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**Mr.

Sevastopulo**: Good afternoon, everyone.

Jake, it's great to see you.

How do you feel being out of Washington? Is it a good feeling?**Mr.

Sevastopulo**: It's no secret that President Biden is under a lot of pressure from Democrats and Democratic donors to drop out of the race.

I know you can't talk about the campaign, so I won't ask you that.

But what I would like to know is: Are you seeing any impact on how U.

S.

adversaries are viewing the U.

S.

? Any sign that they might be about to do something because of all the distraction in Washington?**Mr.

Sullivan**: Well, first of all, you know, we had the NATO Summit last week.

Anja was kind enough to talk about what we tried to do with respect to U.

S.

allies.

And if you look at the outcome of that summit, it was a display of unity, purpose, and dynamism, and yes, burden-sharing, the likes of which we have not seen in a long time.

And it was unity around Ukraine.

It was unity about the threat from Russia.

And it was unity around the threat from China, where there was a very important statement in that communiqué about the ways in which China represents a challenge to the transatlantic community.

And I think what our adversaries saw from that was the United States, under President Biden’s leadership, pulling together and mobilizing the most powerful alliance in the history of the world.

And not just celebrating 75 years, but really setting up the Alliance for the future in a profound way.

And so, we are going to continue day in, day out driving towards a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, continuing to support Ukraine on the battlefield, and working on the full range of initiatives that we have underway while sending a message to our adversaries that if they want to mess with the United States and our allies, they’re going to have a very rude awakening about what’s in store for them.

**Mr.

Sevastopulo**: And just to be clear, U.

S.

intelligence hasn’t picked up any signs that some of these adversaries may be about to mess with America?**Mr.

Sullivan**: Well, look, it’s an election year.

And what we all know very well and what has been discussed here at the forum this year and in years past is that our adversaries do look at American elections as points to try to influence, to try to undermine confidence in our democracy, to try to put their thumb on the scale.

And the Director of National Intelligence released a report last week indicating they’re back at that this year too.

And we’re clear-eyed about that.

And we are doing a lot to push back against it, to ensure the sanctity of our elections, to ensure the safety of our voting system.

So we will keep doing that.

But in terms of some other special kind of threat from countries for this moment, we don’t see anything like that.

But we do see our adversaries, in many different respects, challenging American interests, undermining American partners and allies.

And, you know, we have a full suite of activities underway, in coordination with those allies, to push back on that.

**Mr.

Sevastopulo**: Let’s talk about the Middle East and Gaza.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to Washington, I believe on Monday.

It’s also no secret that his relationship with President Biden could be better.

So what message is President Biden going to deliver to Bibi when they meet on Monday?**Mr.

Sullivan**: The overriding focus of the meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be about the ceasefire and hostage deal.

Several weeks ago, the President went out and said to the world: There is a blueprint, a pathway to get the hostages home, a ceasefire in place, humanitarian assistance surged into Gaza, and then a platform to build greater peace and stability across the Middle East.

That was at the end of May.

Over the course of June, he built global support for that, getting U.

N.

Security Council endorsement, getting G7 endorsement, getting the countries of the region to speak out on it, and securing Israel’s commitment to it.

We now also have Hamas’s commitment to the broad framework the President laid out.

But there are details to be worked through, because this is a complicated piece of business to try to execute a ceasefire in a circumstance like this, with respect to Israel’s military presence, with respect to humanitarian assistance flows, and with respect to what the long-term disposition of the Gaza Strip is going to be.

So the President will focus his energy, with Prime Minister Netanyahu, on what it is going to take working together, the U.

S.

and Israel, and then the U.

S.

working with the other guarantors, the other mediators in this process, to get this deal done in the coming weeks.

And as you heard from Secretary Blinken earlier today, we believe there is an opportunity to get it done.

We are mindful that there remain obstacles in the way.

And let’s use next week to try to clear through those obstacles and get to a deal.

**Mr.

Sevastopulo**: So, Tony Blinken said you’re at the 10-yard line, which as an Irishman, I had to try and work out what that meant.

(Laughter.

) But I think I’m there.

The question I have is: Have you reached agreements so far in terms of a transition from a, kind of, interim, temporary ceasefire to a permanent ceasefire? Or is that something that will have to be ironed out once you get into the first ceasefire?**Mr.

Sullivan**: Well, President Biden laid this out in pretty clear terms when he spoke about the deal publicly.

This is a deal that proceeds in three phases.

To go from phase one to phase two requires a discussion—indirect discussion between Israel and Hamas over the conditions for phase two.

One of the central conditions would be how you do the remaining hostage and prisoner swap as part of phase two, but other conditions as well.

And as President Biden said, those are going to be difficult talks.

They’re going to require a lot of give and take, a lot of back and forth.

And while the initial phase is six weeks, the President said that one of the terms of this framework is that if the parties are at the table with the mediators, continuing to make progress, that that first phase could be extended until they do reach agreement and move into phase two.

So, most of that is understood by both Israel and Hamas.

There are some technical details to be worked out about the phase one to phase two sequence.

That’s one of the issues that we have to work through in the endgame.

And it’s one of the things that President Biden will have the chance to talk to the Prime Minister about next week.

**Mr.

Sullivan**: You know, I have learned the hard way never to use the word “optimism” in the same sentence as “the Middle East.

” (Laughter.

) And so, what I will say is that I think we have our best opportunity now that we have had, since the last brief hostage deal in November, to get to an outcome.

It is there for the taking.

The broad framework is well understood and broadly agreed.

And so, the real issue is: Can we work through the politics on both sides, the psychology on both sides, and frankly, the practicalities of executing something as complex as a ceasefire in a circumstance like this.

I believe the answer to those questions is yes.

And we are determined to make it yes.

So, we’re not going to rest until we have this thing in place, and sooner rather than later.

**Mr.

Sevastopulo**: When the President meets Bibi on Monday, is he going to see a copy or get a readout on what Bibi intends to say to Congress in his speech on Wednesday? And as you will remember better than me, the last time Bibi spoke to Congress, it wasn’t very flattering towards the Obama-Biden administration.

How concerned are you that Bibi will say something on Wednesday that would disrupt the progress towards getting over that finishing line?**Mr.

Sullivan**: Well, last week we had two senior Israeli officials in town for discussions on Lebanon and Iran.

We had Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi, the Minister of Strategic Affairs and the National Security Advisor for Israel.

And they gave us a broad preview of what the Prime Minister is intending to say in his speech.

They said he’s intending to reinforce a set of themes and arguments that are not at odds or in contradiction to our policy, American policy.

But they’re going to keep working that speech until the very last minute, just like we do on our side.

I doubt we will see an actual copy of the remarks right before he goes up.

But I do expect the Prime Minister will lay out for the President in pretty specific terms what he intends to say.

And politics and speeches are always unpredictable.

But our expectation is that his speech will be one that doesn’t look like 2015, it looks like what it should in the circumstances of today—and that is how the U.

S.

and Israel are trying together to face down a terrorist threat, to coordinate together on the regional challenges that both of our countries are facing, and how we’re continuing to work towards a ceasefire and hostage deal.

Whether that happens or not, I’ll stay tuned, you’ll stay tuned.

We’ll see.

But I expect to have constructive conversations with the Israeli government in the days leading up to the speech.

**Mr