Middle East Digest: May 5, 2008

Bureau of Public Affairs
May 5, 2008

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 Press Briefing of May 5, 2008:

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QUESTION: Do you have anything on Hezbollah's role in Iraq, Tom?

MR. CASEY: I -- you know, I've seen the article that I think your question refers back to. I'd really have to refer you to both officials in the Iraqi Government as well as those at MNF-I. I really don't have anything to offer you in terms of being able to confirm or verify any of the details in that story. I do think, though, that the larger point there is one that we have talked about quite regularly. Iran is playing a very unhelpful role in Iraq. It continues to train, fund, and support these extremist militia groups. Whether that is with or without the contributions, I guess is -- would be a way of looking at it, of Hezbollah is almost beside the point since Hezbollah is in many ways a creature of Iran. The fact remains, though, that the Iranian Government continues, despite their public statements of support for the Iraqi Government, to play this negative role, to provide this kind of assistance to militant groups and to militia groups. And it's something we want to see stopped and it's something the Iraqis want to see stopped.

Yeah, Lach.

QUESTION: Yeah, is the State Department involved in a plan to build a zone of influence in Baghdad in the Green Zone?

MR. CASEY: I'm not even sure what that means. Define a “zone of influence” to me?

QUESTION: It said building of hotels and resorts. (Laughter.) Hard to believe.

MR. CASEY: That's not anything that I'm aware of. Look, we certainly encourage and want to see foreign investment take place in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. We've worked with the neighbors group as well as through various donors conferences to try and encourage that. Certainly, I think the areas that most people would identify as the kinds of sectors that we would look for that kind of outside investment or interest in generally are more focused on some of the things like the petroleum industry, for example. I'm not familiar with any plans, certainly no U.S. Government plans, to form any kind of cooperative or any kind of such area.

QUESTION: It sounds farfetched, with the rockets coming down right now, anyway.

MR. CASEY: Well, look, I mean, it's going to be a tough place to do business in, just like it's a tough place for our diplomats and others to operate in, for some time. But that doesn't mean that there aren't opportunities there and it doesn't mean that people shouldn't take advantage of them. I'm just not familiar with anyone talking about this kind of complex right now.