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Boucher answers questions about the Iranian Delegation
EFL from State Department Daily Press BriefQUESTION: 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 -- Iraqâs neighbors. Can you be a little bit more specific about where Mr. Armitage will be going? And Iâll stop there. MR. BOUCHER: I can be a little more -- give you a little better idea, but right from the start, Iâve got to say that given the security considerations involved in the travel, we donât expect to be able to put out an itinerary or to be able to link specific stops and the specific dates. Heâll be leaving Friday night; heâll be in the region from then into next week; heâll be visiting Gulf States; heâll be visiting some of Iraqâs neighbors. QUESTION: Okay, and on that line, you wouldnât expect him to go to Iran, though, would you? MR. BOUCHER: No, I wouldnât. 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 isnât, what do you make of the fact that the Iranians have sent a team now into Iraq? MR. BOUCHER: Well, Iâd 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 weâve made clear to others of Iraqâs 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 itâs something that we monitor very closely. QUESTION: Well, if you didnât 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: Youâre getting an invitation. Did you ask the Iranians to use their good offices to help the situation? MR. BOUCHER: We -- Iâm not -- the United States did not ask the Iranian officials to go to Baghdad to do that. QUESTION: Iâm 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, Iâd 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 donât 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 donât, 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 Iraqâs 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 youâre open-minded about their purposes until you see -- MR. BOUCHER: I donât think I know enough about their purposes and theyâre -- what theyâre 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 weâre willing to do that on practical matters, on matters that are of importance to us. Weâve 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 youâre going to tell me to ask him. But since Iâm not in Tehran and I canât 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 donât really know. I just donât know what he was referring to. I donât think we invited the Iranian Delegation. Posted by: Super Hose 2004-04-15 |
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