State Dept. Daily Press Briefing April 30, 2007

Daily Press Briefing
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 30, 2007

INDEX:

MISCELLANEOUS
Tony Snow's Return Back at the Podium at the White House
Assistant Secretary Barry Lowenkron Departing
Resignation of Randall Tobias / Spoke with Secretary Rice / Search
for Successor / Division of Responsibilities Until Position is
Filled
Washington Post Report on Use of Foreign Assistance After
Hurricane Katrina

ISRAEL / LEBANON
Report on Lebanon War / Internal Israeli Matter

EUROPEAN UNION
Security of Classified Information Agreement
U.S.-EU Air Transport Agreement
European Union Ministerial Troika

SAUDI ARABIA / IRAQ
King Abdallah's Decision not to Meet with Prime Minister Maliki
U.S.-Saudi Share Same Strategic Objectives / Some Differences in
Tactics but Working Closely on Many Issues

KOSOVO
Reports of Russian Plans to Veto Ahtisaari Plan in UN Security
Council

IRAQ
Reports that Prime Minister Maliki is Purging Generals that Combat
Shiite Militias

SUDAN
Timeline to Let Diplomacy Work / Ban Ki-moon's Efforts
Reports of Helicopter Gunship Attack in Darfur

NORTH KOREA
Reports of BDA Fund Transfer

TURKEY
State of Democracy / Encouraging Everyone to Participate in
Democracy and Abide by Constitutional Processes

IRAN
Reports that Mr. Levinson has been Released
Possible Meeting between Secretary Rice & Iranian Foreign Minister
at Sharm el-Sheikh

TRANSCRIPT:

12:30 p.m. EST

MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon, everybody. Just a couple notes at the top of the briefing. One, it was great to see my colleague, Tony Snow, back behind the podium over at the White House today. I look forward to talking to him every day and getting some advice from him and seeing him behind the podium.

The other thing is a personnel matter here at the State Department. Secretary Rice this morning announced that our Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Barry Lowenkron will be departing the State Department sometime this summer. He is going to move on to take a position in Chicago to be the MacArthur Foundation's Vice President for Global Security and Sustainability. And in that new job he's going to be overseeing disbursal of grants of about $75 million annually in about 65 countries. So we wish Barry well. He's going to be missed, but he'll also be with us here at the State Department for the next couple weeks working hard on the democracy and freedom agenda.

And with that, I'd be happy to take your questions. Okay, let's go.

QUESTION: Do you have any update --

MR. MCCORMACK: The outbreak of collegiality is very disturbing here. I'm sorry.

QUESTION: Indian Foreign Secretary. Do you have any update on his meetings? He's supposed to be meeting with Nick Burns today, I think.

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't. Let's -- we'll try to get you something at the end of the day, once they've had a chance to wrap up some meetings. They're going to have two days of meetings here.

QUESTION: So there are no meetings today?

MR. MCCORMACK: I believe it's the 1st and the 2nd, but I'll check for you. I'll check for you, David.

QUESTION: Do you have any comment on the Israeli report on the Lebanon war? There was some rather harsh criticism against Prime Minister Olmert which sort of casts doubt on his political future in many ways. Do you have any comment? Have you had a chance to look at the report, number one?

MR. MCCORMACK: We have --

QUESTION: And secondly --

MR. MCCORMACK: We have not. No, we have not had a chance to look at it. Look, this is going to be -- this is a matter of internal Israeli politics and I don't think you're going to really catch us commenting on a matter of domestic politics in Israel.

QUESTION: Could you give us some details on this ceremony for security of classified information agreement with the EU?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yes, this is something the Deputy Secretary is going to sign on our behalf. It's essentially an information-sharing agreement that allows the sharing of classified information, very similar to the kinds of agreements we have bilaterally with individual EU member countries as well as with NATO, for example.

QUESTION: This is airlines?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, totally separate. Totally separate things. The airline agreement is something that Secretary Rice is going to be signing here. That is something that's been worked on for several years now in terms --

QUESTION: I was thinking about the passengers' informations and everything.

MR. MCCORMACK: No, no.

QUESTION: No.

MR. MCCORMACK: Separate issues.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yep.

QUESTION: This is -- the ceremony is this afternoon?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. The airline agreement, the signing ceremony upstairs in the Treaty Room.

QUESTION: Are there going to be remarks?

MR. MCCORMACK: No. I don't expect there will be remarks, no.

QUESTION: And none for the Negroponte signing either?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, no.

Sue.

QUESTION: Do you have any comment on the refusal of King Abdallah to meet with Iraq's Prime Minister, and what does this say about Saudi assistance to Iraq and its commitment to helping?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we encouraged the Saudi Government to meet with the representatives from the Iraqi Government at the highest level possible, and that would include at the head of state/head of government level. The Saudis decided not to do that, as is their right.

But I would point out that the Saudi Government is going to be at the Iraq Compact meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh coming up on Wednesday. And then on Thursday, they will be at the Iraq neighbors conference and that is an important way for them to express their support for a whole, unified Iraq that is a place for all Iraqis regardless of sect or religious affiliation.

They are also going to, I expect, make an announcement regarding significant debt relief for Iraq at the International Compact for Iraq.

So these are all tangible demonstrations of Saudi support for Iraq. And we are encouraged that Iraq's other neighbors are going to be at this conference as well. Iran has said it was going to be there. Syria is going to be there, as well as other neighbors. And that's very positive as a demonstration of their support for Iraq as Iraq finds itself -- finds its place in the Middle East and neighbors find increasing numbers of ways to interact with Iraq and to contribute to their positive development.

QUESTION: But weren't you disappointed that King Abdallah chose not to meet with the --

MR. MCCORMACK: Look, you know, we won't hide the fact from you we did encourage him to meet with Prime Minister Maliki. He chose not. But again, those are individual choices that the Saudis as well as others have to make. Prime Minister Maliki met with other heads of government when he did a tour throughout the Middle East. So you can't expect that there's going to be a cookie-cutter approach, but we did encourage the two to meet. It didn't happen.

QUESTION: Is there a problem developing between your relations with the Saudis? I mean --

MR. MCCORMACK: No.

QUESTION: -- there have been lots of disappointing events of late.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, you know, I -- look, we share the same strategic objectives in terms of a Middle East that is more stable, more peaceful, more prosperous, one in which there's a Palestine, one in which there's a free democratic Lebanon, one in which there is a democratic, stable prosperous Iraq.

So we share the same strategic objectives. We also understand the threats that are posed to those objectives, threats from violent extremism. There's a threat from Iran and that certainly plays a role -- and Iran plays a significant role in the promotion of violent extremism in the Middle East. The Saudis themselves are dealing with the terrorist problem. We saw it over the weekend that they have significant operations breaking up terrorist rings in Saudi Arabia, so they face many of the same problems. They have many of the same strategic objectives as we do.

From time to time, you will see differences in tactics. But people often tell you about the national unity government; well, the objective as stated by the Saudi Government of the national unity government was to stop the killing between Palestinians. Everybody can agree with that.

Now, as for the particular form, that was something that was negotiated by the Palestinians. Would we have preferred to see a government that abided by the Quartet principles? Absolutely. But that does not mean that cannot try to move the process forward as Secretary Rice has been working with the Israelis, the Palestinians as well as others in the region, the Saudis included. We're working closely with them on the issue of Lebanon. The Saudi Government has a real interest in seeing that Syria is not allowed to interfere in Lebanese affairs so that Lebanon can get back on its feet, rebuild those democratic institutions and build a better country for the Lebanese people.

Yes.

QUESTION: The Kosovar Foreign Minister said in an interview published today, said that he expected to declare -- unilaterally declare independence before the end of the month unless there's a -- the Ahtisaari plan gets through the Security Council. Given Russia's --

MR. MCCORMACK: I think you're --

QUESTION: -- intention to veto --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. Well, I wouldn't -- you know, I'm not going to put words in the Russians' mouths. I haven't heard them say the word veto. But, look, you're going to see a lot of, I expect, political brinksmanship in the region by -- on the part of various actors in the Balkans in the coming months. These are significant stakes for the people of the region, for Kosovars, for the Serbs, for others in the region. We understand that. We believe the Ahtisaari plan is the right way forward and right now, we are going to be -- or at the moment, we are working in the Security Council to bring about a change in the Security Council resolution so we can move this forward. It's been too long. And we do believe that if a solution is not found in the near future, then you do have a risk of possibly inciting further violence in a region that has already seen far too much of it.

So we want to be a responsible player in this and try to find the right kind of compromise of this. Not everybody's going to be happy with all the compromises that are made, but we think that what Mr. Ahtisaari has outlined gives us the best possible way forward.

QUESTION: Do you see a lot of brinksmanship in coming months? Do you expect this process to last months?

MR. MCCORMACK: Maybe over the next month or two.

Yeah, Libby.

QUESTION: On Randall Tobias' resignation --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: You -- well, first, do you have any further comment beyond the statement you put out Friday night? And also, did you -- were you able to find out when exactly he talked to the Secretary and how he -- you know, did he call her while she was at Camp David?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, I don't really have much more to add. I think that everything that needs to be said about it has been said. It's a difficult time for Randy and his family and we appreciate that. And he made the decision to resign. He felt as though the circumstances dictated the fact that he should resign. We understand that. We appreciate his taking that step. Secretary Rice did speak with him on Friday afternoon from Camp David, but this was after he had already submitted his letter of resignation.

QUESTION: So is it fair to assume this was a complete surprise to her? I mean, she hadn't heard anything about this matter before Friday afternoon?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, she hadn't.

QUESTION: She hadn't?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, before Friday.

QUESTION: Before Friday?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: Okay.

QUESTION: The wording in the statement was a little peculiar. You said that he said that he must resign. Why was that word "must" used?

MR. MCCORMACK: He felt as though the circumstances dictated it, that he should resign, that it was best for all involved that he resign and we didn't have any dispute with that.

QUESTION: I mean, does the Department have a problem with someone going to an escort agency for call girls or whatever for a massage? I mean --

MR. MCCORMACK: Sue, look, this is a matter that is of current litigation, so I'm not going to try to go down that pathway with you, talk about specific allegations made in the press.

Yeah, Nina.

QUESTION: Iraq.

QUESTION: I just wanted to --

QUESTION: Sorry.

QUESTION: -- one more on that. Are you guys actively looking for someone else to fill that hole or are you worried about --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yes.

QUESTION: -- are you worried about sort of a lack of leadership there on foreign aid?

MR. MCCORMACK: We are actively looking for someone to fill Randy's job. And I spoke with all my lawyer friends here in the Department and they've finally cleared up the situation for me. The way it's going to work now on the AID side is that Jim Kunder, who is the Acting Deputy AID Administrator, will be responsible for the day-to-day operations and decision making in AID. I have to emphasize, though, that he is not the Acting AID Administrator; but in his capacity as Acting Deputy Administrator, he will be responsible for the day-to-day decision making and operations in AID.

Now, the funding decisions that Randy had previously made as the Director of Foreign Assistance will flow to Deputy Secretary Negroponte for the time being and until we have a new Director of Foreign Assistance confirmed.

QUESTION: What was Tobias' rank here? Was he a --

MR. MCCORMACK: He is the equivalent of a deputy secretary.

QUESTION: So he was even with Negroponte in the chart?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. I mean, I think Deputy Secretary Negroponte was a first among equals. But the rank was a deputy secretary rank.

Lambros.

QUESTION: Mr. McCormack, what will be the agenda today to discuss when you are going to have any bilateral level with the European Union Ministerial troika?

MR. MCCORMACK: It's going to be a carry-on from what they talked about at the White House, but I expect that they talk about security issues, economic issues, trade issues. You can talk to me afterwards about what specifics they may talk about.

QUESTION: Today at 3:00 p.m., the troika is going to meet with the Secretary of State. Do you know if they're going to discuss also the political situation in Turkey?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah, Nina.

QUESTION: Iraq, please. There's a story in The Washington Post today saying that Maliki's barring certain generals that are apparently being too harsh on Shiite militias.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: What do you make of this? I mean, we've had a comment from General Pittard out there backing this story, so --

MR. MCCORMACK: We're looking into it and certainly, if that were true, it would be a cause of deep concern, but I have to tell you that the account as portrayed in The Washington Post is at odds with what we're hearing privately as well as publicly from the Iraqis. But nonetheless, it is something that merits our looking into and we are.

QUESTION: Sean, the government has -- bring up a wider question of whether the government can put aside its sectarian differences, you know, and --

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, that's -- yeah, that's the heart of it and one of the great strengths, from our view, of the Baghdad Security Plan has -- was this step back from sectarianism among the professional, military, and security forces. Now if in fact, we are seeing some walk-back of that, that would be of real concern to us. So we're taking it seriously. I can't confirm that that is, in fact, the case, but we're looking into it.

QUESTION: Will this be addressed in the meeting in a couple of days, at the meeting?

MR. MCCORMACK: At the neighbors meeting? I'm sure Secretary Rice will probably talk to Ambassador Crocker. I'm sure he's going to be talking to the Iraqis about doing a survey with our military folks on the ground to see if this really is the ground truth there.

Yeah, Libby.

QUESTION: On Sudan, do you have any update? I believe it's almost been two weeks since the President spoke and you guys were going to give Ban Ki-moon a couple more weeks to work through some more diplomacy. Is that timeline shortening now? Is it less than weeks, is it --

MR. MCCORMACK: No, we're still at weeks. We're still at weeks.

QUESTION: And what is your -- what is the word from Ban Ki-moon's office as to where he's going with this?

MR. MCCORMACK: Let me check for you, Libby. I don't know the last time we've checked in with him on this.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) because initially, he talked about two to four weeks. That's what Andrew Natsios said and that was --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: Then the clock started ticking on April 2 --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- when he made the statement, so that time would be coming up. And also --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: Do you have any response to -- apparently, there was reports that Sudanese helicopter gun ships attacked a town in Northern Darfur where the rebel leaders were supposed to be meeting to talk about -- you know, possible unity arrangements --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- which is something that everyone's been pushing for at the UN and the United States has been -- I mean, do you have any response to --

MR. MCCORMACK: I hadn't seen that specific report, but we have previously expressed deep concern about the use of the aerial assets by the Sudanese Government. It is something that we have talked to them about. Governor Richardson, when he was out there, talked to them about it. So if, in fact, this is an accurate report, it's a deeply disturbing continuation of a pattern that we have seen from the Sudanese Government and all the more reason why we need to get in an AU-UN force into the area.

Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION: On North Korea, can you shed any light on the reports that the North Koreans might transfer their funds to Russian and Italian banks in order to resolve the BDA issue?

MR. MCCORMACK: I cannot, I cannot. We haven't heard any official word from the North Koreans that they have successfully transferred their accounts. I have seen the same press reports that you're referring to, but I can't confirm them for you.

Yes, in the back.

QUESTION: On Turkey, it seems that the generals are ready to overthrow the government of Recep Erdogan. What is your position on this?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I'm not sure that that's an accurate description of the situation, but we have real confidence in Turkey's democracy and we have confidence in their constitutional processes and that all the parties involved in the election of a new Turkish president will abide by those constitutional processes in the best traditions of Turkish democracy.

Joel.

QUESTION: Are you discouraging the Turkish military from doing anything rash?

MR. MCCORMACK: George, we are encouraging everybody to participate in Turkey's democracy according to their constitution and laws.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Sean, yesterday, the Secretary -- were on three talk shows and was grilled repeatedly concerning not necessarily our present postures, but when she served as -- years ago as National Security Advisor to the President.

We are in a media war apparently with the Islamic world and you're going to a conference at Sharm el-Sheikh and Friday here, at the press briefing, repeated questions were about terrorism and what various governments would do, whether they be in the Middle East, Pakistan, or whatever directed to Tom Casey. Is there any feelings by you or the Secretary that a more forceful resolution concerning terrorism has to be addressed at this conference not just on Iraq, but the entire Middle East as well as Africa? Is it time for that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I think that you're -- among most of the parties at the upcoming Sharm el-Sheikh conference, Joel, you're not going to get any dispute that we need to fight against violent extremism at a variety of different levels. They need to be confronted, at times, with force. They also need to be confronted in other ways to get at the root causes of violent extremism in the Middle East. So it's a source of concern to us, the Iraqis, as well as others in the region. So the solution is to work for the kinds of reforms, economic, political, social reforms that will get at the root causes of this violent extremism.

Yeah, Kirit.

QUESTION: Sean, do you have updates on Mr. Levinson? There have been reports --

MR. MCCORMACK: No, I don't.

QUESTION: -- that he's been released?

MR. MCCORMACK: I know, I've seen those press reports. I can't confirm them for you, Kirit. We don't have any new credible information, other than looking at the same press reports that you have mentioned. We have not heard back from any of the three governments that we've asked to knock on some doors in Tehran. I haven't received back any information from them concerning Mr. Levinson and we have not heard back from the Iranians either, via the Swiss channel.

QUESTION: Will this be an issue the Secretary would be willing to bring up, if she happened to encounter her Iranian friends?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, we're not ruling out the possibility that she may see the Iranian Foreign Minister while she's on the ground there. I'm not pointing you in that direction, but we're not going to rule it out. If she does have an opportunity to see the Iranian Foreign Minister, I'm sure she would raise issues related to Iraq's security. I'm not sure that Mr. Levinson would come up in that regard.

QUESTION: Are you reaching out to the Iranians prior to the conference to, you know, offer a meeting with Secretary Rice?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, we'll see. We'll see if in fact the opportunity presents itself and Secretary Rice feels as though it's the right time and the right moment.

QUESTION: Sean, at the last conference in March, I believe they just sort of ran into each other. Is the Secretary planning on doing something like that? I mean, would it be a run-in or would it be something that would be coordinated in advance? Do you see what I'm getting at? I know you're not going to say that they're meeting, but --

MR. MCCORMACK: (Laughter.) Right. Right. Look, if -- you know, if she does in fact see the Iranian Foreign Minister, I think that there would be some organization to it. It wouldn't just be by happenstance. Yeah.

QUESTION: Okay. Bumping into each other in the hallway or something.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: Exactly. At the orange juice table.

QUESTION: Can we ask the same set of questions, vis-à-vis the Syrians or --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. You're going to get the same answer.

QUESTION: Or your answer is just as generic? Are plans formulated for a meeting any further along?

MR. MCCORMACK: It's a carefully thought-out answer, Charlie.

QUESTION: Pardon?

MR. MCCORMACK: It's a carefully thought-out answer and it applies to the Syrians as well.

QUESTION: Well, is the -- does the same carefully thought-out answer apply?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yes, it does. Yes, it does.

QUESTION: Yes, it does. Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: But why leave it up to chance? Why not, you know, set a little time aside where you could have --

MR. MCCORMACK: I didn't say -- I didn't say it would be left to chance.

QUESTION: Is the process of organization underway?

MR. MCCORMACK: George, we'll see what happens when we get to Sharm el-Sheikh whether or not they happen to meet.

QUESTION: You know, I thought it was a great question.

MR. MCCORMACK: It is. It is a good -- it is a good -- I thought so, too. Keep asking it, I'll give you the same answer.

Kirit.

QUESTION: I was wondering if you had any response to the reports in the Post yesterday about aid for Katrina coming in from other governments there.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, Secretary Rice talked a little bit about this yesterday on some of the talk shows, the Sunday shows. And I don't have a whole lot to add to what she said. We're overwhelmed by the generosity of the international community. And it was not a usual circumstance in many regards. One could argue it was a unique circumstance in American history, the scope of this disaster and the generous outpouring from the international community.

We did the best that we could, trying to direct these efforts in constructive ways and effective ways that didn't always succeed. And one of the things that we have done in the aftermath of this is to work with DHS as well as other domestic agencies to see how, if we ever do face such circumstances again and we all hope we don't, that if we do, that there would be a more effective mechanism that we might use.

QUESTION: Do you think you've -- you could say you feel like you've solved the problem (inaudible) --

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you know, Kirit, in these kind of situations where you face an unprecedented event, you are -- you rely -- you fall back on existing structures. But when existing structures and mechanisms and procedures don't work, you have to come up with ad hoc processes and mechanisms which is what we did. And everybody worked in good faith and made the best decisions that they possibly could, all with the thought in mind of how do we get assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. That is the foremost thought in everybody's mind.

So when people look back and say, well, they could have done this better or this didn't work so well. Okay. We take that criticism onboard. But also realize the circumstances under which people were working and that people were doing their very best to help get the most assistance we possibly could as quickly as we possibly could to our fellow citizens.

Lambros, again.

QUESTION: And one question on Turkey. The European Union, Mr. McCormack, asked (inaudible) the Turkish military not to get involved against the political life in Turkey and to the elected Prime Minister Recep Erdogan. Are you planning to express a similar position since majority rules and member of the military?

MR. MCCORMACK: Lambros, I just -- if you were listening to my response to your colleague, I replied to this question. I gave you the position of the United States Government.

Thanks.

(The briefing was concluded at 12:57 p.m.)

DPB # 76

Released on April 30, 2007

ENDS

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