03/09/09 State Dept. Press Brief: Iran

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing Partial Transcript

Monday, March 9, 2009

 

IRAN

-- Two-Year Anniversary of the Disappearance of Robert Levinson

-- Roxana Saberi/U.S. Request Swiss as Our Protecting Power to Get More Information/U.S. Wants Her Released/Requests Transparency of Judicial Process

-- U.S. Has Offered Hand to the Government of Iran/Engagement Depends on Iran's Willingness to Change Behavior

 

SYRIA

-- Acting A/S Feltman and Dan Shapiro Meetings with Syrian Officials/Very Productive

-- Agenda Addressed Concerns with Syrian Behavior Around the World

 

NORTH KOREA

-- Rhetoric Coming out of Pyongyang is Provocative/Further Destabilizes the Region

-- U.S. Working with Other Parties towards Denuclearization

 

 

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QUESTION:  On Iran?

 

MR. WOOD: On Iran.  Yes, please.

 

QUESTION:  The Turkish prime - I'm sorry, foreign minister has said that, if asked, Turkey might consider mediating the talks between Iran and the U.S.  Is that something that you might have considered, or might the U.S. Government go - the Syrian way, just go directly and talk to them?

 

MR. WOOD:  Well, again, we're still in the midst of that review.  I don't want to speculate as to what we might do.  But let us just say that - let me just say that we have offered our hand to the Government of Iran, and we hope to be able to engage this government on a whole range of issues.  But a lot of it's going to depend on, you know, Iran and its willingness to engage and its willingness to change its behavior in a number of areas where we have concern.

 

 

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QUESTION:  Any sense of the reviews - policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iran might be coming up?

 

MR. WOOD:  The Afghanistan policy reviews, I think we've said we expect to be done some time, fairly soon, I'd say within -you know, and I think we've said mid-March.  But the Iran review - I don't have a timeframe on that for you at this point.

 

Lach.