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Secretary Rubio Speaks to the Press at Joint Base Andrews Before Departing for Israel, Sep. 13, 2025

September 13, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 0:08:38

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to the press at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on September 13, 2025, before departing for Israel (the State Department uploaded the remarks on September 15), according to the department’s broadcast.

The message for Prime Minister Netanyahu, he said, is that the U.S.-Israeli relationship “continues to be strong” and the President’s priorities are unchanged: “He wants all the hostages out, all 48 of them, living and deceased… he wants it all at once. Like, he wants all the hostages now, not five and 10 and piecemeal.” The visit would also address how the previous week’s strike in Qatar — which the President did not like, Rubio said — affects the effort to free the hostages, defeat Hamas and move to rebuilding Gaza. He declined the word “leverage”: “I do think we have influence, I think because we’ve worked on so many things together.” On whether Israel might strike in Qatar again, he said the relationship will remain strong despite disagreements, and “we are going to have to talk about it.”

On other topics, he said the special envoy for unlawfully detained Americans has been exploring what is possible with the Taliban, and any prisoner exchange would be the President’s decision; that an announcement on Colombia’s drug certification might come the following week; that West Bank settlement moves are an Israeli counterreaction to Palestinian-state recognition the United States warned against; and that he intended to visit the City of David archaeological site, which he called one of the most important in the world.

Why it matters

The departure remarks set the terms the Secretary carried into Jerusalem and, days later, restated at Ben Gurion: all 48 hostages at once as the President’s demand, the Qatar strike treated as a problem inside a strong alliance rather than a rupture, and influence — not leverage — as the administration’s description of its hand with Israel.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the demand as stated on September 13, 2025 — all 48 hostages, living and deceased, released at once as the condition for moving to the war’s next phase. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary Rubio Remarks to Press” (official upload, embedded above; Joint Base Andrews, Maryland). Remarks as delivered 2025-09-13; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store; full transcript at state.gov.