Daily Press Briefing

Ian Kelly
Department Spokesman
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
October 19, 2009

INDEX:

DEPARTMENT
Secretary Clinton Meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki Today

PAKISTAN
U.S. - Pakistan Has a Shared Goal of Fighting Violent Extremism
U.S. Has Full Faith in Government of Pakistan/Encouraged by Pakistan's Efforts to Eliminate Violent Extremists within their Borders

IRAN
U.S. Condemns Terrorist Attack in Iran/Looking at Possible Designations of Terrorist Groups
Today's LEU Meeting in Geneva Designed For Experts to Meet and Discuss Technical Issues
U.S. Would Like to See a Substantial Reduction in Stockpile of Uranium/U.S. Fully Supports IAEA

AFGHANISTAN
U.S. Focus Regarding Afghan Elections is a Need for a Credible and Legitimate Outcome that Reflects the Will of the Afghan People
U.S. Allowing the Process a Chance to Play Out/Results of Election Can Only be Certified by IEC
Senator Kerry Has Been Closely Coordinating with the State Department/As a Senator He Represents the Legislative Branch

NORTH KOREA
Issuance of Visas for Ambassdor Ri Gun to Attend North East Asia Cooperative Dialogue
Anticipate an American Official will Attend this Meeting as Well
Nothing Bilateral Scheduled For Now

HORN OF AFRICA
U.S. Very Concerned about Flooding and Humanitarian Situation in Somalia/USAID Involvement in Assistance

RUSSIA
A/S Gottemoeller is Leading the U.S. Delegation in Negotiations on a follow-on to the START Treaty in Geneva

TRANSCRIPT:

1:23 p.m. EDT

MR. KELLY: Okay, good afternoon. First of all, you’ve seen that the Secretary has a meeting with Prime Minister Maliki. That’s in about 40 minutes. There’ll be a camera spray before the meeting and then I expect the Secretary will make some brief remarks as well. There will be, of course, a discussion of bilateral issues, but I think one of the more important items on the agenda for the meeting will be tomorrow’s U.S.-Iraq business and investment conference. This conference we see as a stepping stone to greater private sector involvement and investment in the Iraqi economy. And of course, we have had very intensive government-to-government relations, but we think that the next step is greater involvement of the private sector. So this conference is intended to encourage business-to-business connections and partner our respective business communities.

And with that, I will take your questions. Mr. Burns.

QUESTION: Can we start on Pakistan?

MR. KELLY: On Pakistan.

QUESTION: The authorities there said that prior to the launching of this offensive in South Waziristan that they’ve reached agreements with two – with commanders of two militant groups to keep them out of the fight, not attack them. And these are groups in particular that are more focused on fighting in Afghanistan than in fighting the Pakistani Government. What’s the U.S. position on that prioritization of the Pakistani offensive to not attack those groups?

MR. KELLY: Well, first of all, I’m not aware of that particular report. I think that we have a shared goal here, and the shared goal is fighting violent extremism. And I think that it’s – I mean, we’ve been quite clear that we see a continuum between Pakistan and Afghanistan. And one of the reasons that we’re supporting the Government of Pakistan in their fight against these violent extremists and terrorist organizations within their border is because, of course, there is this continuum -- between the border areas there’s a continuum between Pakistan and Afghanistan. And we support their efforts to try and fight these elements. And of course, this operation right now is designed to put these guys out of business, and we support that.

But what – this report that you’re referring to, I’m not --

QUESTION: You’re not aware that they’ve --

MR. KELLY: I’m not aware of that --

QUESTION: -- reached agreements with these other groups?

MR. KELLY: No, I’m not. Not aware of that.

QUESTION: Yeah. Can you just clarify a little bit more how crucial the current Pakistani offensive is in South Waziristan to the overall U.S. interest in stability of the region and protecting the U.S. and its allies from terrorism?

MR. KELLY: Well – yeah. This is part of an overall offensive that we’ve seen the Government of Pakistan conduct. I mean, we saw the operations in the Swat Valley earlier. We recognize that these are very difficult operations and a very difficult terrain. And of course, there are the concerns for the civilian populations that are paramount in all our minds. But as I just said to Bob, we see what’s happening in this part of Pakistan as being very much part of what’s happening in Afghanistan. So one of the major reasons that we are supporting these efforts is to help us reach success in Afghanistan as well.

QUESTION: Just to follow up quickly please. For eight years, international community and U.S. help Pakistan, and what do you think will be new this time that did not take place or happen in eight years that you think Pakistan will be with you or you can trust them and have faith and they will fight side-by-side with you, not both with you and with the al-Qaidas.

MR. KELLY: Yeah. I mean, we’re not asking them to fight side-by-side with us. We’re – we are offering to partner with them as they deal with this extremist – with these extremist elements within their borders. And I think that within the last few months or so, we’ve seen a real commitment on the part of the Government of Pakistan to confront head-on militarily these elements within their borders.

QUESTION: You don’t see a military again in Pakistan because of all these developments, maybe because demonstrations taking place and all that, so much going on? You think that Pakistan may have again military for – Pakistan may have again military rule because of so much going on in Pakistan?

MR. KELLY: I think that we have full faith in the Government of Pakistan. I think that they’ve turned a corner as well in their democratic development, and so we support them in their efforts.

Yes.

QUESTION: Ian, recently we’ve been criticizing Pakistan because of their lukewarm attitude to go into South Waziristan and also to the north up in that area. Now, I guess it was about a year or more ago, they offered the – went into some type of agreements with the Taliban, and you see that it came out as naught. Do you think they’re serious now? Of course, some of the cities even in the east, such as Lahore --

MR. KELLY: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- up in the west have been attacked recently, even around Islamabad. Do you think that they should go further and strictly cut off that region, especially for some of the goods that are smuggled through, weapons and else what?

MR. KELLY: First of all, I mean, this is a – first and foremost, this is a challenge for Pakistan which should have a Pakistani solution. We share these goals. They’ve expressed their determination to eliminate these dangerous and murderous elements within their borders. And they’ve backed up these expressions of determination with real action, first in the Swat Valley and now in South Waziristan. As I said before, we don’t minimize the difficulties and challenges faced of trying to conduct military operations in this – these mountainous tribal areas, but we are encouraged by the determination that they’ve expressed and also shown to eliminate these elements.

Yes.

QUESTION: Your statement on Iran over the weekend condemned the terrorist attack.

MR. KELLY: Yes.

QUESTION: So I’m wondering, if that was a terrorist attack, why isn’t Jundullah a terrorist organization?

MR. KELLY: This is something we’re looking at. We’re looking at a number of designations, and this particular organization is one of these organizations we’re looking at. I don’t have anything to announce at this time.

QUESTION: So you’re saying that there could be a different designation for Jundullah, or you’re saying that it’s one of many groups that’s being considered for terrorist designation?

MR. KELLY: I’m just saying that we’re looking at – we’re looking at possible designations. I really don’t want to say anything beyond that.

QUESTION: Well, is there any reason why Jundullah wouldn’t be designated?

MR. KELLY: I’m not going to say that it won’t be designated.

QUESTION: But it’s been – it’s been conducting attacks for years now.

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, like I say, I have nothing to announce now. But this is something that we’re looking at.

Yeah, in the back. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Ian, good afternoon. This is John Terret from Al Jazeera English television.

MR. KELLY: Yes.

QUESTION: How does the increased likelihood of a runoff in the Afghan presidential election affect the Obama Administration? And what I mean by that is that we assume that you guys would like a bit more time to sort out what you want to do with Afghanistan, but this might give you almost a bit too much time, allowing critics to really attack Mr. Obama for dithering while troops are in harmed way – harm’s way. What do you say to that?

MR. KELLY: Well, first of all, I don’t want to suggest that we haven’t given our troops on the ground the kind of resources they need to carry out their mission, because we have. I mean, we have resourced this. I think you’ve heard people say that we were concerned that this mission was under-resourced in the past. But we’re doing everything we can to make sure that it – that our troops have the wherewithal to do what they’re there to do.

QUESTION: But this runoff can’t be good for you guys.

MR. KELLY: Well, no, I don’t agree with that, and – because I think what we’ve all got to focus on here is we’ve got to focus on the need for a credible and legitimate outcome that reflects the will of the Afghan people. And in order to do that, we need to allow these Afghan institutions to do their job. And we need to support this process that they’re carrying out now, and this process is being carried out according to Afghan law and the Afghan constitution.

And that’s really what we’re focused on right now, is allowing this process a chance to play out. I think you saw today that the Electoral Complaints Commission, that they’ve carried out their mandate in a very thorough fashion. This was carried out under the Afghan election law. They’ve delivered their orders or their recommendations to the Independent Electoral Commission. And right now, the IEC is examining those recommendations. And of course, we’ll call on – we call on these Afghan institutions – in this instance, the IEC – to implement the recommendations of the ECC. And we look forward to the final certified results, which the IEC will issue in the coming days.

QUESTION: Ian, just to follow up, you don’t think it opens up the Administration to attacks from critics who say, well, you know, they’re really dithering while American lives are at risk?

MR. KELLY: I don’t – again, I – of course American lives are at risk, but we’ve given them what they need. General McChrystal has presented his recommendations for the way forward. And of course, that’s being assessed right now. But this is a very serious decision which requires some very thorough deliberation.

Do you have the same subject, Janine? Yeah.

QUESTION: Are you able to confirm that Karzai did not get 50 percent as a result of this examination as it’s being reported?

MR. KELLY: No, we’re not able to confirm that. I think that this is something – the results can only be certified by the IEC.

QUESTION: And just to follow up, Senator Kerry is meeting with President Karzai today and looking very much like a diplomat, meeting with him several times and encouraging him with – vis-à-vis the election and the possibility of a second runoff. Can you talk about how he’s been coordinating with the State Department?

MR. KELLY: He’s been – yeah, he’s been very – he’s been coordinating very closely with the State Department. He’s been coordinating with Ambassador Eikenberry. Secretary Clinton has spoken with Ambassador Eikenberry several times. She spoke as well with President Karzai and with Mr. Abdullah. Senator Kerry, as I say, is closely coordinating with us, but he does – he’s a senator. He represents the Legislative Branch, and as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of course, he plays a key role in shaping congressional policy.

QUESTION: What about Khalilzad? He’s also in Kabul. Did anyone ask him to go? Is he coordinating with you at all?

MR. KELLY: No, not that I’m aware of. Mr. Khalilzad is a private citizen.

QUESTION: He has not been coordinating?

MR. KELLY: Not that I’m aware of.

QUESTION: Do you know if he asked?

MR. KELLY: I – not that I’m aware of. I don’t think so, but I’m not --

QUESTION: Can you take – can we take that question and find out?

MR. KELLY: I’m not sure. I’m not sure we’ll be able to give you any more information. If we – if there is information contradicting what I just said, we’ll let you know, but assume that it’s – he’s not --

QUESTION: So assume that he did not ask the U.S. Government how they felt about him going to Kabul --

MR. KELLY: Not in any coordinated fashion.

Yes.

QUESTION: Yonhap news agency, South Korea. Do you think Ambassador Sung Kim will meet with North Korean official Ri Gun in New York?

MR. KELLY: Well, let me give you a little bit of background, first of all. We – I think you saw on Friday that we decided to authorize the issuance of visas to Ambassador Ri Gun and a small delegation to attend two conferences in late October. He’s been invited to participate in the Northeast Asia Cooperative Dialogue – this is at the University of California, San Diego – and also in a seminar in New York hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and the Korea Society.

This conference, the Northeast Asia Cooperative Dialogue – sorry – is a – what we call a track two forum for – a track two discussion forum where officials from foreign and defense ministries from the various Six-Party members can have discussions relating to regional security issues with academics and other nongovernmental organizations. This is a – it’s a regular forum. There was one last year in Beijing around the same time that Deputy Assistant Secretary Alex Arvizu attended. There will be American officials at this meeting in San Diego, but no decision has been made about who will attend, presumably, again, from our East Asia and Pacific Bureau.

QUESTION: So any decision on Bosworth’s trip to Pyongyang?

MR. KELLY: No. There’s been no decision on whether or not to accept the invitation for bilateral talks.

QUESTION: So there will be an American official for --

MR. KELLY: We anticipate that there will be an American official attending.

QUESTION: In San Diego. And what about the one in New York?

MR. KELLY: I’m not sure about the one in New York. I just have information about the one in San Diego. And it’s next week. It starts, I think, a week from today.

QUESTION: There will be State Department officials?

MR. KELLY: We anticipate there will be a State Department official at the meeting, yeah.

QUESTION: So a official or multiple officials?

MR. KELLY: No decisions have been made about what level or how many. I expect that decision will be made very soon.

Also on Korea, Jill?

QUESTION: Yeah. Ian, I'm sorry. Are they going to engage or not? Are they just going to be there at the same time, or are they going to –

MR. KELLY: Well, it’s unofficial. In other words, this is not – we’re not going to get into the substance of – I mean, this is not a negotiation. I’ll put it that way. And there aren’t any meetings that are planned. There are no sit-downs with the North Koreans that are planned. That’s not to say there won’t be. But I think first we have to decide on who’s going and then we can decide on engagement.

QUESTION: This is not a bilateral meeting (inaudible) go to the bilateral meeting with the –

MR. KELLY: Well, it’s a multilateral meeting in the sense that you’re going to have officials from the Six-Party countries, including North Korea. But it’s – there’s nothing bilateral scheduled right now.

QUESTION: New topic?

MR. KELLY: Janine – I think you were first.

QUESTION: New topic.

MR. KELLY: Yeah, and then we’ll get to you, Janine.

QUESTION: Ian, the Horn of Africa, that section of Africa, has been devastated even more so with droughts and then, of course, flooding and the rainy season. Is there any contemplation of putting further aid there, as well as working perhaps with scientific groups, as well as environmental groups, to maybe alleviate some of the situation? And is USAID working on this along with other branches of the State Department?

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, the short answer to that question is yes, they are working and we are very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Somalia and the region in general. I don’t have ready facts for you right now, but I’m sure that my colleagues at USAID would be happy to give you more facts. So I’ll take that question. What I’ll do is try and get you more sort of specifics, more data on what we’re doing.

Janine.

QUESTION: Any readout of the Iran LEU talks today?

MR. KELLY: I have a very short readout. We were able to talk to somebody who is at the meetings. And as you know, the meetings were convened to develop a response to Iran’s request to meet the need for safeguarded research reactor fuel. And of course, our – what we would like to see here is a substantial reduction in the – Iran’s growing stockpile of enriched uranium that might otherwise be available for non-peaceful uses.

We fully support the IAEA proposal to have this low-enriched uranium processed in Russia and France. And so this meeting was designed as a meeting where experts in these issues could sit down and meet. And I think you probably saw what Mr. ElBaradei said today. He called the meetings a good start. He said that most of the technical issues have been covered and that we expect the discussion to continue tomorrow morning.

QUESTION: A follow-up on that?

MR. KELLY: Yeah. Sure, Kirit.

QUESTION: There was an interesting article in Time magazine today talking about the back story on this deal and talking about some of the personal involvement of President Obama in his discussions with Moscow earlier this year and then again in New York with the Russians. Can you tell us a little bit more about how this came together?

MR. KELLY: Well, I think as I just said, we were looking at a way to be responsive to Iran’s desire to have a nuclear energy program that could be used for peaceful purposes. And – but we also, of course, had great concerns about the possibility of them using some of the mechanisms to develop this kind of program for military purposes to develop a nuclear weapon. And I can’t give you a chronology of how this all developed, but obviously, it wasn’t something that we thought up right there in Geneva. I mean, it is something that has been developed over some time.

And as I said, it was a good way for both sides to meet our express concerns. On the one hand, Iran gets the fuel for its civilian nuclear energy program, and on the other, we make sure that this fuel is produced in a safe way. And by sending the stockpiles out of the country, it reduces the possibility of some kind of breakthrough, where they could develop a nuclear weapon. So --

QUESTION: And can you say whether this went back – the genesis of the idea went back to the Moscow visit?

MR. KELLY: No, I’m not sure, standing right here, if it actually was developed specifically at that meeting.

QUESTION: Same topic?

MR. KELLY: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: You said that you’d gotten some sort of readout from your people in Vienna. Did they give you any indication that the Iranians are more reluctant to proceed with this than they had appeared initially?

MR. KELLY: Well, I think it’s – as I said, it was just a beginning. It was a good beginning. But I think that we still need to sit down and work out a lot of the details on how we’ll actually implement this agreement that we had in --

QUESTION: I’m asking about the Iranians’ attitude. Are they continuing – I mean, is it proceeding, or are they resisting this approach?

MR. KELLY: Well, I think it’s a good sign that they’ve agreed to meet again tomorrow. I think beyond that, I really can’t say.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Ian, they’re saying that – in Vienna, the Iranians are saying that if they don’t get what they want, they will just go ahead and enrich the uranium up to 20 percent themselves in the country. Will that in any way affect the strategy the P-5+1 has so far?

MR. KELLY: Well, I think we have been very, very clear on this that Iran is not meeting its obligations, and one of those obligations is not to enrich uranium. It’s also not demonstrating in a transparent and verifiable way that its intentions are what they say they are, that their intentions are to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program.

This agreement in principle in Geneva offers them a way to have what they say they want to develop, and that’s a civilian nuclear energy program. And it’s a way for us to be able to be certain that the fuel that they have is what they say it’s for, and that’s to develop a nuclear energy program.

So we would urge Iran to show – to demonstrate that its intentions are what they say they are, and the best way to do that is for us to work out a way forward on implementing this – the agreement in Geneva.

QUESTION: They’re also saying that the U.S. is preparing to officially announce that it will accept Iran enriching its own uranium, which you just mentioned is – any truth to that?

MR. KELLY: That’s not my understanding of what’s happening right now in Vienna.

Yeah, Lach.

QUESTION: Can we switch to Geneva? There’s another set of talks there – U.S.-Russia on START. Do you have a readout on that?

MR. KELLY: I think what we said before is that this is – we have very intensive negotiations going on. We have a very firm deadline that’s coming up very quickly, a little more than – well, it’s December 5th, so it’s – we’re talking about a month and a half now. So we have very intensive negotiations going on. We do not want to negotiate in public. We are taking the tasking from our two presidents very seriously, the Russian side and the American side.

Our lead negotiator, Assistant Secretary Rose Gottemoeller, is in Geneva now with her team. They began another round of talks. I think that’s the sixth round of talks. And the Russian side is headed by Mr. Antonov. And as I say, both sides are negotiating intensively and seriously.

QUESTION: Too early to speak of progress?

MR. KELLY: Too early to speak of – no, I think there is some progress. I think that both sides exchanged drafts of an agreement. So there is – I mean, there’s a lot of overlap in the agreement, so there’s progress in that respect, but we’re not – we don’t want to get into details right now, publicly anyway.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: One more? One more on --

MR. KELLY: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- Afghanistan, please. Afghanistan needs a lot of construction, and as far as the trust and faith is concerned, that requires a lot of massive economic aid or economic reconstruction. Many companies are there, but now, there’s a fear of terrorism; they are being under attacks and all that. Now in the case of India and Pakistan, they are blaming each other. As far as India’s presence in Afghanistan is concerned, Pakistan think that India will take over Afghanistan, or this is not in their security’s interest, India’s presence in Afghanistan.

So how can you bring all this trust, distrust --

MR. KELLY: Well, I think the main thing is that we all conduct this in full transparency, that any side that is contributing towards the reconstruction of Afghanistan, that we do so in a cooperative way, that we share as much information as possible. I don’t see how helping Afghanistan develop its economy and its infrastructure could be seen as a security threat to any other country in the region. On the contrary; a stable and more prosperous Afghanistan could be – is only going to contribute to regional stability.

QUESTION: Thanks.

MR. KELLY: Okay. Thanks.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:52 p.m.)