Middle East Digest: November 9, 2007Bureau of Public Affairs The Middle East Digest provides text and audio from the Daily Press Briefing. For the full briefings, please visit http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/ From the Daily Briefing of November 9, 2007: QUESTION: Benazir Bhutto has been released around now. I wonder if you have anything more on that. MR. MCCORMACK: We understand from the government spokesman that she's going to be allowed to leave. And as we have said for the past week, we believe it is important for those moderate forces, moderate forces within the Pakistan political system to work together, to get Pakistan back on the road to democracy and constitutional rule. They are under a threat from violent extremists who seek to undermine the gains that had been made prior to the imposition of the state of emergency. So we believe that it is positive and it should -- in any decision-making with respect to getting Pakistan back on the road to democracy and constitutional rule, the bias should be in favor of greater openness and dialogue among those forces who want to take Pakistan in a positive direction. The bias should be in favor of allowing peaceful expression of views no matter what they may be saying about the existing situation. Oftentimes, the pathway to democracy is difficult. It is oftentimes not easy, but it is, in the end, to the benefit of the population that the leaders of Pakistan move forward, move forward quickly, and return Pakistan to the pathway of democracy and constitutional rule. QUESTION: The timing is pretty good for this release, since I don't think she can hold the rally now. It's too late over there. MR. MCCORMACK: Again, we -- individual political leaders, political parties are going to have make their own decisions about how they manifest their peaceful expression and their views, whether that is speaking out through the media or otherwise. But it is important they be able to do so. We have expressed that clearly to the Pakistani Government. We have also called upon all the responsible members of the Pakistani political class, those forces who want to take Pakistan in the political direction to maintain an atmosphere of calm, you can express your views in a peaceful manner without resort to violence or without resort to provoking violence. That is important. Pakistan is at an important moment in their history. We believe and others believe that it is important that those forces that have a positive vision for Pakistan work together to get Pakistan back on the road to democracy. QUESTION: You have been speaking about responsible leaders. Do you think it was responsible from Mrs. Bhutto to call for a giant rally after the bombing that killed many of her supporters right after her return to Pakistan? MR. MCCORMACK: Sylvie, again, I'm not in the business of making decisions for political party leaders in other countries or political party leaders in this country, for that matter. They are going to have to do what they think is in the best of interest of their country. And at the moment, our counsel is that the best interest of the Pakistani people are served by quickly getting back to constitutional rule -- rolling back the emergency decree, rolling back the restrictions on press freedoms, releasing those people who are merely expressing their political views, their opinions in a peaceful manner and work together in a concerted way to put Pakistan back on a democratic path. That means that President Musharraf should roll back the state of emergency, schedule a fixed date for elections coming up. He committed to those elections no later than February 15th and he also recommitted to taking off the uniform. He should make that commitment publicly and fix a date for the Pakistani people so that they have an expectation that they are in fact going return to constitutional rule and a pathway to democracy. They had benefited over the past years from President Musharraf's program of political and economic reform, prior to the imposition of the state of emergency. That's the kind of pathway Pakistan should return to and the kind of pathway that is going to benefit the Pakistani people. QUESTION: Sean. MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, Charlie. QUESTION: Earlier, you said that the moderate forces are under threat from extremists. It would seem that Ms. Bhutto is under a threat from Musharraf and the army that he heads. MR. MCCORMACK: Well -- QUESTION: There's no criticism at all about that action. MR. MCCORMACK: Well, first of all, I'm not aware of any threats of violence against former Prime Minister Bhutto from the government. They did, for a period of time, not allow her to leave her house. And that was not a step in the right direction. Now the government has said that she will be allowed to leave her house. She should be allowed. She should be allowed to travel freely, as should other members of Pakistani political party leaders, Pakistani civil society leaders, and they should be able to express themselves peacefully. That should be a source of strength for Pakistan at this time. It should not be viewed as a hindrance to getting Pakistan back on the road to democracy; it isn't. In fact, those values and those actions would in our view, in fact, increase the ability of Pakistan to get back to that positive pathway. Charley. QUESTION: Does the pathway to democracy still include a power-sharing possibility between Musharraf and Bhutto, from your perspective? MR. MCCORMACK: From our perspective, those are decisions that political party leaders are going to have to make. And ultimately, the Pakistani people are going to get a say in who their leaders are going to be when they are able to vote in parliamentary elections. I expect that they are looking forward to that. We have said for some time prior to this imposition of a state of emergency that we encourage moderate political forces in Pakistan to work together. Now if that means President Musharraf and former Prime Minister Bhutto or others, then that is a decision for those people to make. It's a decision for the Pakistani people to make. We were only making the point that there are political parties, there are people, there are leaders in Pakistan who want to take Pakistan in a positive direction. In our view you know what that means. That means greater freedom, greater economic reform, greater promotion of democracy within Pakistan. There are those who want to subvert any of the gains that have been made over the recent years in Pakistan and want to take Pakistan in a very different direction which, in our view, would be negative for the Pakistani people and certainly negative for our interests. We have not hidden the fact that we have interest in seeing Pakistan maintain the kind of course that they were on prior to the imposition of the state of emergency. We have interests in a Pakistani Government and a Pakistani nation that has an interest in fighting terrorism. They have an interest in that as well. It's as much a threat internally to Pakistan as it is to Pakistan's neighbors and ultimately to us. Yes, Kirit. QUESTION: Is there an update for us on the status of the aid review? MR. MCCORMACK: The aid review is still ongoing. I don't have a timeline for you, but it is ongoing. We are looking at our aid programs with respect to our legal obligations. And then once you perform and complete that task, of course, you have to make a decision about those programs up against where we stand on our bilateral relationship with Pakistan. And obviously, events in Pakistan will influence that. Yes. QUESTION: Change of subject to Georgia? MR. MCCORMACK: Anything else on Pakistan? Yes, sir. QUESTION: All (inaudible) TV channels are still off air in Pakistan. Is there any further communication between U.S. Government and Government of Pakistan on that subject? MR. MCCORMACK: Well, that is among the actions that we have urged Pakistan to take, and that is to allow independent, free media to continue to function, whether that's television stations or radio stations or newspapers. It's a vital part of any democracy and a vital part of any aspiring democracy that the independent media be allowed to function freely. It's very important and we have told that to the Pakistani Government both in public as well as in private. QUESTION: On Turkey, are you -- do you feel relieved that they're not going to launch an incursion into Iraq now? MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I think you heard from the President on this one. Prime Minister Erdogan was here just a few days ago and we believe that there was a good discussion about how to improve cooperation and how to get effective results from that cooperation in terms of fighting PKK. Part of that equation is working with the Iraqi Government and the Iraqi Government stepping up to the plate and actually taking measures that will have a meaningful effect, an effective effect on terrorist actions not taking place and the beginning of dismantling the PKK on Iraqi soil. Yes. QUESTION: Can you talk a little bit about the reason these Iranians were released in Baghdad -- MR. MCCORMACK: And the U.S. Trade Representative as well. I don't want to leave them out. Yes, go ahead. QUESTION: Do you have any insight you could provide us with on the recent release of these Iranians in Baghdad? MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I know the MNF-I has put out a press release about this announcing that these nine individuals had been released. They were released because they were deemed no longer to be either of intelligence value or a threat to our troops. We wouldn't release anybody that we thought was going to pose a continuing risk to our troops. So there's a review process that all security detainees undergo. They have periodic reviews. There are joint reviews with representatives from the Iraqi Government as well as from MNF-I. The full range of the United States Government has an ability to input to that process should they need to. And I believe that this was a decision where the various situation involving many of these detainees were briefed up the chain. Ultimately, it was a decision that commanders on the ground took. QUESTION: (Inaudible), but was this something that President Bush had to sign off on or -- MR. MCCORMACK: I think if you ask the White House, what they would say is he was briefed on the matter, but it was a decision that was delegated down to the field, the commanders in the field to make. QUESTION: And then last one, do you know if there's any plans or desire to have Ryan Crocker meet with his counterpart in Baghdad? MR. MCCORMACK: Nothing new on that. It's a channel that's available to both sides, should there be mutual agreement that it was useful to meet. At this point, there's nothing new in terms of the two sides getting together in that channel. QUESTION: Ryan Crocker said last week in Istanbul, actually, that he's going to meet soon -- QUESTION: And within in the next few weeks, he said -- QUESTION: Yes. MR. MCCORMACK: Like I said, there's nothing scheduled. I will let you know if there's a meeting. QUESTION: Speaking of Baghdad, Sean, it's been quite some time since you said the Secretary’s patience was not unlimited when it comes to the opening of the new embassy there. MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: What is the latest -- what is the now -- the expected completion date for the embassy that you're hearing from General Williams and the OBO? MR. MCCORMACK: Well, as I understand it, and I have to admit, I have not checked on the status of the inspections recently, but there was a schedule of inspections that were supposed to be undertaken before we would sign off on actually taking possession of the embassy from the contractor. To my knowledge, those weren't -- they weren't scheduled to be done with those before Thanksgiving. I think that was sort of the notional schedule that they had in mind. Look, she's testified about this before Chairman Waxman. She wants to make sure that we get our money's worth, in terms of the embassy, want to make sure that it is up to standards for our people. And I don’t have a timeline for you, Matt. I can't tell you exactly when it might open. That will be dependent mostly on the results of those inspections. # # # # # |
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