Jake Sullivan during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 18, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"If we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying, Russia would have more leverage over us, we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face," Sullivan said.
"We have not seen, although the investigation continues, any connection between Afghanistan and the attacker in New Orleans," he added, referring to the New Year's Day truck-ramming attack on Bourbon Street. "Now the FBI will continue to look for foreign connections, maybe we'll find one, but what we've seen is proof of what President Biden said, is that the terrorist threat has gotten more diffuse and more metastasized elsewhere, including homegrown extremists here in the United States – not just under President Biden, but under President Trump in his first term, and that is part of why we had to move our focus from a hot war in Afghanistan to a larger counterterrorism effort across the world."
During the final weeks of his presidency, Biden has been rushing billions of dollars more in U.S. aid for Ukraine before Trump takes office.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks to members of the media during a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club on Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Sullivan stressed how President Biden's top Middle East adviser, Brett McGuirk, had been in Doja for a week "hammering out with the mediators the final details of a text to be presented to both sides."
"And we are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done," Sullivan said.
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Steve Witcoff, Trump's Special Envoy to the Middle East, told reporters last week that he's seen progress in the hostage negotiations, but a deal must be struck by Inauguration Day. "If those hostages aren't back - I don't want to hurt your negotiation - if they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East," Trump said from Florida. "And it will not be good for Hamas. And it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out."
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
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