White House principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said on Sunday that President-elect Trump’s team provided “significant support” in the recent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
“We got significant support from the Trump team. We [have] been, you know, very transparent about that. We’ve kept them fully up to speed,” Finer told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week.”
“They deployed members of their incoming team to the region. The president said — president-elect said helpful things about the need to get this deal done,” he added.
On Sunday, fighting in Gaza came to a stop as the new ceasefire deal went into effect. The halting of the fighting in the territory is the first phase in the truce which was announced last Wednesday.
President Biden hailed the deal on Wednesday, saying getting to it “has not been easy.”
“I’ve worked on foreign policy for decades,” the president added. “This was one of the toughest negotiations I’ve ever experienced. We reached this point because to the pressure Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States.”
In his appearance on “This Week,” Finer said “ultimately, at the end of the day, it was our team that was in the driver’s seat for the negotiations directed by President Biden with their support.”
Last Monday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview that the president “gave us direction to work closely with the incoming team so that there were not different messages being sent,” referencing Trump’s incoming administration.
“That there was no gap in a united American front saying, ‘This deal is important, let’s get it done,’” he added.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.
