to have a deal to end the war in the Palestinian enclave before developing key foreign policy objectives in the Middle East.
Graham, regardless, still critical of some Israeli officials
Graham, however, took a firm stance in the interview against statements made by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich when he entertained the idea of "encouraging voluntary immigration" to Gaza to decrease its Palestinian population, now that a Trump administration is incoming, the report noted. He later said about Smotrich that "he should talk to Trump and hear what he wants. If you haven't spoken to him, I wouldn't put words in his mouth."
He also told Axios that "Israeli reoccupation" of the Gaza Strip was not the way to dismantle Hamas, but rather introducing major reforms into Palestinian society that would prevent it or other extremist terrorist groups from emerging. "The only ones who can do that are the Arab countries," he elaborated.
In the past month, Graham also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. He noted that one of Trump's major foreign policy positions would be to endorse Israel-Saudi normalization but noted in his opinion that such a deal must include a "Palestinian component."