Washington, August 9 (RHC)-- A top aide to U.S. Vice President Harris Kamala Harris says the Democratic presidential nominee does not support an arms embargo on the Israeli regime, denying an assertion by a pro-Palestinian group organization that she is open to discussing the issue.
Harris "does not support an arms embargo on Israel,” Phil Gordon, Harris’s national security adviser, wrote on X on Thursday. She has been "clear" in that she will "always ensure Israel is able to defend itself," added the adviser.
The remarks came a day after the Uncommitted National Movement -- which is critical of U.S. President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip -- said its co-founders had spoken with Harris at her campaign rally in the city of Detroit, home to many Muslim and Arab-American voters, in Michigan state.
Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, it added, shared their concerns about the U.S. "supplying weapons for Israel's war and occupation against Palestine” and requested a meeting with Harris to discuss an arms embargo on the usurping regime and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
"The Vice President shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with the Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo," the group further said.
Gordon, however, rejected the report, sparking a response from the Uncommitted National Movement.
“It’s exactly because the current White House policy allows bombs to flow to Netanyahu unconditionally that he has been emboldened to kill tens of thousands of civilians,” the group said in a statement.
“We found hope in Vice President Harris expressing an openness to meeting about an arms embargo, and we are eager to continue engaging because people we love are being killed with American bombs.”
Israel waged its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7 following a historic operation by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 39,699 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 91,722 others.
The U.S. remains Israel’s most important ally and biggest supplier of arms. It has provided Israel with weapons and intelligence support during the Gaza war and blocked UN resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Last month, Harris drew attention to Palestinians’ plight in Gaza, in a move that some analysts believed was a rhetorical departure from Biden’s pro-Israel statements.
“The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety — sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time — we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies,” she told reporters after a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”
However, the remarks from Harris’s adviser suggested that she would not support a complete halt in arms transfers.
