Middle East Digest: July 10, 2008Bureau of Public Affairs The Middle East Digest provides text and audio from the Daily Press Briefing. For the full briefings, please visit daily press briefings. From the Daily Press Briefing of July 10, 2008: MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon, everybody. I don’t have anything to begin with, so we can --QUESTION: Any visual aids today? MR. MCCORMACK: No, but more are coming, Matt. QUESTION: Are they? MR. MCCORMACK: More are coming. Stay tuned. QUESTION: Imminently? MR. MCCORMACK: No, not today, not at today’s briefing. There are changes afoot. QUESTION: Okay. MR. MCCORMACK: I’ll leave it at that. QUESTION: Fair enough. I don’t have anything. MR. MCCORMACK: Excellent. QUESTION: Sean, can I just ask you something on the -- MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. QUESTION: -- on reports that Iran had apparently doctored photographs of missile test firings and exaggerated the capabilities of the weapons? MR. MCCORMACK: Right. I looked into that question for you. I haven’t been able to determine one way or the other the accuracy of the report. Joel, welcome back. QUESTION: Thank you, Sean. Further comments on today’s missile tests from Iran? Have the Secretary and this Department spoken to the G-8, to the EU and to the UN this morning? And apparently, the Secretary’s warnings from yesterday and possibly today have gone on deaf ears to Tehran. MR. MCCORMACK: Well, Joel, look, I think it’s pretty clear over the past – from their behavior over the past couple of years that this regime is, at the moment, following its own pathway and certainly not heeding the counsel of the international system. It’s our hope that they will. Because, at the moment, their course of action has only served to further isolate Iran. And it’s had very real costs for Iran, and the Iranian people. There have been a number of news stories about the difficulty of the Iranian Government getting access to the international financial system, thereby making it much more difficult for them to participate in the international trading system. There are news stories about their oil and gas sector being affected by the steps that the international system has taken in response to the defiance of the Iranian Government. All of that said, it is still our hope that they will respond positively to the most recent overture made to them by the P-5+1. We’ll see. We await their answer. Yeah. QUESTION: Back on these possibly doctored photos, are you looking into that to see whether that’s possible? Because I noticed that the guy who’s saying this – one of the guy who’s saying that it’s – they were doctored is a former State Department official. You know, I mean, unless -- MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t know. I didn’t see any former State Department officials quoted. I don’t -- QUESTION: Mr. Fitzpatrick. MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t dispute the account. QUESTION: Yeah. MR. MCCORMACK: A couple things. One, I’ve asked the question about – this specific question about, you know, photoshopping, you know, missile launch photos. I haven’t found anything to refute it one way – refute it or support it. I can say in terms of the published reports about yesterday’s missile launches, kind of, the order of magnitude of numbers, I don’t dispute that. You know, I’m not going to get into talking about specific numbers, you know, down to the ones or the twos. But in terms of the order of magnitude of the launch, I – we have no reason to dispute what has been reported. QUESTION: Sean, I saw the White House is not confirming the second round of missile tests, but I thought Secretary Rice had reacted to them this morning. I’m just wondering what you know. MR. MCCORMACK: You know, I have not seen what my colleagues over at the White House said. I have not looked into any of the technical details of today’s missile launches. You’re right; the Secretary did respond to a question that was put to her about the missile launches today. QUESTION: Okay. So she was responding to the second set or what she thought was the second set? MR. MCCORMACK: I believe that’s what the question was. QUESTION: Okay. QUESTION: But it has to be a matter of intense interest to you whether this actually happened and, you know how many missiles were fired -- MR. MCCORMACK: Of course, I’m sure that our intelligence community is closely monitoring what’s going on there. Charley. QUESTION: So not to belabor this, but there seems to be -- MR. MCCORMACK: Oh, why not? QUESTION: There seems to -- MR. MCCORMACK: Go ahead. QUESTION: There seems to be some indication there really was only one missile test, that the missiles were launched on Wednesday, one did not fire, and so it was subsequently fired slightly later. Does that seem to be in line with what you are hearing? MR. MCCORMACK: Again, Charlie, I haven’t looked into the intelligence of it. QUESTION: Well, how about this? From a policy perspective, does it matter? MR. MCCORMACK: (Laughter.) QUESTION: Something got fired into the air. The Iranians are claiming it’s a great sign of their -- MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: -- ability to defend themselves. MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well -- QUESTION: Does it matter to the United States? MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I guess there’s no simple yes-or-no answer to that question, because, you know, in a sense, it does matter what was fired. So -- QUESTION: No, I understand that. MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, the – right. QUESTION: The implications of -- MR. MCCORMACK: But basically, the fact that you have an Iranian regime which is acting in clear defiance of the intent of the international community regarding its ballistic missile program, certainly, this is -- you know, whether it is seven or eight or nine or 12 missiles, that in that sense, it doesn’t matter, all right? But I will emphasize it does matter, you know, what it is that they’re launching. And the fact that yesterday, they were working on launches of ballistic missiles with medium-to-long range, that’s quite significant in terms of the region, its stability, and it -- as well as the possible implications outside the Middle East as well. Joel. QUESTION: Further, the Iranians are going back to the Stone Age. They’re providing a lot of the electronics going into a new type of bombing armament that they’re using, using used propane canisters weighing up to about a hundred pounds, similar to the IEDs that have been causing havoc throughout Iraq. What -- through third-party, are you able to make your feelings known further with this oversized weaponry that they’re now using? MR. MCCORMACK: Well, Joel, I’ve seen the story to which you are referring. I can’t confirm any particular linkage there. And I think people in Baghdad and specifically, the military are in a better position to talk about (a) what new kind of weapons or threats they’re seeing out there and (b) what kind of linkages they see in terms of who’s responsible for these things. You know, in terms of the message sent to the Iranians about their behavior in Iraq, I think that’s loud and clear. We have done that face-to-face, via Ryan Crocker, and we’ve also done it extensively in public. I think they understand what the message is. And they have also heard from the Iraqis as well, you know, in the form of real questions about what are the Iranians doing in Iraq and what’s their intent. QUESTION: On Turkey. Any new information about the terrorist attack to the U.S. Consulate? MR. MCCORMACK: Nothing new in terms of the responsibility or the investigation. That’s still ongoing. We’re still working very closely with the Turkish Government. Our Consul General did attend a memorial service for the Turkish National Police officers who gave their lives defending the Consulate. QUESTION: Thank you. MR. MCCORMACK: All right, thanks. |
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