Source: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2009/03/120510.htm
Robert Wood
Acting Department Spokesman
Daily Press Briefing
March 18, 2009
IRAN
Iran Is Isolating Itself and Its People / Iran Must Improve Its Behavior / US Looks Forward to Engaging Iran / Not Aware of Plans to Meet with Iranians in The Hague / Iran Policy Is Under Review
QUESTION: The president of the UN General Assembly has said that the U.S. has been demonizing people forever and specifically spoken about Iranian president. Any comments on – any reaction on that?
MR. WOOD: I actually haven’t read the remarks, but in terms of demonizing a country, we’re – look, Iran is isolating itself and its people by its behavior in the international realm. And we and other countries, specifically our allies, have called on Iran to change its behavior. If it wants to have a better relationship with the international community, it needs to behave differently. And we look forward, as the Secretary and the President have said, of engaging Iran to see what Iran’s intentions are, is it really interested in a better relationship with the international community. And we’ll have to see how that goes.
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QUESTION: On Afghanistan and the UN-sponsored meeting in The Hague, what specific goals would – the U.S. would like to achieve at that meeting? And secondly, would the U.S. delegation be planning to meet the Iranian delegation at the bilateral level there?
MR. WOOD: I’m not aware of any plans to meet with – for the U.S. delegation to meet with the Iranian delegation. I will not rule out the fact that there could be some kind of a – you know, a greeting of some type. But there’s no plan, as far as I know, for there to be any – a meeting between the two delegations.
With regard to what our goals and objectives are, I think I spelled them out yesterday for you. One of the things we want to see is a coherent international policy going forward and dealing with the situation on the ground in not only Afghanistan, but Pakistan as well.
QUESTION: May I – can I follow up?
MR. WOOD: Oh, yeah. And Lach, I’m sorry.
QUESTION: Yeah. No, it was on the Middle East.
MR. WOOD: I’m sorry.
QUESTION: Do you have any comment on – well, Hamas claims that Israel is to blame for the collapse of the prisoner swap. Do you have any comment on these negotiations and its broader impact for the stability in the region?
MR. WOOD: I don’t have any comment on those specific remarks. But I think if we’re looking – if there is any group to blame for what’s been going on in the region, it’s Hamas.
QUESTION: Yeah, I’m --
MR. WOOD: Let me go to Nina.
QUESTION: On Iran.
MR. WOOD: Well --
QUESTION: On the Afghanistan conference, I’m a little confused. I mean, the whole idea of this Administration is to, you know, reach out your hand if people unclench their fist or whatever. So why are you saying, you know, there are no particular plans to meet the Iranian delegation? I mean, part of the plan was to invite them.
MR. WOOD: Because I’m saying I’m not aware of any plans. I’m not ruling out, as I said, some type of a, you know, chance interaction. I just – I’m not aware of any plans at this point --
QUESTION: But this --
MR. WOOD: -- for the delegations to engage.
QUESTION: But this is exactly the same language that Secretary Rice always used: Oh, if I happen to bump into him, I’m a polite woman, I’ll greet him. I mean, it’s the same --
MR. WOOD: Well, again, as I’ve said over and again, we are still in the midst of a review of our Iran policy. And I think it’s important for us to be able to finish that so that we can give you a clear outline of what our policy objectives are, how we plan to go forward in engaging Iran in the future. So let us complete that review, and then I think we’ll be able to deal with your questions.
QUESTION: Yeah, but, I mean, you’ve invited them to the conference, so obviously you want them to --
MR. WOOD: The UN invited them.
QUESTION: Well, it was your idea for the conference – your idea to invite them.
MR. WOOD: It was our idea for the conference, that’s right.
QUESTION: Do you know that the UN invited them?
MR. WOOD: As I said to you yesterday, you’ll need to check with the UN.
QUESTION: Okay. But the U.S. – it was Secretary Clinton’s idea for the conference?
MR. WOOD: That’s right.
QUESTION: And it was Secretary Clinton’s idea to invite them?
MR. WOOD: Well --
QUESTION: So if you’re going to have them there, I mean, what’s the point of having them there if you’re not going to talk to them about how you can cooperate on Afghanistan? Just so that you can say that you invited them, is that really engagement, or is it engaging them on an issue of mutual concern, like why do you need a review for that? If they’re going to be at the conference, obviously, before the review is out, you’ve decided that you want to have them there.
MR. WOOD: Well, look, it’s important to have all of the key regional players at this conference, as we’ve said.
QUESTION: But it’s not important to talk to all the key regional players?
MR. WOOD: I didn’t say it wasn’t important to talk to them. I just said that before we engage in a real dialogue with Iran on a number of these issues, we need to finish our review. And I think that’s only fair.
QUESTION: Fine. So you might not want to talk to them about all of the litany of issues that you have with Iran, but specifically on Afghanistan, I mean, if there was an opportunity to talk to the Iranian foreign minister about how the U.S. and Afghanistan could cooperate, I mean, if you’re going to invite them, why not talk to them about it there?
MR. WOOD: Well, as I said, Elise, this conference is about Afghanistan and, you know, obviously, Pakistan. And we are going to have discussions with a wide range of people – of governments who are in attendance and international organizations. And what’s important here is that we all try to agree on some basic principles in terms of going forward with regard to dealing with the problems in those two countries, specifically focused on Afghanistan. And there will be plenty of interchange amongst the delegations at this conference. I’m just not aware that there are any plans to have our two delegations engaged.
Is it possible that that could change? You know, I’m not going to rule anything out. Anything is possible. But this conference is more than just the U.S. and Iran. It’s – as I said, it’s about Afghanistan and the situation in the region, and that’s where we need to keep our focus.
QUESTION: Well, why not – I know you don’t have diplomatic relations with them, but why not use this opportunity to push the case, for example, of the Iranian American journalist who is – can’t be released? Why not approach it from – that’s pragmatic?
MR. WOOD: Well, we are already – with regard to that journalist, we are having – we are communicating through the Swiss in dealing with that issue. Again, this conference is about that region of the world. And as I said, there are no plans at this moment that I’m aware of. But is it possible that we could have discussions or there could be, you know, a – you know, chance greetings, that type of thing? Yeah. I mean, I can’t say with exact certainty that that won’t happen.
But what I’m trying to – the message I’m trying to communicate is that what you need to look at is how all of the countries who have equities in that situation in the region need to cooperate and don’t focus solely right now on the U.S. and Iran. As I said, this Administration is interested in engaging Iran. We want to do that. But we also need to complete our review so that we can spell out for you and all others in the international community who are interested in this subject of how we plan to go forward.
QUESTION: Just from a policy perspective, one thing is that the Bush Administration, when they met the Iranians in terms of discussing Iraq, if only Iraq was on the table, all other subjects were taboo. What’s your policy in terms of meeting the Iranians if you are going to see the Iranians on Afghanistan --
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QUESTION: Can I just go back to Iran? I don’t think you can answer this, but anyway --
MR. WOOD: Then why ask it? (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Is it – if I have to – is it true that the Administration, as part of this review, is even considering allowing Iran to keep some kind of low-grade indigenous enrichment capability that could be monitored?
MR. WOOD: I don’t know, Nina. Look, let’s let the review be completed, and then we can, as I said, spell out our policies going forward.
QUESTION: Can you give us any sense of when the review will be completed?
MR. WOOD: Hopefully soon, but I can’t give you anything better than that.
QUESTION: Weeks or months or…?
MR. WOOD: I don’t know. You all will find out about it.
QUESTION: You’ll let us know.
MR. WOOD: Please.
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