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Daily Press Briefing

John Kirby
Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
July 25, 2016

Index for Today's Briefing

SECRETARY KERRY'S TRAVEL
IRAQ
RUSSIA
SOUTH KOREA/JAPAN

 

TRANSCRIPT:

2:11 p.m. EDT

MR KIRBY: Good afternoon, everybody. Just a recap, if I could, of the Secretary's meetings and discussions today. He met today, as I think you know, with the foreign ministers of the 10 ASEAN members in Laos to discuss shared priorities in the U.S.-ASEAN strategic partnership, including strengthening democracy, good governance, and economic integration in Southeast Asia, as well as upholding a rules-based regional order. The foreign ministers discussed U.S.-ASEAN Connect, which is an initiative to deepen U.S. economic cooperation through targeting strategic sectors, including innovation, energy, and business engagement. They discussed specific actions to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and they pledged to strengthen cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism.

The foreign ministers also discussed the South China Sea. Several ministers, including Secretary Kerry, noted the importance of fully respecting diplomatic and legal processes to resolve disputes peacefully, and they called upon both parties in the Philippines-China arbitration to abide by the decision of that tribunal and to uphold international law. We expect these issues to feature at the meetings of the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit foreign ministers' meeting, which Secretary Kerry will attend tomorrow.

The Secretary and his ASEAN counterparts agreed on the importance of full implementation of UN Security Council resolution 2270 to curb North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and he also met today with counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam at the ninth ministerial meeting of the Lower Mekong Initiative. Participants welcomed the progress that this initiative has made in promoting sustainable development in the Mekong region, and they launched the Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership. This partnership will provide training for government officials from Mekong Initiative countries aimed at building regional capacity and infrastructure plan.

That's it for the top today. Who's got a question? Go ahead.

QUESTION: Okay. This is on Iraq, and Iraq's defense minister has been saying that the Kurdish Peshmerga will not be fighting in the liberation of Mosul – that they only have a logistical role to play. Can you clarify what the U.S. view on this is?

MR KIRBY: Our view has been since the very beginning that we are there to support an Iraqi campaign plan and an Iraqi strategy to defeat Daesh in the country. And we continue to provide support to that campaign and to that strategy through train, advise, and assist missions and, of course, obviously through coalition air power and other assets. But this is an Iraqi plan, and I'm not going to speak here for an Iraqi operational strategy. What we are focused on is supporting the Government of Iraq as it continues to take back territory from Daesh. And we're supporting their efforts, trying to improve the battlefield competency and capability of Iraqi Security Forces.

QUESTION: So you would accept the – if it's an Iraqi definition, you would accept the definition of the role of the Peshmerga in the liberation of Mosul as only having a logistical role if that's what the Iraqis are saying?

MR KIRBY: What I'm saying is these are decisions – how the strategy to retake Mosul – those are decisions that Iraqi leaders have to make. Our job is to support the Government of Iraq. Obviously, we want to see Mosul retaken; everybody is committed to that goal, but this is an Iraqi plan, an Iraqi strategy, and we're going to support them as they execute that.

QUESTION: I have a follow-up question.

MR KIRBY: I was certain that you did.

QUESTION: It has to do with the statement of the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the KRG, that he issued today. And I – well, what he – we know, okay, that the KRG, the Kurds, are among America's most loyal allies in the Middle East. And if you think about the vast area between Jordan and India, the KRG is quite arguably America's most faithful and trustworthy ally. But today the president of the KRG, Masoud Barzani, issued a very strong statement noting the bravery and sacrifices of Peshmerga in fighting ISIS, as well as that of the Kurdish people generally, who host two-thirds of the refugees and displaced persons in Iraq. And he complained that nonetheless, Iraq created obstacles for a Kurdish representative to be present in the last anti-ISIS summit in Washington. Quote, "Unfortunately, the host of that summit went along with the Iraqi foreign minister. This is merely one example of many where the people of the Kurdistan region and their aspirations are deliberately neglected in accordance with the personal mood of certain individuals." How would you respond to that?

MR KIRBY: I haven't seen those comments, and so I'm not going to put myself in the position of responding to remarks that I haven't seen or were not aware of. Let me just go back and talk a little bit about last week's ministerial, which was very important – the counter-ISIL ministerial. I mean, both days – the pledging conference and – was obviously critical too, but they were two separate events. But let's talk about the counter-ISIL ministerial for a minute. I mean, now you have 67 members, with the inclusion now of Interpol, in the truly international coalition to defeat Daesh, and there were substantive, constructive, positive discussions that were had last week on how to improve coalition efforts across all the lines of effort against Daesh. And there was, of course, an Iraqi delegation led by that country's foreign minister, which included a member of the KRG. So – and again, we left – as we do with any country in this coalition, we left decisions of delegation participation up to that government, and the Iraqi Government chose to include a member of the KRG.

Now, let me just say a point about what you said in terms of efforts by the KRG and the Peshmerga in the fight – and they have been very effective, they have been very brave, they have been competent, and we have on many occasions said how much we appreciate that competence and that bravery, that skill on the battlefield, which is why we continue to support the Iraqi Government in Baghdad as that government tries to deal with this threat. And we have from the very beginning encouraged dialogue, cooperation, coordination between north and south, between the KRG and the Iraqi Government in Baghdad, which we will continue to do. And I don't know how – any more tangible way to get to this than you just look at the travels of the Presidential Special Envoy Brett McGurk, who goes to the region very, very frequently and he constantly spends time in Irbil talking to leaders up there about how – what kind of progress they're making and how things are going to go moving forward.

QUESTION: Well, I guess a statement like the – there's an expectation on the part of the U.S. that the Peshmerga are going to play a critical role fighting in the liberation of Mosul would address those kinds of concerns.

MR KIRBY: They have played a critical role in the fighting, and as for the campaign against Mosul, I think you can understand – at least I hope you can understand – why the U.S. Department of State wouldn't be commenting about the specifics of a military strategy; and number two, even if I were going to do that, why we wouldn't transmit publicly exactly how a strategy against a still determined, lethal enemy is going to be prosecuted. Everybody understands the importance of Mosul, the Iraqi Government obviously first among them who understands the importance of retaking Mosul. They have a strategy; they have a campaign plan. That campaign plan, by the way, has already been in motion, and DOD can speak to this with much greater specificity than I can, but there have been shaping operations going on for many months now around Mosul. We're going to continue to support that strategy and that plan, but it is an Iraqi plan, and we have all along said that we support Prime Minster Abadi's efforts – politically and militarily – to be as inclusive as possible as he continues to prosecute the efforts against Daesh inside his country.

QUESTION: Okay, but my last comment would be that it was not so long ago that the United States actually worked to remove the Iraqi foreign minister, who was then prime minister, from his position, and the United States was not quite so deferential to the Iraqi Government.

MR KIRBY: Well, I think I've spoken to this issue quite extensively today.

Ma'am.

QUESTION: Hi, thank you. On the possibility that Russia was behind the DNC hack, could you tell us if the Secretary has spoken or any other State Department official have spoken to their Russian counterparts, either to ask about this, protest, whatever, or if there's been any other sort of communication with the Russians – letters, missives, whatever?

MR KIRBY: Well, look, I mean, I think it goes without saying that issues of cyber security remain a topic of discussion between us and our Russian interlocutors on a continuous basis. I don't have any specific conversations to speak to, and nor would I as this matter is under investigation by the FBI.

QUESTION: Could you say whether this – the interference in an electoral campaign by a foreign power – rises to the level of an attack on – through cyber attacks – rises to the level of attack on vital installations or even cyber warfare?

MR KIRBY: I think we need to let the FBI do their work before we try to form any conclusions here about what happened and what the motivation was behind it. The FBI has spoken to this. We're going to respect that process.

Ma'am.

QUESTION: On Asia, there are a few meetings at the State Department today that I wondered if you had readouts on: Under Secretary Tom Shannon's meeting with the South Korean vice defense minister as well as Under Secretary Gottemoeller's meeting with the Japan ambassador to NATO.

MR KIRBY: Let me get back to you on that, all right?

QUESTION: Okay.

MR KIRBY: We'll see if we can't get you some basic readout information after those meetings are complete. I don't have anything for you right now here at the podium.

QUESTION: Okay. Thank you.

MR KIRBY: Okay. I think this is a new record. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day.

(The briefing was concluded at 2:22 p.m.)