Military

12:35 p.m. EDT

MR. CASEY: Good afternoon, everybody. Happy Monday. Glad to be here with you. Don't have any opening statements or announcements, so got anything, Matt?

QUESTION: Nope.

MR. CASEY: Got anything, anybody? We'd have the quickest one on record.

QUESTION: Thank you. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: There's been reports that Germany is requesting the extradition from the U.S. of 13 suspected CIA agents.

MR. CASEY: That who's requesting that?

QUESTION: Germany.

MR. CASEY: I'm not aware of such a request being made, though I think we've spoken to this issue before and I think you'll find the reaction on this to be about the same.

Yeah, Joel.

QUESTION: Tom, good morning. A question. There's just been the summit meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh. Have you been monitoring that particular conference?

QUESTION: (Inaudible) didn't call it a shack.

QUESTION: Yeah. And also, there's been the detainment of Alan Johnson, the BBC reporter, and apparently Hamas is living up to its behavior. They put a explosive belt on him. Of course, his family and the BBC would like him released. Any comments concerning those situations?

MR. CASEY: Well, in terms of the meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, first of all, we're very pleased to see these regional actors getting together. We think that the Egyptian invitation to President Abbas as well as Prime Minister Olmert and King Abdullah of Jordan shows that there is international support for President Abbas, for those moderate forces that are seeking to have a two-state solution. And we will continue to be monitoring the events as the day goes on here. I don't have a readout yet that we've gotten from those sessions, though certainly we are following it closely and of course, have been in contact with the various parties before the meeting as well. So I'm sure we'll be interested in hearing what they have to say.

But as we've said before too, it's important to have opportunities not just for the U.S. to engage with the different parties there, but to have people within the region do these kinds of discussions to look for ways to be able to promote dialogue, promote understanding, support President Abbas and others as they go about developing the Palestinian institutions. So that's something that we see as very positive and in everyone's interests.

QUESTION: To follow up, Tom, you've given the -- apparently, the Fatah-Abbas group in the West Bank up to $40 million. What do you expect that money to go toward and are you now successful in keeping Hamas segregated from the rest of that money? And how does that stand?

MR. CASEY: Well, Joel, I think -- I assume what you're referring to is the $40 million that the Secretary talked about when she was down here last week. And that money is to go specifically to the UN Relief Works Agency to provide for the humanitarian needs of the people in Gaza. Despite the actions by Hamas in Gaza, we continue to be very strongly committed to trying to help the people in that area deal with the basic needs of life and humanitarian circumstances in which they find themselves.

I don't have any updates for you on how UNRWA's working to distribute that -- those resources, though I think if you look, you'll see that among other things, there have been food deliveries, medicine deliveries, and other kinds of things that the UN is working to bring into Gaza. And of course, the Israelis have also said that they do intend to provide and continue to provide basic levels of services like water and electricity that are needed for the folks there. Now --

QUESTION: Actually, how -- on the U.S. money that's to go to Abbas and his people, how is the consultation with the Hill going on that or has it begun?

MR. CASEY: It has not begun yet. I think -- and heard from the Secretary on this a little bit as well today, there are still a number of plans that the Abbas government is formulating and will be working with them as their plans develop to determine how best we can utilize this money. But we're still conducting consultations with them and internally amongst ourselves as to how to proceed. So we need to have that be completed before we can go brief the Hill on what we intend to do.

James.

QUESTION: Tom, apparently IAEA teams are supposed to, once they leave North Korea, go to Iran with some view toward resolving longstanding open questions about Iran's nuclear program. Does the United States regard this invitation from Iran to the IAEA as a productive development?

MR. CASEY: Well, we'd certainly hope that Iran would do what it's been asked to do for several years now, which is clear up a whole series of questions that the IAEA has about their nuclear program -- about its history and its origin, about the exact nature of it, about why much of the documentation that they had provided, usually after they'd been outted by one group or another, contained information that appeared to contradict what the facts were. So we very much would like to see this be a sincere offer on the part of Iran. It would be a positive step should they actually do so. But it's our understanding that the invitation is to come up with an action plan that would theoretically then address some of those specific concerns. So I think we're unfortunately still a long way away from the Iranians actually complying with and providing that kind of information. But it's certainly high time that they did so. And we'd certainly like to see them come clean and tell the international community exactly what it is that they've been doing and answer the questions that we all have about their nuclear program.

QUESTION: And what is the status of the drive toward a third Security Council resolution?

MR. CASEY: Well, we continue to have consultations with our P-5+1 partners at a variety of different levels. I don't think at this point we are close to having a resolution to table this week, for example. But we are moving forward with a discussion about ideas for what kinds of elements to include in such a resolution, what kind of sanctions would be involved. And unfortunately, what we're going to see is the noose get tighter on the Iranian Government and, unfortunately, have an impact on the Iranian people as well.

QUESTION: Are we basically drawing from the same set of menu options that informed the first two resolutions and it's a just a matter of selecting those items that haven't previously been selected or --

MR. CASEY: Well, without trying to preview for you what might or might not be included in the resolution, the original P-5+1 package that included both the offer for negotiation as well as the sanctions path, pretty much laid out a clear set of measures that the P-5+1 could draw from in gradually ratcheting up pressure through sanctions. So I suspect that the items that were under discussion will be part of that broader menu.

Mr. Lambros.

QUESTION: On FYROM, Mr. Casey. Your Ambassador to Skopje, Gillian Milovanovic stated the other day, "Greece cannot raise a veto against the admission of Macedonia into NATO." Two questions: Number one, under which capacity she is talking on behalf of the Greek Government about veto; number two, I'm wondering who authorized her to make such a provocative statement against Greece.

MR. CASEY: Mr. Ambassador -- (laughter). Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Lambros -- (laughter). Boy, it is Monday, guys. I'll tell you. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: He does enjoy a certain exalted status. (Laughter.)

MR. CASEY: Yes, we all have -- we all have. Look, I'm not going there. I got into enough trouble already.

Mr. Lambros, I'm sure the Ambassador, in whatever capacity he was making the remarks, did so in full conformity with U.S. policy. I certainly haven't seen those remarks. But as we all know NATO is an organization that operates by consensus. I would fully expect that when the time came for consideration of new membership that the procedures there would work as they have in the past, which would be a requirement, of course, that all countries, all current members, accede to the admission of new members. Again, with respect to --

(Briefing paused for a Public Address System announcement.)

QUESTION: Is that on the record?

MR. CASEY: I think that's on -- I don't know, should we put it in the transcript or shouldn't we? (Laughter.)

QUESTION: What is the answer?

MR. CASEY: Yeah, I didn't know you were inciting violence now, Mr. Lambros. That's a terrible thing.

But again, Mr. Lambros, as we all know, NATO's procedures for admitting new members are clear and consistent. It operates under consensus. Certainly, I would hope that we would see -- be able to see consensus on the admission of new members at a time when NATO chooses to take them.

You know and you've heard from us about our position about the membership of a number of countries, including Macedonia. We continue to believe it's important that all of those states that wish to be members, that are part of the membership action plan, continue to do the things necessary to be able to meet the criteria for membership.

With respect to the issue of the name between Greece and Macedonia, we continue to support a negotiated agreement on that between Greece and Macedonia under the auspices of the United Nations.

QUESTION: Can you take this question to see if it is said by your Ambassador -- the statement?

MR. CASEY: Mr. Lambros, you can go talk to the Ambassador about their remarks. I'm sure the Embassy can help you in terms of clarifying them.

James.

QUESTION: On North Korea, stipulating in advance that we will hear further from Ambassador Hill, does the United States Government have a clear idea of which facilities at Yongbyon it would like to see shut down as part of any agreement?

MR. CASEY: Well, I think everyone is in general agreement that that includes the reactor itself as well as the reprocessing facility. There are a number of other facilities on that compound as I understand it. And the exact status of those facilities would be determined as part of a discussion between the IAEA team, which will arrive tomorrow as I understand it, and the North Koreans. But I think the two primary facilities that everyone has understood this is concerning are the most obvious ones which is the reactor itself as well as the reprocessing facility.

QUESTION: So we're not pushing for all buildings that are part of the complex.

MR. CASEY: Well, I think as Sean said last week, we continue to view this in a fairly broad-brush terms. But in terms of the real specifics, I'm not sure -- I know I don't have a handle on what each and every building in that complex represents and we are looking to the IAEA to work out the exact terms. But it needs to be a full cessation of activities at the facility related to the production of nuclear fuels, of the reprocessing of nuclear fuels, and of the reactor itself.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Do you have any comment on Black Sea Cooperation summit held in Istanbul today? What are the U.S. expectations on international cooperation in Turkey, in Central Asia and Caspian region?

MR. CASEY: You know, I actually don't have anything on that for you. We'll get you something for that later.

QUESTION: On Kosovo.

MR. CASEY: All right, Mr. Lambros. We’ll give you one on Kosovo.

QUESTION: According to Reuters News Agency, Serbian President Boris Tadic stated "Kosovo independence would set a dangerous precedent, which would destabilize not just Serbia, but the entire Balkan region, as well, other regions." How do you respond, Mr. Casey, since you support independence too?

MR. CASEY: Well, Mr. Lambros, again, we have said this before as well. We don't see Kosovo as setting any precedent for either the broader region or for any other place in the world. The Kosovo circumstance is unique. The situation is governed under the rules established under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and we expect it to be resolved that way. And as you know, we are continuing to be supportive of the Ahtisaari plan as the basis for establishing an independent Kosovo.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. CASEY: Yeah, Kirit.

QUESTION: I just wanted to see if you had any comment on the Gilad Shalit audio that came out?

MR. CASEY: I don't. I've just seen the same press reports you have. I think for the moment, I'd let the Israeli Government comment first before I try to offer anything on it. Certainly, we want to see him -- as we have continued to, want to see him be released as soon as possible. This is something that's gone on too long and it would be the right thing to do and we certainly want to encourage those who are holding him to release him.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. CASEY: Thanks, guys.

(The briefing was concluded at 12:58 p.m.)

DPB # 113