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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Boucher answers questions about the Iranian Delegation |
| 2004-04-15 |
| EFL from State Department Daily Press Brief QUESTION: Richard, two, hopefully, brief things. The President also said last night that he was sending Deputy Secretary Armitage out to the Middle East to talk about the transition and get this board of the -- Iraq’s neighbors. Can you be a little bit more specific about where Mr. Armitage will be going? And I’ll stop there. MR. BOUCHER: I can be a little more -- give you a little better idea, but right from the start, I’ve got to say that given the security considerations involved in the travel, we don’t expect to be able to put out an itinerary or to be able to link specific stops and the specific dates. He’ll be leaving Friday night; he’ll be in the region from then into next week; he’ll be visiting Gulf States; he’ll be visiting some of Iraq’s neighbors. QUESTION: Okay, and on that line, you wouldn’t expect him to go to Iran, though, would you? MR. BOUCHER: No, I wouldn’t. QUESTION: Okay. On the subject of Iran, Foreign Minister Kharazi seems to be under the impression that the United States has made a formal request to the Iranians to mediate the dispute with -- the standoff in Najaf and deal with al-Sadr. Is there anything -- is he correct in his -- in his impression? And if he is, or if he isn’t, what do you make of the fact that the Iranians have sent a team now into Iraq? MR. BOUCHER: Well, I’d say a couple things. First of all, the U.S. did not invite Iranian officials to Baghdad for those purposes, or did not invite Iranian officials to Baghdad. On the general question of the remarks that I saw, I would say that we have made clear to Iran, as we’ve made clear to others of Iraq’s neighbors that they need to play a helpful role, they need to play a positive role and calm the situation, help Iraq achieve the goal of a stable transition on July 1 and help with the reconstruction of a stable democratic and peaceful neighbor. We have been concerned about the role that Iran has been playing, and it’s something that we monitor very closely. QUESTION: Well, if you didn’t invite Iranian officials to Baghdad for that purpose, did you invite them for any purpose? MR. BOUCHER: No, I then added a sentence after that. We did not invite Iranian officials to Baghdad, period. QUESTION: Oh, well then -- QUESTION: You’re getting an invitation. Did you ask the Iranians to use their good offices to help the situation? MR. BOUCHER: We -- I’m not -- the United States did not ask the Iranian officials to go to Baghdad to do that. QUESTION: I’m trying to take the "go to Baghdad" out of the -- MR. BOUCHER: We made clear to Iran, as we have made clear to other neighbors, that all countries need to try to play a helpful role in stabilizing this situation, do what they can to stabilize the situation, and avoid any sort of interference or any actions that might increase tensions. That has been made clear to Iran, I’d say, all along, but also recently. QUESTION: Well, forgetting -- forget about the invitation or not, what do you think of them sending this foreign ministry delegation there, ostensibly with the aim of easing the tensions? MR. BOUCHER: I think I had no particular comment on a particular delegation. What I would say is, in general, we do monitor Iranian activities and the role that they play, and we want that to be a helpful role as we have said to Iran and as we have said to other neighbors. QUESTION: Well, is it a good thing? Is it not a good thing? I mean, you said you don’t want them to -- you said to avoid any sort of interference. This certainly seems to be something that could be construed as (inaudible) interference. MR. BOUCHER: The answer is not the delegation. The answer is what do they do, and if they do. If they help stabilize the situation, that would be good -- if they don’t, that would not be good. QUESTION: Without asking them to go to Baghdad again, did you specifically ask them to try and mediate the current kind of tensions with the Shiites and see if they can -- say if they can do specific things to calm the tension, rather than, you know, just asking all of Iraq’s neighbors? MR. BOUCHER: No. QUESTION: Well, is it conceivable that this trip could be a good thing? You said only if they help save lives, but you’re open-minded about their purposes until you see -- MR. BOUCHER: I don’t think I know enough about their purposes and they’re -- what they’re going to do yet, to be able to describe it one way or the other. QUESTION: Can you say when the last time it was that you made clear to Iran that they need to play a helpful and constructive -- MR. BOUCHER: As you know, we have various channels of communicating with Iran when we need to, and we have made clear that we’re willing to do that on practical matters, on matters that are of importance to us. We’ve done that all along. I think rather than getting into any specific messages or dates, I would just say that we have done that all along and recently, as well. QUESTION: Well, okay. And recently? MR. BOUCHER: Yeah. QUESTION: I know you’re going to tell me to ask him. But since I’m not in Tehran and I can’t ask Foreign Minister Kharazi, is it your impression that what he was talking about today would have referred to your most recent discussion or your most recent message to Iran that they should play a helpful role? MR. BOUCHER: I don’t really know. I just don’t know what he was referring to. I don’t think we invited the Iranian Delegation. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #4 Rumor has it that the Brits invited Iran. (I'm off to eat my pound of salt.) |
| Posted by: Kathy K 2004-04-15 2:44:36 PM |
| #3 Someone is taking notice of the Iranian delegation though, and "not in a good way". |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-04-15 8:22:07 AM |
| #2 I don't think the State Department wants to admit that somebody wandered off reservation & did something spineless. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2004-04-15 7:37:12 AM |
| #1 LOL! Whatever they're hiding, they're hiding it. |
| Posted by: someone 2004-04-15 3:10:54 AM |