Middle East Digest: May 8, 2008Bureau 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 Press Briefing of May 8, 2008: QUESTION: Do you have any comment on the demonstrations in Lebanon and the blocks made by Hezbollah on the airport route? MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I know that these demonstrations have taken place under the guise of a -- of labor demonstrations, but I believe that Hezbollah has actually linked them back to some moves that the cabinet had made. So I think that that reveals the action for what it is. The Lebanese Government is dealing with the issue. Of course, nobody wants to see any violent confrontations occur. And I would just note that these kinds of actions serve only to hurt the interests of the Lebanese people. If you have access to the airport road cut off, that, of course, affects tourism, which is a real source of revenue for the Lebanese economy. Yeah. QUESTION: And then just on one quick related note. Iraq’s Foreign Minister said today that Iran and the U.S. should, you know, stop all this bickering and back-biting and sit down and talk. MR. MCCORMACK: Well, again, we have made clear in terms of the nuclear issue that we are ready -- we are ready to sit down with the Iranians, and they, in that form, can bring up any issue that they want to bring up. The Iraqi Government itself has recently gone to the Iranian Government for the first time and expressed directly to them their concerns about Iranian activities in Iraq. That’s a significant step. So we – our interest is in seeing an Iraq that continues to build on the gains that it has made over the past year or so. And we would encourage Iran to play a positive role, a positive, transparent, neighborly role, in Iraq’s future. Our interest is in seeing an Iraq that is more stable, more prosperous, and integrated into the region. |
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