FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
World Refugee Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
June 20, 2013
Today, the United States joins the international community in honoring the resilience, courage, and determination of refugees all over the world, and the work of many countries in providing refuge, both temporary and permanent.
This year, the crisis in Syria has led to more than 4.25 million Syrians being displaced internally, more than 1.5 million becoming refugees, and millions more caught up in the unspeakable violence. Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey have opened their borders to those fleeing the bloodshed. We appreciate their generosity in hosting uprooted people and families, whether in refugee camps or local communities, and are proud that the United States is at the forefront of international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance.
The United States is the single largest donor to refugee relief efforts around the world, working to care for refugees displaced by other conflicts, including in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and Sudan, and we have helped address protracted refugee situations around the world, including those affecting Afghans, Burmese, Colombians, and Somalis.
We have seen some progress this year, thanks to the hard work and commitment of diplomats and aid workers everywhere, including staff of the organizations we support, such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and many nongovernmental organizations. In 2012, two of the most protracted refugee situations in Africa came to a close, with Liberia and Angola now stable after bitter civil wars. We have also taken extra steps to ensure greater protection for refugees against sexual violence and exploitation.
The United States has a proud tradition of welcoming those fleeing violence and persecution, including more than 58,000 refugees from 66 countries who were resettled to the United States in fiscal year 2012 and the nearly 70,000 refugees who are expected to arrive in the United States in the coming fiscal year to rebuild their lives. Their presence makes our country more diverse, our culture richer, and our national character stronger.
Showing posts with label TURKEY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TURKEY. Show all posts
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY AND POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI MAKE REMARKS AFTER MEETING
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski After Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
June 3, 2013
SECRETARY KERRY: Good morning, everybody. I’ve got two comments I want to make at the top here before welcoming Foreign Minister Sikorski as I will and want to, and then look forward to your questions on that. But this morning, I’m thinking, as all of us from the Senate family are, of the passing of one of our own, Senator Frank Lautenberg. I was privileged to spend more than 20 years as Frank’s colleague in the Senate, off and on repeatedly, because of Frank’s original retirement, which fate did not allow to stick.
Frank was a remarkable legislator and just a tremendous human being. He was someone who fought and won a lot of battles that today people just take for granted, like a ban on smoking on airplanes or progress for veterans and laws that have helped allow Jews and Christians and Baha’is and so many others escape persecution, laws banning foreign aid to state sponsors of terrorism, laws bolstering security of ports and chemical plants, and laws ensuring that the victims of terror achieve some sense of justice. We think of Pan Am 103 and what eventually took place there. That was Frank Lautenberg.
Frank was tenacious as a legislator. Never forgot where he came from in New Jersey. Never forgot the values that he grew up with and learned, always practiced them. But he was above all a person of huge personal conviction. We traveled together way back when in 1990 to the first climate change conference in Rio, and Frank never lost faith with that commitment to the environment. During the years when Frank was going through chemotherapy and he was weakened by cancer, he was still down there on the floor of the United States Senate fighting on every environmental debate late into the night.
He used to talk to me about his grandchild whose asthma was exacerbated by pollution, and it was all very, very personal to Frank. And so too was his conviction about those who have worn the uniform of our country. Frank never lost the connection to the 18-year-old Frank Lautenberg who volunteered for service in World War II. And I think he fought harder for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan because he had been there in their shoes. He fought just as hard for me as well, and I will always be grateful and touched by the ferocity with which Frank defended me in 2004 when partisans questioned my own service in the Navy.
Frank Lautenberg was as loyal as he was patriotic. So I will particularly miss the last World War II veteran who serves in the United States Senate. And my heart goes out to his wife Bonnie, to his children Ellen, Nan, Lisa, and to Joshua, and to the grandchildren that he loved so much.
Now also I want to just say a word because we are following the events in Turkey obviously very, very closely, and as many of you know, we’ve been working very closely with the Turkish leadership. Prime Minister Erdogan was just here, and I have been working very closely with Foreign Minister Davutoglu on efforts with respect to the Middle East.
As we have stated always to them in conversations as well as elsewhere in public, the United States supports full freedom of expression and assembly, including the right of people to peaceful protest, because that is fundamental to any democracy. And we are concerned by the reports of excessive use of force by police. We obviously hope that there will be a full investigation of those incidents and full restraint from the police force with respect to those kinds of incidents. And we urge all people involved, those demonstrating and expressing their freedom of expression and those in the government, to avoid any provocations of violence. Obviously, everybody was deeply concerned about the numbers of people who have been injured and about the level of violence to property.
We don’t say these things to interfere in another country’s choices or events, but we say these things to reaffirm what we believe are universal principles and values that are essential to the practice of democracy and to the improvement of the relationship between governments and people.
Our Ambassador has made our views known to senior officials and we have updated our travel advisories for American citizens in Turkey, reminding them of precautions to take in travel but also that they should not participate in these kinds of events. And obviously we hope that the people of Turkey and the Government of Turkey will find their peaceful way forward in the next days.
That said – and I thank the Foreign Minister – I asked him his permission to be able to say a couple of things, both about Turkey and Senator Lautenberg, and I appreciate his indulgence because this is his visit and his time, and I’m grateful to him. As always, our friends in Poland are enormously thoughtful and enormously helpful to this partnership, and we are very, very grateful. I couldn’t be more pleased than to welcome Foreign Minister Sikorski to Washington at this moment to discuss the wide-ranging agenda that the United States and Poland share.
Our countries really do share a remarkable history, a long history. It’s been well over two centuries since George Washington and Casimir Pulaski stood side by side as our country was struggling for freedom. And it is safe to say that Poland and the United States have stood side by side ever since then, and particularly through the difficult period of the 20th century, through the war, through the Iron Curtain, and now into the 21st century where the American people and the Polish people are still standing side by side.
The United States is very committed to this partnership. And I reaffirmed to the Foreign Minister from Poland our gratitude for the degree to which Poland has been showing leadership within the European Union as well as within NATO itself. The Foreign Minister and I both understand that advancing our shared interests starts with keeping ourselves and our allies secure. As a NATO ally, Poland has played a particularly strong role in Afghanistan, where Polish troops are serving alongside Americans and those in 50-plus other nations, and we thank Poland for that commitment and also for that sacrifice.
At the same time, we are both focused on European security. Last November, we established the first full-time American military detachment at the Lask Air Base, and we are on track to deploy a missile defense site in Poland by 2018 as part of NATO’s modernized approach to our security. And of course, our commitment to Article 5 of NATO is ironclad. I also want to commend Poland for its defense modernization efforts and its commitment to NATO capabilities.
The Foreign Minister and I also discussed our economic ties. As everybody knows, we are pursuing the TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. And that would make our relationship even stronger, but also raise the standards of doing business on a global basis and create one of the strongest markets in the world on both sides of the Atlantic.
We also want to see Poland included in the Visa Waiver Program. Making it easier for Poles to visit the United States makes sense in every respect. It’s good for trade, it’s good for investment, it’s good for promoting the people-to-people ties that help to bind our countries together. And we’re going to continue to work with Congress in order to achieve the goal of this visa waiver program.
We’re also both busily engaged in supporting democratic transitions within other countries, whether it’s in Eastern Europe or the Middle East or North Africa. And we thank our friends in Poland for their extraordinary commitment to democracy and to those who fight for freedom. And I think the Foreign Minister may have something to say about Polish plans with respect to that.
In every respect in the EU, Poland’s leadership has been exemplary. We’re both encouraging Ukraine to continue on the path to reform so that that will help it to be able to integrate with the EU. And these are the same steps that Poland itself has taken in the past. Therefore, Poland has a huge ability to be able to help other countries to understand that road ahead of them.
So I’d just finish by thanking the Foreign Minister for Poland’s hosting the climate change summit that will happen in November. It’s another example of Poland’s leadership. And once again, Foreign Minister, welcome. We thank you for the strength of this alliance, and I look forward to working with you to strengthen our partnership in any number of additional ways. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: Thank you. Well, thank you very much for hosting me here in Washington. We go back to before you assumed your current position, but it’s always good to have a visit at the office, and I’m sure that we’ll work as closely as I did with Condi and Hillary before you.
I wanted to say that I fully associate myself with what the Secretary of State said, both about the departed Senator – and I say this as a Pole, but also as the husband of an American citizen – and on what’s going on in Turkey. Poland, because of its successful transformation from dictatorship to democracy, is trying to be a leader of democratization efforts around Europe’s neighborhood. And therefore, we are – we pay particular attention when there is backsliding, whether it’s selective justice or it’s overuse of force or it’s skewing election results, be it in Turkey, be it in Georgia, being it in Belarus and elsewhere. We pay attention and we try to do something about it.
This is a unique Polish-American partnership, democratization, and we actually have a formal democratization dialogue of this because we bring unique capabilities to this. We remember being helped by the United States in our time of need. And it goes back a long way, to Woodrow Wilson and help for the resurrected Poland after World War I, but also Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter before him. We entered NATO under President Clinton. Everybody remembers this, and this is a sure foundation for our relationship, because we are both nations that feel liberty and human rights in their bones. And we are both revolutionary people who would like to share the benefits of these things with other people.
But we also have important interests in common. As the Secretary of State has already mentioned, the security dimension is very good. And we are delighted that at last there is a small but capable U.S. presence in Poland, and U.S. F-16s and Polish F-16s are training together. We also will welcome the missile defense site, and all the practical arrangements already being made.
Thank you for your words about the Visa Waiver Program. It’s become a symbolic but also a practical issue, and I will be delighted if President Obama’s promise to us to fix it by the end of his tenure is fulfilled.
Yes, Poland is a strong supporter of a transatlantic free trade area. We need to leave the crisis behind us. And developments in the energy sphere and this, removing the remaining barriers to trade, to investment, is one means of achieving this. And you can count on Poland being a strong advocate of this inside the European Union.
We, of course, also share your efforts to try to resolve both the Middle East issue between Israel and Palestine, but in particular the horrible situation in Syria, where there are already perhaps 80,000 dead, over a million external refugees, millions of internal refugees. And I know your expertise on this, and Poland will do in Europe to – what we can to support those issues.
You came to Poland for the COP Conference in Poznan. I know your long engagement with those issues. So I have taken the liberty of inviting the Secretary of State to come to Poland, and I hope you’ll pick not too distant a future date to do it.
Again, thank you for having me here, and I’m very glad to be able to say that the Polish-American friendship and alliance is as strong as ever.
(In Polish.)
SECRETARY KERRY: So, in case you didn’t understand that, he just took back everything he said before in English. (Laughter.) Except for Hillary Clinton and Condi Rice. (Laughter.)
MS. PSAKI: On that note, the first question will be from Jill Dougherty of CNN.
QUESTION: Thank you. Secretary Kerry, you mentioned the violence in Syria. Everyone is watching that with concern, but of course, Turkey is one of the key countries involved in what is transpiring in Syria. Are you concerned that the government could be preoccupied by this violence, making it more difficult to deal with the Syrian situation at all? And do you have an update for us on the Geneva 2 meeting that we expect to take place?
And just one – the Foreign Minister mentioned Mideast peace. You’ve spent a lot of time working on that recently. When you were in Jerusalem the last time, you talked about the need for both sides – for the Israelis and the Palestinians – to make decisions; it’s decision time. How are they doing that? Are you at a point where you could have some type of proposal? Should you go back to the region to encourage them? Where do we stand? Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, let me begin with the second part first, if you don’t mind, since it’s right there. I am confident that both sides are weighing the choices that they have in front of them very, very seriously. I’m absolutely confident about that, and that is all I’m going to say. I’m not – I think they need to have an opportunity to do that, and I will make a judgment at some point whether I need to go push a little bit or help that process, and I’m certainly willing to. I am open to that possibility.
But as I’ve said, we’re not raising any expectations about an American plan or other things. These discussions have been private, and I think they’ve been constructive as a result of being private, and that’s the way I would like to keep them until such time as they either deserve comment publicly or because they speak for themselves in some choices. And that’s where the Middle East is right now. But I am confident about the energy and effort that is going in to thinking through the road ahead.
With respect to the Turks and the process for Syria, let me just begin by saying that what is happening in Syria is happening because one man, who has been in power with his family for years now, more than 40 years, will not consent to an appropriate process by which the people of Syria can protect minorities, be inclusive, and have the people of Syria decide their future. He has decided to protect himself and his regime’s interests by reaching out across state lines and actually soliciting the help of Iran on the ground with foreign fighters as well as Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. A designated terrorist organization has now crossed over from Lebanon into Syria and is actively engaged in the fighting.
President Assad is not unwilling to use Scuds against women and children and students and doctors and hospitals. He’s not unwilling to wreak havoc on individual citizens. And today in Qusayr, which is under siege by his forces and the surrogate forces, you have an extraordinary number of civilians who are trapped, and he will not allow the Red Cross and humanitarian aid to go in until the military has finished what it intends to do.
So I think the world is seeing the actions of a person who has lost touch with any reality except his own and who is willing to wreak any kind of punishment on his own – on the people of his country simply so that he can maintain power. And so this situation is obviously intolerable, unacceptable by any standard, and I think all civilized countries would call on the Assad regime to pull back from that and to engage in a legitimate peace process.
Now, with respect to that, I’m confident that Turkey will continue to be a critical player in this. I’m confident Turkey will reach out and resolve these questions. It’s not the first time any government has faced this kind of challenge. And I do expect Foreign Minister Davutoglu and the Prime Minister to remain engaged in the effort to try to resolve what is happening in Syria.
With respect to Geneva 2, we all understand – I have said from day one – this is a very difficult process which we come to late. We are trying to prevent the sectarian violence from dragging Syria down into a complete and total implosion, where it has broken up into enclaves and the institutions of the state have been destroyed, with God knows how many additional refugees and how many innocent people killed.
That’s why the effort to try to have an implementation of Geneva 1 take place at a conference. Now, when that ripens, when that becomes a reality is going to be decided by events on the ground and the participants themselves. The United States can push and cajole, and President Obama has instructed all of us to try to take every step possible to protect the people and to provide a venue for this dialogue to take place. But in the end, the people on the ground are going to have to decide that that’s something they’re prepared to engage in.
I spoke with Foreign Minister Lavrov on Friday. We had a good conversation. He remains deeply committed to trying to make this conference happen, as do all of the support group of the people involved with the opposition. But I will say that the possibility of the transfer of S-300s, which will upset the balance of power with Israel as well as the prosecution of this lopsided military initiative in Qusayr and the trapping of civilians and the treatment of civilians, could put this kind of thing at risk. So we hope people will pull back and stay focused on the possibilities of implementing Geneva 1 and having a legitimate conference.
This week – tomorrow, in fact – Under Secretary Wendy Sherman will travel to Geneva. She will meet with Russian counterparts, and we will continue to lay the groundwork for the possibility of a negotiated resolution. And we will stay committed to that possibility notwithstanding the violence on the ground and the difficulties that we face.
MODERATOR: The second question will come from Mr. Marek Walkuski from Polish Public Radio.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, do you personally and the State Department support an expansion of the Visa Waiver Program included in the current comprehensive immigration reform that’s in the Senate right now? I’m asking about provisions that open the door to the program for countries with low visa overstay rate. And can you assure that Poland would qualify to the program – for the program if the legislation is approved?
And on missile defense, President Barack Obama dropped an important part of his own missile defense plan for Europe a few months ago. Can you assure that the United States will not make more concessions to Russia on missile defense?
And Mr. Foreign Minister, are you convinced that Poland would finally – would eventually host a U.S. missile defense base on its territory?
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, let me start with the second part of your question, if I may. The United States of America has made zero – zero concessions to Russia with respect to missile defense. There was no discussion with Russia whatsoever about the decision that was made with respect to phase four. And it was purposefully – there was no discussion with Russia in order to avoid any potential of an accusation of a deal or some agreement or some concession. There was no discussion.
This was a simple decision based exclusively on the functionality of the system and the decision that we could have a better system in the long run by moving to a different technology and building on phase three. And we are absolutely, President Obama is absolutely, committed to the deployment of phase three, as I said a few minutes ago. It is in the budget. It is proceeding forward. It will be deployed, very simply.
With respect to the question – the first part of your question was on the Visa Waiver – President Obama supports the Visa Waiver Program. I support the Visa Waiver personally for Poland. The Administration as a whole is supportive of the language in the legislation on the Hill right now. We hope that legislation will be passed, and we expect that Poland will benefit from the implementation of the Visa Waiver Program.
As I said in my opening comments, this makes sense, this is good for all of us, and we want this to happen.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: Well, I don’t think you could have got it either more eloquently or more firmly, so all that is left for me to say is thank you. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: But in the past, Mr. Minister, you had some doubts about missile defense in Poland.
SECRETARY KERRY: That’s why he came here, because we just erased all the doubts.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: We’ve also had a formal exchange of letters and we are on the same page on the missile defense issue.
MS. PSAKI: Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Happy. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: Thanks.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thanks, Minister.
Remarks With Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski After Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
June 3, 2013
SECRETARY KERRY: Good morning, everybody. I’ve got two comments I want to make at the top here before welcoming Foreign Minister Sikorski as I will and want to, and then look forward to your questions on that. But this morning, I’m thinking, as all of us from the Senate family are, of the passing of one of our own, Senator Frank Lautenberg. I was privileged to spend more than 20 years as Frank’s colleague in the Senate, off and on repeatedly, because of Frank’s original retirement, which fate did not allow to stick.
Frank was a remarkable legislator and just a tremendous human being. He was someone who fought and won a lot of battles that today people just take for granted, like a ban on smoking on airplanes or progress for veterans and laws that have helped allow Jews and Christians and Baha’is and so many others escape persecution, laws banning foreign aid to state sponsors of terrorism, laws bolstering security of ports and chemical plants, and laws ensuring that the victims of terror achieve some sense of justice. We think of Pan Am 103 and what eventually took place there. That was Frank Lautenberg.
Frank was tenacious as a legislator. Never forgot where he came from in New Jersey. Never forgot the values that he grew up with and learned, always practiced them. But he was above all a person of huge personal conviction. We traveled together way back when in 1990 to the first climate change conference in Rio, and Frank never lost faith with that commitment to the environment. During the years when Frank was going through chemotherapy and he was weakened by cancer, he was still down there on the floor of the United States Senate fighting on every environmental debate late into the night.
He used to talk to me about his grandchild whose asthma was exacerbated by pollution, and it was all very, very personal to Frank. And so too was his conviction about those who have worn the uniform of our country. Frank never lost the connection to the 18-year-old Frank Lautenberg who volunteered for service in World War II. And I think he fought harder for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan because he had been there in their shoes. He fought just as hard for me as well, and I will always be grateful and touched by the ferocity with which Frank defended me in 2004 when partisans questioned my own service in the Navy.
Frank Lautenberg was as loyal as he was patriotic. So I will particularly miss the last World War II veteran who serves in the United States Senate. And my heart goes out to his wife Bonnie, to his children Ellen, Nan, Lisa, and to Joshua, and to the grandchildren that he loved so much.
Now also I want to just say a word because we are following the events in Turkey obviously very, very closely, and as many of you know, we’ve been working very closely with the Turkish leadership. Prime Minister Erdogan was just here, and I have been working very closely with Foreign Minister Davutoglu on efforts with respect to the Middle East.
As we have stated always to them in conversations as well as elsewhere in public, the United States supports full freedom of expression and assembly, including the right of people to peaceful protest, because that is fundamental to any democracy. And we are concerned by the reports of excessive use of force by police. We obviously hope that there will be a full investigation of those incidents and full restraint from the police force with respect to those kinds of incidents. And we urge all people involved, those demonstrating and expressing their freedom of expression and those in the government, to avoid any provocations of violence. Obviously, everybody was deeply concerned about the numbers of people who have been injured and about the level of violence to property.
We don’t say these things to interfere in another country’s choices or events, but we say these things to reaffirm what we believe are universal principles and values that are essential to the practice of democracy and to the improvement of the relationship between governments and people.
Our Ambassador has made our views known to senior officials and we have updated our travel advisories for American citizens in Turkey, reminding them of precautions to take in travel but also that they should not participate in these kinds of events. And obviously we hope that the people of Turkey and the Government of Turkey will find their peaceful way forward in the next days.
That said – and I thank the Foreign Minister – I asked him his permission to be able to say a couple of things, both about Turkey and Senator Lautenberg, and I appreciate his indulgence because this is his visit and his time, and I’m grateful to him. As always, our friends in Poland are enormously thoughtful and enormously helpful to this partnership, and we are very, very grateful. I couldn’t be more pleased than to welcome Foreign Minister Sikorski to Washington at this moment to discuss the wide-ranging agenda that the United States and Poland share.
Our countries really do share a remarkable history, a long history. It’s been well over two centuries since George Washington and Casimir Pulaski stood side by side as our country was struggling for freedom. And it is safe to say that Poland and the United States have stood side by side ever since then, and particularly through the difficult period of the 20th century, through the war, through the Iron Curtain, and now into the 21st century where the American people and the Polish people are still standing side by side.
The United States is very committed to this partnership. And I reaffirmed to the Foreign Minister from Poland our gratitude for the degree to which Poland has been showing leadership within the European Union as well as within NATO itself. The Foreign Minister and I both understand that advancing our shared interests starts with keeping ourselves and our allies secure. As a NATO ally, Poland has played a particularly strong role in Afghanistan, where Polish troops are serving alongside Americans and those in 50-plus other nations, and we thank Poland for that commitment and also for that sacrifice.
At the same time, we are both focused on European security. Last November, we established the first full-time American military detachment at the Lask Air Base, and we are on track to deploy a missile defense site in Poland by 2018 as part of NATO’s modernized approach to our security. And of course, our commitment to Article 5 of NATO is ironclad. I also want to commend Poland for its defense modernization efforts and its commitment to NATO capabilities.
The Foreign Minister and I also discussed our economic ties. As everybody knows, we are pursuing the TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. And that would make our relationship even stronger, but also raise the standards of doing business on a global basis and create one of the strongest markets in the world on both sides of the Atlantic.
We also want to see Poland included in the Visa Waiver Program. Making it easier for Poles to visit the United States makes sense in every respect. It’s good for trade, it’s good for investment, it’s good for promoting the people-to-people ties that help to bind our countries together. And we’re going to continue to work with Congress in order to achieve the goal of this visa waiver program.
We’re also both busily engaged in supporting democratic transitions within other countries, whether it’s in Eastern Europe or the Middle East or North Africa. And we thank our friends in Poland for their extraordinary commitment to democracy and to those who fight for freedom. And I think the Foreign Minister may have something to say about Polish plans with respect to that.
In every respect in the EU, Poland’s leadership has been exemplary. We’re both encouraging Ukraine to continue on the path to reform so that that will help it to be able to integrate with the EU. And these are the same steps that Poland itself has taken in the past. Therefore, Poland has a huge ability to be able to help other countries to understand that road ahead of them.
So I’d just finish by thanking the Foreign Minister for Poland’s hosting the climate change summit that will happen in November. It’s another example of Poland’s leadership. And once again, Foreign Minister, welcome. We thank you for the strength of this alliance, and I look forward to working with you to strengthen our partnership in any number of additional ways. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: Thank you. Well, thank you very much for hosting me here in Washington. We go back to before you assumed your current position, but it’s always good to have a visit at the office, and I’m sure that we’ll work as closely as I did with Condi and Hillary before you.
I wanted to say that I fully associate myself with what the Secretary of State said, both about the departed Senator – and I say this as a Pole, but also as the husband of an American citizen – and on what’s going on in Turkey. Poland, because of its successful transformation from dictatorship to democracy, is trying to be a leader of democratization efforts around Europe’s neighborhood. And therefore, we are – we pay particular attention when there is backsliding, whether it’s selective justice or it’s overuse of force or it’s skewing election results, be it in Turkey, be it in Georgia, being it in Belarus and elsewhere. We pay attention and we try to do something about it.
This is a unique Polish-American partnership, democratization, and we actually have a formal democratization dialogue of this because we bring unique capabilities to this. We remember being helped by the United States in our time of need. And it goes back a long way, to Woodrow Wilson and help for the resurrected Poland after World War I, but also Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter before him. We entered NATO under President Clinton. Everybody remembers this, and this is a sure foundation for our relationship, because we are both nations that feel liberty and human rights in their bones. And we are both revolutionary people who would like to share the benefits of these things with other people.
But we also have important interests in common. As the Secretary of State has already mentioned, the security dimension is very good. And we are delighted that at last there is a small but capable U.S. presence in Poland, and U.S. F-16s and Polish F-16s are training together. We also will welcome the missile defense site, and all the practical arrangements already being made.
Thank you for your words about the Visa Waiver Program. It’s become a symbolic but also a practical issue, and I will be delighted if President Obama’s promise to us to fix it by the end of his tenure is fulfilled.
Yes, Poland is a strong supporter of a transatlantic free trade area. We need to leave the crisis behind us. And developments in the energy sphere and this, removing the remaining barriers to trade, to investment, is one means of achieving this. And you can count on Poland being a strong advocate of this inside the European Union.
We, of course, also share your efforts to try to resolve both the Middle East issue between Israel and Palestine, but in particular the horrible situation in Syria, where there are already perhaps 80,000 dead, over a million external refugees, millions of internal refugees. And I know your expertise on this, and Poland will do in Europe to – what we can to support those issues.
You came to Poland for the COP Conference in Poznan. I know your long engagement with those issues. So I have taken the liberty of inviting the Secretary of State to come to Poland, and I hope you’ll pick not too distant a future date to do it.
Again, thank you for having me here, and I’m very glad to be able to say that the Polish-American friendship and alliance is as strong as ever.
(In Polish.)
SECRETARY KERRY: So, in case you didn’t understand that, he just took back everything he said before in English. (Laughter.) Except for Hillary Clinton and Condi Rice. (Laughter.)
MS. PSAKI: On that note, the first question will be from Jill Dougherty of CNN.
QUESTION: Thank you. Secretary Kerry, you mentioned the violence in Syria. Everyone is watching that with concern, but of course, Turkey is one of the key countries involved in what is transpiring in Syria. Are you concerned that the government could be preoccupied by this violence, making it more difficult to deal with the Syrian situation at all? And do you have an update for us on the Geneva 2 meeting that we expect to take place?
And just one – the Foreign Minister mentioned Mideast peace. You’ve spent a lot of time working on that recently. When you were in Jerusalem the last time, you talked about the need for both sides – for the Israelis and the Palestinians – to make decisions; it’s decision time. How are they doing that? Are you at a point where you could have some type of proposal? Should you go back to the region to encourage them? Where do we stand? Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, let me begin with the second part first, if you don’t mind, since it’s right there. I am confident that both sides are weighing the choices that they have in front of them very, very seriously. I’m absolutely confident about that, and that is all I’m going to say. I’m not – I think they need to have an opportunity to do that, and I will make a judgment at some point whether I need to go push a little bit or help that process, and I’m certainly willing to. I am open to that possibility.
But as I’ve said, we’re not raising any expectations about an American plan or other things. These discussions have been private, and I think they’ve been constructive as a result of being private, and that’s the way I would like to keep them until such time as they either deserve comment publicly or because they speak for themselves in some choices. And that’s where the Middle East is right now. But I am confident about the energy and effort that is going in to thinking through the road ahead.
With respect to the Turks and the process for Syria, let me just begin by saying that what is happening in Syria is happening because one man, who has been in power with his family for years now, more than 40 years, will not consent to an appropriate process by which the people of Syria can protect minorities, be inclusive, and have the people of Syria decide their future. He has decided to protect himself and his regime’s interests by reaching out across state lines and actually soliciting the help of Iran on the ground with foreign fighters as well as Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. A designated terrorist organization has now crossed over from Lebanon into Syria and is actively engaged in the fighting.
President Assad is not unwilling to use Scuds against women and children and students and doctors and hospitals. He’s not unwilling to wreak havoc on individual citizens. And today in Qusayr, which is under siege by his forces and the surrogate forces, you have an extraordinary number of civilians who are trapped, and he will not allow the Red Cross and humanitarian aid to go in until the military has finished what it intends to do.
So I think the world is seeing the actions of a person who has lost touch with any reality except his own and who is willing to wreak any kind of punishment on his own – on the people of his country simply so that he can maintain power. And so this situation is obviously intolerable, unacceptable by any standard, and I think all civilized countries would call on the Assad regime to pull back from that and to engage in a legitimate peace process.
Now, with respect to that, I’m confident that Turkey will continue to be a critical player in this. I’m confident Turkey will reach out and resolve these questions. It’s not the first time any government has faced this kind of challenge. And I do expect Foreign Minister Davutoglu and the Prime Minister to remain engaged in the effort to try to resolve what is happening in Syria.
With respect to Geneva 2, we all understand – I have said from day one – this is a very difficult process which we come to late. We are trying to prevent the sectarian violence from dragging Syria down into a complete and total implosion, where it has broken up into enclaves and the institutions of the state have been destroyed, with God knows how many additional refugees and how many innocent people killed.
That’s why the effort to try to have an implementation of Geneva 1 take place at a conference. Now, when that ripens, when that becomes a reality is going to be decided by events on the ground and the participants themselves. The United States can push and cajole, and President Obama has instructed all of us to try to take every step possible to protect the people and to provide a venue for this dialogue to take place. But in the end, the people on the ground are going to have to decide that that’s something they’re prepared to engage in.
I spoke with Foreign Minister Lavrov on Friday. We had a good conversation. He remains deeply committed to trying to make this conference happen, as do all of the support group of the people involved with the opposition. But I will say that the possibility of the transfer of S-300s, which will upset the balance of power with Israel as well as the prosecution of this lopsided military initiative in Qusayr and the trapping of civilians and the treatment of civilians, could put this kind of thing at risk. So we hope people will pull back and stay focused on the possibilities of implementing Geneva 1 and having a legitimate conference.
This week – tomorrow, in fact – Under Secretary Wendy Sherman will travel to Geneva. She will meet with Russian counterparts, and we will continue to lay the groundwork for the possibility of a negotiated resolution. And we will stay committed to that possibility notwithstanding the violence on the ground and the difficulties that we face.
MODERATOR: The second question will come from Mr. Marek Walkuski from Polish Public Radio.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, do you personally and the State Department support an expansion of the Visa Waiver Program included in the current comprehensive immigration reform that’s in the Senate right now? I’m asking about provisions that open the door to the program for countries with low visa overstay rate. And can you assure that Poland would qualify to the program – for the program if the legislation is approved?
And on missile defense, President Barack Obama dropped an important part of his own missile defense plan for Europe a few months ago. Can you assure that the United States will not make more concessions to Russia on missile defense?
And Mr. Foreign Minister, are you convinced that Poland would finally – would eventually host a U.S. missile defense base on its territory?
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, let me start with the second part of your question, if I may. The United States of America has made zero – zero concessions to Russia with respect to missile defense. There was no discussion with Russia whatsoever about the decision that was made with respect to phase four. And it was purposefully – there was no discussion with Russia in order to avoid any potential of an accusation of a deal or some agreement or some concession. There was no discussion.
This was a simple decision based exclusively on the functionality of the system and the decision that we could have a better system in the long run by moving to a different technology and building on phase three. And we are absolutely, President Obama is absolutely, committed to the deployment of phase three, as I said a few minutes ago. It is in the budget. It is proceeding forward. It will be deployed, very simply.
With respect to the question – the first part of your question was on the Visa Waiver – President Obama supports the Visa Waiver Program. I support the Visa Waiver personally for Poland. The Administration as a whole is supportive of the language in the legislation on the Hill right now. We hope that legislation will be passed, and we expect that Poland will benefit from the implementation of the Visa Waiver Program.
As I said in my opening comments, this makes sense, this is good for all of us, and we want this to happen.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: Well, I don’t think you could have got it either more eloquently or more firmly, so all that is left for me to say is thank you. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: But in the past, Mr. Minister, you had some doubts about missile defense in Poland.
SECRETARY KERRY: That’s why he came here, because we just erased all the doubts.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: We’ve also had a formal exchange of letters and we are on the same page on the missile defense issue.
MS. PSAKI: Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Happy. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER SIKORSKI: Thanks.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thanks, Minister.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
BACKGROUND: SECRETARY KERRY'S TRIP TO JORDAN
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Background Briefing on the Secretary's Trip to Amman
Special Briefing
Senior State Department Official
Via Teleconference
May 21, 2013
MODERATOR: Thank you. So this is a conference call to preview the Secretary’s trip to Amman, Jordan tomorrow for his meeting with the London 11. We have on the phone [Senior State Department Official], who will be known here forward as a Senior State Department Official, who’ll give a quick overview and then take some questions. And we’ll try to go around the room since I’m here anyway.
So [Senior State Department Official], whenever you’re ready.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Okay. I just have a couple of things to say at the start. The Secretary’s meetings here tomorrow are part of a broader American effort that’s been ongoing especially since the Secretary took office to work with partners on Syria. So he’s again meeting the same group of countries, the same foreign ministers with whom he met in Istanbul on April 20th.
And it’s basically to review where we are on Syria, and obviously there’s going to be a discussion both about the situation on the ground in the country; I’m sure there will be a discussion of the refugee situation since the Turkish and Jordanian foreign ministers will be there. There will certainly be a discussion about Geneva, and there’ll be a discussion about what things our countries need to be doing in the days and weeks ahead. So it is part of an ongoing set of discussions. It is not by itself a particularly – it’s not a place where we’re coming to make big decisions because we’re in touch with these countries regularly anyway. So I would urge that people understand it’s part of a consultation and consensus-building effort rather than a make-or-break summit or some such thing.
Why don’t I stop there, [Moderator].
MODERATOR: Okay, great. Well, why don’t we go around. Michael, why don’t you start. Michael Gordon.
QUESTION: Hi, [Senior State Department Official]. Michael Gordon. At the Istanbul meeting a month ago, Secretary Kerry announced that the United States would be sending nonlethal assistance to the armed Syrian opposition that went beyond the food rations and the medical kits that are being provided. What equipment, what additional nonlethal assistance is going to be sent to the armed opposition, and when do you plan to send it since it has yet to be delivered? And who in the Syrian opposition is going to this meeting in Geneva?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: With respect to the assistance, the nonlethal assistance to the Supreme Military Command of the Free Syrian Army, we have not yet delivered the next tranche of assistance. We are continuing right now with the deliveries of food supplies and medical supplies. And in fact, today there was another delivery and there was one last week as well.
Michael, we first need to inform the Congress of what we intend to send in the next tranche, the additional assistance that Kerry announced in Istanbul. And so rather than have the Congress read about it in the New York Times, I’d like us to get our notification up to the Hill. But we will certainly be looking at doing things that will help build the Supreme Military Command’s logistical capabilities, and basically we are working with them from sort of a set of things that they have asked us to help them with. So we’ll get that notification up to Congress shortly, I hope.
With respect to Geneva and the opposition’s attendance, I don’t think any of the different opposition elements have yet announced definitively whether or not they will attend. And of course, the opposition, the political opposition, is in the middle of meetings right now in Istanbul to pick a new leadership. So we will work intensely with that new leadership in the run-up to Geneva.
MODERATOR: Brad.
QUESTION: Yes, [Senior State Department Official], Brad Klapper from AP. Can I just ask you about the situation on the ground? And I won’t try to pronounce the name of the town, but there’s been heavy fighting in – well, I’ll try – al-Qusayr. Are you worried that as time goes on planning this Geneva conference that Assad’s forces are trying to change the situation on the ground as much as possible in their benefit ahead of any future peace talks and that this will complicate chances for peace going forward?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, first let me say a couple of things about the fighting in Qusayr, which is up near Homs. It’s southwest of the city of Homs. It is the most visible effort we have seen of Hezbollah to engage directly in the fighting in Syria as a foreign force. We understand there are also Iranians up there. That is what the Free Syrian Army commanders are telling us. I think this is an important thing to note, the direct implication of foreigners fighting on Syrian soil now for the regime.
There are real concerns, Brad. We have heard from the Syrian opposition that when the regime forces go into Qusayr, if they do capture it, that there will be retaliation against the civilian population, and there are still thousands of civilians in the city. They’re especially nervous about this after the massacres committed by regime militias in Banias, which is just down the road maybe 30 minutes and where several hundreds were killed. And so it is important that the regime know that the world is watching this and we’re watching this, and we will know if they commit massacres, and we will know who it was that committed it, and they will be held accountable. And I want to make that very clear. The way the Syrians are shelling the city with civilians in it is just part of a -- (phone ringing) --
QUESTION: Keep going. Sorry.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: -- is reprehensible. With respect to the Syrian regime’s strategy leading up to Geneva, I would just say that we have long said – and the Secretary has said – that it is important to change Bashar al-Assad’s calculations in order to get to a political settlement and that the balance on the ground – the military balance on the ground is a huge factor in those calculations, and we understand that. And so one of the things we’ll be talking about here in Amman tomorrow is what else needs to be done with respect to the military balance on the ground.
QUESTION: It’s Arshad Mohammed of Reuters. Two things. One, Special Envoy Brahimi has said that both the opposition and the government are preparing to take part in a Geneva 2 meeting. Is that your understanding? Do you have any reason to believe that any decisions have yet been taken on either side to actually commit to coming? And secondly, can you elaborate on the reports that – you said that you understand that there are Iranians up in Qusayr. Do you have any sense of how many? Are they fighting on the ground? What are they actually doing? And how confident are you in these reports that you have?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I’ll talk about the Iranians first. The source of our information about the Iranians is coming from Free Syrian Army commanders that are involved in the fighting and with whom we are in touch as well as the Hezbollah. So it is – that’s who’s claiming that there are Iranians on the ground.
With respect to the Syrian Government’s participation in the opposition, participation in Geneva, the Syrian Government has – there have been press reports, in fact, I think maybe from Reuters that the Syrian Government has named a delegation led by Prime Minister Halqi and which includes a deputy prime minister and several other ministers. For us, the important thing is to – for them to understand that the purpose of this new meeting in Geneva is to discuss how to implement fully – and I want to emphasize those words – how to implement fully the Geneva communiqué, which stipulates that there will be a transition governing body established with full executive authority, including over the military and the security apparatus and that will be established by mutual consent. I have not heard yet from the opposition definitively that they will attend. But as I said, that is – as they come out of their leadership meetings, that is something we will certainly be talking to them about.
QUESTION: Just for the record, I think our story was citing Western diplomats as saying that the Syrian Government had put forward a series of names, including the ones that you cited, the Prime Minister and so on, as a possible delegation. But I don’t think it constituted the Syrian Government themselves committing that those people would actually show up.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, so we need to wait then for Damascus to make a final announcement.
MODERATOR: All right.
QUESTION: This is David Rohde from the Atlantic and Reuters. I’m just (inaudible) following up on Arshad’s question. Can you say anything more about the Iranians, the number of Iranians?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No. I can’t. I’m just relaying what I have heard from multiple commanders up in the Homs battlefield area. We’ve talked to several.
QUESTION: And you’d never heard these types of reports before? And are they fighting? Are advising, supplying anything?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I just can’t answer that question, I’m sorry. I don’t – to be very frank, I don’t have any estimates of numbers and I don’t know that they are directly involved in the fighting, but I don’t think the people that I’m talking to know that themselves. So – but they say that there is both Hezbollah on the ground as well as Iranians on the ground.
QUESTION: And just in terms of the opposition, there’s the separate meetings in Madrid that are happening. Some of the jihadist groups in the opposition are already rejecting peace talks. Are you concerned about who will go to Geneva from the opposition side and if they’ll actually represent the people fighting on the ground from the opposition?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, again, I don’t think anyone, including the people in Madrid, made a final determination about whether or not they would go to Geneva. Most of them said they will postpone any decision for a couple of weeks. This goes back to what I was saying before about leadership issues being resolved in Istanbul for the opposition coalition. And many of the groups that were in Madrid are not in the opposition coalition. They’re smaller opposition groups or conglomerations. So the delegation that would represent the opposition has not been assembled, who would participate in that delegation has not been determined, and so there’s still a great deal in play on the opposition side.
But the first thing to do is for the opposition coalition, which we and the Friends of Syria all have recognized as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. We need that opposition coalition to resolve its leadership questions and then turn to address its stance on Geneva. First things first.
MODERATOR: Indira.
QUESTION: Hi, [Senior State Department Official], this Indira Lakshmanan from Bloomberg News. Thanks for doing this.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Hi, Indira.
QUESTION: I wanted to ask – hi – I wanted to ask: So you don’t know the number of the IRGC troops on the ground and if they’re in battle or just advisory. Do you know the number of the Hezbollah troops on the ground, and again if they’re in battle or just advisory. And connected to that, can you tell us the status of the sort of "milk run" resupplies coming from Iran, what’s coming in and how often? And then just in terms of today with the Saudi Crown Prince in Turkey, are we going to be seeing aid to the rebels increase? And after the Turkish meeting with --
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: With respect to the Hezbollah, I don’t have estimates of numbers. But we have reports from several of the commanders that Hezbollah fighters are directly engaged in fighting literally on the streets. They say that their men from some of these battalions of the Supreme Military Command are directly fighting Hezbollah fighters. They say, for example, that they have Lebanese accents. So they know that they’re not Syrians. But again, I don’t have any estimates of numbers.
With respect to Iranian supplies going in, we have long expressed our concern about that; it’s not something new, but it is something that we continue to press the Iraqis to inspect those planes to make sure that there are not lethal materials going in. And it’s something we will continue to watch.
Your – I’m sorry, Indira, what was your third question?
QUESTION: Yeah, I was asking about the Saudi Crown Prince in Turkey today --
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Oh, yeah.
QUESTION: -- and whether – that’s following up, obviously, on Erdogan and Obama meeting last week, and are we going to see an increase in aid to the rebels because of the Saudi visit to Turkey. Is that in the works?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: What I would say is all of this happens as – within a group of countries, the Friends of Syria. And then this meeting tomorrow in Amman is to bring all of the key players in the region as well as the key partners in Europe and the United States together to talk about strategy. And so what I would suggest to you is that for sure the Saudis and the Turks have a lot of concerns about what’s going on in Syria. I don’t know if arms are directly on their agenda, but I think all of the countries that are meeting tomorrow, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have already expressed their support for a political solution. They did that in Istanbul in their joint declaration. They also expressed their strong support for helping the Supreme Military Command and General Idris as one of the things necessary to help make a political solution possible by more effectively changing the balance on the ground.
MODERATOR: Scott.
QUESTION: What about Iran coming to Geneva 2?
MODERATOR: Did you hear that?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: It’ll be –
MODERATOR: Did you hear that, [Senior State Department Official]?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yeah. We have long, long viewed Iran’s role in Syria as a very pernicious one, even before the Syrian revolution started. That is not a secret. Iran’s actions since the revolution has started we have also criticized steadfastly; I remember doing it when I was still at the American Embassy in Damascus. So our views about Iran and what it’s doing in Syria are well known.
The final invite list for the Geneva conference is still being worked on. We are talking to – it’ll be an issue tomorrow, I am sure, on the agenda of the 11 foreign ministers meeting here in Jordan. But also we have to talk to countries that are not here. We’ll certainly have to talk to the Russians more, and we’ll have to talk also to the United Nations because they very well will have a big role. And so that final attendance list is still under discussion and I’m not quite sure where it’s going to come out yet.
MODERATOR: Anne?
QUESTION: Anne Gearan, Washington Post. Hi, [Senior State Department Official]. Following on that, two things: How could you possibly have a conference about the meaningful future of Syria without including one of the major instrumental combatants? And secondly, are we now, based on your earlier comments about Iranian fighters being involved, looking at a proxy war? I mean, you’re talking about arming the rebels on one side and the Iranians are clearly arming the others and fighting on behalf of the others on the other side. Are we now basically in a war with Iran?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The revolution in Syria started with Syrians and Syrians are carrying the heavy burden of the fighting and the casualties – not Iran, not Hezbollah, and not a small group of foreign fighters fighting on the opposition’s side. And so I think in the end Syrians – because they’re the ones carrying all the burden and carrying the vast majority of the fighting – Syrians are going to be the ones that make the peace. And my understanding is that the Syrian Government is welcoming Iranian help and Hezbollah help. And so that Syrian Government that agrees to negotiate and implement fully the Geneva communiqué and the transition governing body’s establishment can also be the one that asks the Iranians to leave. So I do not view Iranian participation at the next Geneva session as vital.
Remind me, Anne, your second question. Oh, the proxy war? I go back to what I said. Certainly there are – foreigners are playing a role. Iran’s role and Hezbollah’s role has grown substantially over the last couple of months, very pernicious. But Syrians are shouldering the vast majority of the casualties, the vast majority of the fighting, and in the end, they’re Syrian towns or Syrian people that are getting harmed. So --
MODERATOR: Jo, are you on the phone? Oh, operator, can you see if there’s a – if you can get Jo Biddle, who’s on the phone, who may either hit the button or maybe you could just log her in here?
OPERATOR: Jo’s line is open.
QUESTION: Hello?
MODERATOR: Hi, Jo.
QUESTION: Hello, hello. Hi, thanks very much indeed. Sorry, I decided to stay up in the room. I wanted to ask [Senior State Department Official], if I may: How confident are you that in fact this Geneva conference will go ahead? Because there seems to be still a lot of uncertainties and unknowns, and as you say, the invite list is still being worked on. And I wondered also if you could say what was the reasoning behind not inviting the Syrian opposition to tomorrow’s meeting in Amman. Thank you.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: First, let me answer the second question first. The Syrian opposition has been invited to Amman, both General Idris or a representative from him for the Supreme Military Command as well as the political opposition, the opposition forces coalition. So they’ve both been invited. I’m not sure exactly yet who is attending.
With respect to how confident we are about Geneva 2, this is the most serious effort in the last two years to get the Syrian Government to sit down and negotiate with the Syrian opposition. In my experience, we haven’t seen a push that has such clear support from the Russians, from the United Nations, and from states in the region. I am not saying that it’s easy. There are lots of pitfalls and you all know them as well as I do. But I also think we have made some progress and we have identified issues that have to be resolved in order to have the conference, and we have time to work on those. So I don’t – I’m not particularly worried about where we are.
As I said, in terms of getting the opposition to the table, the first thing is for the opposition coalition to resolve its leadership questions so that then the new leaders can figure out how to use Geneva to their advantage in terms of standing up a transitional government that does not include Bashar al-Assad.
MODERATOR: Last but not least.
QUESTION: Hi, it’s Sejla with the TV pool here. Can you just briefly update us on where the Russians are in this picture given the developments of last week, with the ships in the Mediterranean and the missiles?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, the Russians on the one hand strongly support, they say, holding this conference in Geneva. But on the other hand, they are continuing to deliver weapons – very modern weapons, very dangerous weapons – to the Syrian regime, and we don’t find that helpful, as you know. We have spoken publicly about that, as well as in private. So I would – I’m going to let the Russians characterize their own policy for you, but I would just say while we welcome their help in the full implementation of the Geneva communiqué and the establishment of a transitioned governing body with full executive authorities, formed by mutual consent, if they’re willing to help us on that, that’s terrific. But providing weapons to the regime at the same time doesn’t seem likely, to us, to induce a positive negotiating stance from the Syrian regime.
QUESTION: If I could just follow up, would maybe pulling those ships from the Mediterranean be a point that would move the talks forward and bring the Russians a little bit closer to the United States and the Friends of Syria?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I’m not at all sure about that. I think what is of greater concern to the people that will be meeting here in Amman tomorrow are both Russian arms deliveries and then the Russian political support for the regime, including its support in the United Nations Security Council.
MODERATOR: All right, Indira. Only because Brad says, you get one more.
QUESTION: Oh, Brad is the --
QUESTION: Brad, you’re overruled. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: All right, so just quickly, [Senior State Department Official]: So who is supplying – how is Assad getting his hard cash right now? And on these Russian weapons supplies, is it your understanding that they’re just finishing out existing contracts or are there new contracts that are being fulfilled?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Certainly there are contracts that predate the outbreak of the Syrian revolution that the Russians are delivering equipment under. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t suspend deliveries given the extraordinary circumstances in which Syria now finds itself, but legalistically, they are correct; these are old contracts. There are many reports that we get from Syrian opposition sources of additional Russian arms deliveries. And certainly the regime is consuming prodigious amounts of military supplies right now, lots of bombs being dropped and ammunition being fired.
So where do they get their cash? Frankly, if I had a better idea, we could target it better. We have expressed our concerns to the Russians in the past about Russian banks’ interactions with the regime. I’m not saying that the Russians are bankrolling the Assad regime; I don’t think they are, but I think they do in some cases facilitate the Syrian banking sector’s access to the broader international banking sector. And so that is something we are talking to them about.
But I also think the regime is slowly running out of cash. The exchange rate in Damascus on the Syrian pound has dropped steadily. My understanding now is that it’s under 100 to the American dollar, and that suggests to us that little by little the regime’s reserves are dwindling.
MODERATOR: Okay, really the last one. Arshad, wrap it up.
QUESTION: Sorry to bother you with this one, but I still don’t understand what you think the Iranians that you are told are on the ground in Qusayr are actually doing. I mean, it just seems odd that one has no sense of whether they’re advising or fighting or arming or whether they’re just sort of bystanders.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I don’t think they’re arming because I’ve not heard that, but I think they could be doing a little of both advising and fighting. The reports that we’re getting, Arshad, are not consistent. So what is consistent is they’re all saying that there are Iranians up there, so that is consistent. Then what they’re doing in particular, I get different reports.
What I would say is this, though: that we know that Iran and Hezbollah cooperate in a number of countries, not just in Syria. And so it is not a surprise that Iran would be there with Hezbollah on the ground. We do have consistent reports of Hezbollah fighters on the ground.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MODERATOR: Thank you, [Senior State Department Official], for taking the time, and we’ll all see you tomorrow.
Background Briefing on the Secretary's Trip to Amman
Special Briefing
Senior State Department Official
Via Teleconference
May 21, 2013
MODERATOR: Thank you. So this is a conference call to preview the Secretary’s trip to Amman, Jordan tomorrow for his meeting with the London 11. We have on the phone [Senior State Department Official], who will be known here forward as a Senior State Department Official, who’ll give a quick overview and then take some questions. And we’ll try to go around the room since I’m here anyway.
So [Senior State Department Official], whenever you’re ready.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Okay. I just have a couple of things to say at the start. The Secretary’s meetings here tomorrow are part of a broader American effort that’s been ongoing especially since the Secretary took office to work with partners on Syria. So he’s again meeting the same group of countries, the same foreign ministers with whom he met in Istanbul on April 20th.
And it’s basically to review where we are on Syria, and obviously there’s going to be a discussion both about the situation on the ground in the country; I’m sure there will be a discussion of the refugee situation since the Turkish and Jordanian foreign ministers will be there. There will certainly be a discussion about Geneva, and there’ll be a discussion about what things our countries need to be doing in the days and weeks ahead. So it is part of an ongoing set of discussions. It is not by itself a particularly – it’s not a place where we’re coming to make big decisions because we’re in touch with these countries regularly anyway. So I would urge that people understand it’s part of a consultation and consensus-building effort rather than a make-or-break summit or some such thing.
Why don’t I stop there, [Moderator].
MODERATOR: Okay, great. Well, why don’t we go around. Michael, why don’t you start. Michael Gordon.
QUESTION: Hi, [Senior State Department Official]. Michael Gordon. At the Istanbul meeting a month ago, Secretary Kerry announced that the United States would be sending nonlethal assistance to the armed Syrian opposition that went beyond the food rations and the medical kits that are being provided. What equipment, what additional nonlethal assistance is going to be sent to the armed opposition, and when do you plan to send it since it has yet to be delivered? And who in the Syrian opposition is going to this meeting in Geneva?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: With respect to the assistance, the nonlethal assistance to the Supreme Military Command of the Free Syrian Army, we have not yet delivered the next tranche of assistance. We are continuing right now with the deliveries of food supplies and medical supplies. And in fact, today there was another delivery and there was one last week as well.
Michael, we first need to inform the Congress of what we intend to send in the next tranche, the additional assistance that Kerry announced in Istanbul. And so rather than have the Congress read about it in the New York Times, I’d like us to get our notification up to the Hill. But we will certainly be looking at doing things that will help build the Supreme Military Command’s logistical capabilities, and basically we are working with them from sort of a set of things that they have asked us to help them with. So we’ll get that notification up to Congress shortly, I hope.
With respect to Geneva and the opposition’s attendance, I don’t think any of the different opposition elements have yet announced definitively whether or not they will attend. And of course, the opposition, the political opposition, is in the middle of meetings right now in Istanbul to pick a new leadership. So we will work intensely with that new leadership in the run-up to Geneva.
MODERATOR: Brad.
QUESTION: Yes, [Senior State Department Official], Brad Klapper from AP. Can I just ask you about the situation on the ground? And I won’t try to pronounce the name of the town, but there’s been heavy fighting in – well, I’ll try – al-Qusayr. Are you worried that as time goes on planning this Geneva conference that Assad’s forces are trying to change the situation on the ground as much as possible in their benefit ahead of any future peace talks and that this will complicate chances for peace going forward?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, first let me say a couple of things about the fighting in Qusayr, which is up near Homs. It’s southwest of the city of Homs. It is the most visible effort we have seen of Hezbollah to engage directly in the fighting in Syria as a foreign force. We understand there are also Iranians up there. That is what the Free Syrian Army commanders are telling us. I think this is an important thing to note, the direct implication of foreigners fighting on Syrian soil now for the regime.
There are real concerns, Brad. We have heard from the Syrian opposition that when the regime forces go into Qusayr, if they do capture it, that there will be retaliation against the civilian population, and there are still thousands of civilians in the city. They’re especially nervous about this after the massacres committed by regime militias in Banias, which is just down the road maybe 30 minutes and where several hundreds were killed. And so it is important that the regime know that the world is watching this and we’re watching this, and we will know if they commit massacres, and we will know who it was that committed it, and they will be held accountable. And I want to make that very clear. The way the Syrians are shelling the city with civilians in it is just part of a -- (phone ringing) --
QUESTION: Keep going. Sorry.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: -- is reprehensible. With respect to the Syrian regime’s strategy leading up to Geneva, I would just say that we have long said – and the Secretary has said – that it is important to change Bashar al-Assad’s calculations in order to get to a political settlement and that the balance on the ground – the military balance on the ground is a huge factor in those calculations, and we understand that. And so one of the things we’ll be talking about here in Amman tomorrow is what else needs to be done with respect to the military balance on the ground.
QUESTION: It’s Arshad Mohammed of Reuters. Two things. One, Special Envoy Brahimi has said that both the opposition and the government are preparing to take part in a Geneva 2 meeting. Is that your understanding? Do you have any reason to believe that any decisions have yet been taken on either side to actually commit to coming? And secondly, can you elaborate on the reports that – you said that you understand that there are Iranians up in Qusayr. Do you have any sense of how many? Are they fighting on the ground? What are they actually doing? And how confident are you in these reports that you have?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I’ll talk about the Iranians first. The source of our information about the Iranians is coming from Free Syrian Army commanders that are involved in the fighting and with whom we are in touch as well as the Hezbollah. So it is – that’s who’s claiming that there are Iranians on the ground.
With respect to the Syrian Government’s participation in the opposition, participation in Geneva, the Syrian Government has – there have been press reports, in fact, I think maybe from Reuters that the Syrian Government has named a delegation led by Prime Minister Halqi and which includes a deputy prime minister and several other ministers. For us, the important thing is to – for them to understand that the purpose of this new meeting in Geneva is to discuss how to implement fully – and I want to emphasize those words – how to implement fully the Geneva communiqué, which stipulates that there will be a transition governing body established with full executive authority, including over the military and the security apparatus and that will be established by mutual consent. I have not heard yet from the opposition definitively that they will attend. But as I said, that is – as they come out of their leadership meetings, that is something we will certainly be talking to them about.
QUESTION: Just for the record, I think our story was citing Western diplomats as saying that the Syrian Government had put forward a series of names, including the ones that you cited, the Prime Minister and so on, as a possible delegation. But I don’t think it constituted the Syrian Government themselves committing that those people would actually show up.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, so we need to wait then for Damascus to make a final announcement.
MODERATOR: All right.
QUESTION: This is David Rohde from the Atlantic and Reuters. I’m just (inaudible) following up on Arshad’s question. Can you say anything more about the Iranians, the number of Iranians?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No. I can’t. I’m just relaying what I have heard from multiple commanders up in the Homs battlefield area. We’ve talked to several.
QUESTION: And you’d never heard these types of reports before? And are they fighting? Are advising, supplying anything?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I just can’t answer that question, I’m sorry. I don’t – to be very frank, I don’t have any estimates of numbers and I don’t know that they are directly involved in the fighting, but I don’t think the people that I’m talking to know that themselves. So – but they say that there is both Hezbollah on the ground as well as Iranians on the ground.
QUESTION: And just in terms of the opposition, there’s the separate meetings in Madrid that are happening. Some of the jihadist groups in the opposition are already rejecting peace talks. Are you concerned about who will go to Geneva from the opposition side and if they’ll actually represent the people fighting on the ground from the opposition?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, again, I don’t think anyone, including the people in Madrid, made a final determination about whether or not they would go to Geneva. Most of them said they will postpone any decision for a couple of weeks. This goes back to what I was saying before about leadership issues being resolved in Istanbul for the opposition coalition. And many of the groups that were in Madrid are not in the opposition coalition. They’re smaller opposition groups or conglomerations. So the delegation that would represent the opposition has not been assembled, who would participate in that delegation has not been determined, and so there’s still a great deal in play on the opposition side.
But the first thing to do is for the opposition coalition, which we and the Friends of Syria all have recognized as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. We need that opposition coalition to resolve its leadership questions and then turn to address its stance on Geneva. First things first.
MODERATOR: Indira.
QUESTION: Hi, [Senior State Department Official], this Indira Lakshmanan from Bloomberg News. Thanks for doing this.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Hi, Indira.
QUESTION: I wanted to ask – hi – I wanted to ask: So you don’t know the number of the IRGC troops on the ground and if they’re in battle or just advisory. Do you know the number of the Hezbollah troops on the ground, and again if they’re in battle or just advisory. And connected to that, can you tell us the status of the sort of "milk run" resupplies coming from Iran, what’s coming in and how often? And then just in terms of today with the Saudi Crown Prince in Turkey, are we going to be seeing aid to the rebels increase? And after the Turkish meeting with --
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: With respect to the Hezbollah, I don’t have estimates of numbers. But we have reports from several of the commanders that Hezbollah fighters are directly engaged in fighting literally on the streets. They say that their men from some of these battalions of the Supreme Military Command are directly fighting Hezbollah fighters. They say, for example, that they have Lebanese accents. So they know that they’re not Syrians. But again, I don’t have any estimates of numbers.
With respect to Iranian supplies going in, we have long expressed our concern about that; it’s not something new, but it is something that we continue to press the Iraqis to inspect those planes to make sure that there are not lethal materials going in. And it’s something we will continue to watch.
Your – I’m sorry, Indira, what was your third question?
QUESTION: Yeah, I was asking about the Saudi Crown Prince in Turkey today --
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Oh, yeah.
QUESTION: -- and whether – that’s following up, obviously, on Erdogan and Obama meeting last week, and are we going to see an increase in aid to the rebels because of the Saudi visit to Turkey. Is that in the works?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: What I would say is all of this happens as – within a group of countries, the Friends of Syria. And then this meeting tomorrow in Amman is to bring all of the key players in the region as well as the key partners in Europe and the United States together to talk about strategy. And so what I would suggest to you is that for sure the Saudis and the Turks have a lot of concerns about what’s going on in Syria. I don’t know if arms are directly on their agenda, but I think all of the countries that are meeting tomorrow, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have already expressed their support for a political solution. They did that in Istanbul in their joint declaration. They also expressed their strong support for helping the Supreme Military Command and General Idris as one of the things necessary to help make a political solution possible by more effectively changing the balance on the ground.
MODERATOR: Scott.
QUESTION: What about Iran coming to Geneva 2?
MODERATOR: Did you hear that?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: It’ll be –
MODERATOR: Did you hear that, [Senior State Department Official]?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yeah. We have long, long viewed Iran’s role in Syria as a very pernicious one, even before the Syrian revolution started. That is not a secret. Iran’s actions since the revolution has started we have also criticized steadfastly; I remember doing it when I was still at the American Embassy in Damascus. So our views about Iran and what it’s doing in Syria are well known.
The final invite list for the Geneva conference is still being worked on. We are talking to – it’ll be an issue tomorrow, I am sure, on the agenda of the 11 foreign ministers meeting here in Jordan. But also we have to talk to countries that are not here. We’ll certainly have to talk to the Russians more, and we’ll have to talk also to the United Nations because they very well will have a big role. And so that final attendance list is still under discussion and I’m not quite sure where it’s going to come out yet.
MODERATOR: Anne?
QUESTION: Anne Gearan, Washington Post. Hi, [Senior State Department Official]. Following on that, two things: How could you possibly have a conference about the meaningful future of Syria without including one of the major instrumental combatants? And secondly, are we now, based on your earlier comments about Iranian fighters being involved, looking at a proxy war? I mean, you’re talking about arming the rebels on one side and the Iranians are clearly arming the others and fighting on behalf of the others on the other side. Are we now basically in a war with Iran?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The revolution in Syria started with Syrians and Syrians are carrying the heavy burden of the fighting and the casualties – not Iran, not Hezbollah, and not a small group of foreign fighters fighting on the opposition’s side. And so I think in the end Syrians – because they’re the ones carrying all the burden and carrying the vast majority of the fighting – Syrians are going to be the ones that make the peace. And my understanding is that the Syrian Government is welcoming Iranian help and Hezbollah help. And so that Syrian Government that agrees to negotiate and implement fully the Geneva communiqué and the transition governing body’s establishment can also be the one that asks the Iranians to leave. So I do not view Iranian participation at the next Geneva session as vital.
Remind me, Anne, your second question. Oh, the proxy war? I go back to what I said. Certainly there are – foreigners are playing a role. Iran’s role and Hezbollah’s role has grown substantially over the last couple of months, very pernicious. But Syrians are shouldering the vast majority of the casualties, the vast majority of the fighting, and in the end, they’re Syrian towns or Syrian people that are getting harmed. So --
MODERATOR: Jo, are you on the phone? Oh, operator, can you see if there’s a – if you can get Jo Biddle, who’s on the phone, who may either hit the button or maybe you could just log her in here?
OPERATOR: Jo’s line is open.
QUESTION: Hello?
MODERATOR: Hi, Jo.
QUESTION: Hello, hello. Hi, thanks very much indeed. Sorry, I decided to stay up in the room. I wanted to ask [Senior State Department Official], if I may: How confident are you that in fact this Geneva conference will go ahead? Because there seems to be still a lot of uncertainties and unknowns, and as you say, the invite list is still being worked on. And I wondered also if you could say what was the reasoning behind not inviting the Syrian opposition to tomorrow’s meeting in Amman. Thank you.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: First, let me answer the second question first. The Syrian opposition has been invited to Amman, both General Idris or a representative from him for the Supreme Military Command as well as the political opposition, the opposition forces coalition. So they’ve both been invited. I’m not sure exactly yet who is attending.
With respect to how confident we are about Geneva 2, this is the most serious effort in the last two years to get the Syrian Government to sit down and negotiate with the Syrian opposition. In my experience, we haven’t seen a push that has such clear support from the Russians, from the United Nations, and from states in the region. I am not saying that it’s easy. There are lots of pitfalls and you all know them as well as I do. But I also think we have made some progress and we have identified issues that have to be resolved in order to have the conference, and we have time to work on those. So I don’t – I’m not particularly worried about where we are.
As I said, in terms of getting the opposition to the table, the first thing is for the opposition coalition to resolve its leadership questions so that then the new leaders can figure out how to use Geneva to their advantage in terms of standing up a transitional government that does not include Bashar al-Assad.
MODERATOR: Last but not least.
QUESTION: Hi, it’s Sejla with the TV pool here. Can you just briefly update us on where the Russians are in this picture given the developments of last week, with the ships in the Mediterranean and the missiles?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, the Russians on the one hand strongly support, they say, holding this conference in Geneva. But on the other hand, they are continuing to deliver weapons – very modern weapons, very dangerous weapons – to the Syrian regime, and we don’t find that helpful, as you know. We have spoken publicly about that, as well as in private. So I would – I’m going to let the Russians characterize their own policy for you, but I would just say while we welcome their help in the full implementation of the Geneva communiqué and the establishment of a transitioned governing body with full executive authorities, formed by mutual consent, if they’re willing to help us on that, that’s terrific. But providing weapons to the regime at the same time doesn’t seem likely, to us, to induce a positive negotiating stance from the Syrian regime.
QUESTION: If I could just follow up, would maybe pulling those ships from the Mediterranean be a point that would move the talks forward and bring the Russians a little bit closer to the United States and the Friends of Syria?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I’m not at all sure about that. I think what is of greater concern to the people that will be meeting here in Amman tomorrow are both Russian arms deliveries and then the Russian political support for the regime, including its support in the United Nations Security Council.
MODERATOR: All right, Indira. Only because Brad says, you get one more.
QUESTION: Oh, Brad is the --
QUESTION: Brad, you’re overruled. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: All right, so just quickly, [Senior State Department Official]: So who is supplying – how is Assad getting his hard cash right now? And on these Russian weapons supplies, is it your understanding that they’re just finishing out existing contracts or are there new contracts that are being fulfilled?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Certainly there are contracts that predate the outbreak of the Syrian revolution that the Russians are delivering equipment under. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t suspend deliveries given the extraordinary circumstances in which Syria now finds itself, but legalistically, they are correct; these are old contracts. There are many reports that we get from Syrian opposition sources of additional Russian arms deliveries. And certainly the regime is consuming prodigious amounts of military supplies right now, lots of bombs being dropped and ammunition being fired.
So where do they get their cash? Frankly, if I had a better idea, we could target it better. We have expressed our concerns to the Russians in the past about Russian banks’ interactions with the regime. I’m not saying that the Russians are bankrolling the Assad regime; I don’t think they are, but I think they do in some cases facilitate the Syrian banking sector’s access to the broader international banking sector. And so that is something we are talking to them about.
But I also think the regime is slowly running out of cash. The exchange rate in Damascus on the Syrian pound has dropped steadily. My understanding now is that it’s under 100 to the American dollar, and that suggests to us that little by little the regime’s reserves are dwindling.
MODERATOR: Okay, really the last one. Arshad, wrap it up.
QUESTION: Sorry to bother you with this one, but I still don’t understand what you think the Iranians that you are told are on the ground in Qusayr are actually doing. I mean, it just seems odd that one has no sense of whether they’re advising or fighting or arming or whether they’re just sort of bystanders.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I don’t think they’re arming because I’ve not heard that, but I think they could be doing a little of both advising and fighting. The reports that we’re getting, Arshad, are not consistent. So what is consistent is they’re all saying that there are Iranians up there, so that is consistent. Then what they’re doing in particular, I get different reports.
What I would say is this, though: that we know that Iran and Hezbollah cooperate in a number of countries, not just in Syria. And so it is not a surprise that Iran would be there with Hezbollah on the ground. We do have consistent reports of Hezbollah fighters on the ground.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MODERATOR: Thank you, [Senior State Department Official], for taking the time, and we’ll all see you tomorrow.
Monday, June 11, 2012
SEC. OF STATE CLINTON'S REMARKS IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY WITH TURKEY'S FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu After Their Meeting
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Istanbul, Turkey
June 7, 2012
MODERATOR: (In Turkish.) We will now begin the award ceremony. United States Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone will officiate.
AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Thank you very much. Our country owes a great debt of gratitude to Turkey and especially to Ambassador Sahinkaya for his tenacious advocacy and support for Americans in distress during the assisted departure of American citizens from Libya last year. Ambassador Sahinkaya and his skillful and persistent efforts on behalf our four New York Times journalists in March of 2011 testify to the durability and the importance of the Turkish-American friendship. At a time of considerable peril and uncertainty, we were very fortunate to have a diplomatic Ambassador Sahinkaya’s fortitude and integrity and skill tending to our shared interest during the Libyan crisis. And so Madame Secretary, if you would be so kind to hand the plaque over to Ambassador Sahinkaya.
(Applause.)
Thank you very much.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: (In Turkish.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, thank you very much, Ahmet. And thank you and your team for the excellent preparations for this first ministerial meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum. You just heard from the minister an overview of all that we have been working on. The United States views this forum as an excellent opportunity to pursue our common goal of making the world safe from terrorism, but doing it in a way that is in keeping with human rights and the rule of law. And the announcements that Ahmet just related about continuing work that we will do evidences the approach that we are taking, and I’m very pleased that in just the few short months of its existence, the Global Counterterrorism Forum has already helped generate smart and achievable strategies for combating terrorism, and the United States looks forward to continuing our work.
On a few other issues, I want to thank the minister for the meeting that he hosted last night, the ad hoc meeting on Syria intended to intensify our efforts to support the Syrian people, given the urgency of the situation. The regime-sponsored violence that we witnessed again in Hama yesterday is simply unconscionable. Assad has doubled down on his brutality and duplicity, and Syria will not, cannot be peaceful, stable, or certainly democratic until Assad goes. So even as we intensify the sanctions pressure, because as we were meeting in Istanbul, the sanctions working committee of the Friends of the Syrian People was meeting in Washington, the time has come for the international community to unite around a plan for post-Assad Syria. And last night we discussed a number of the steps that we intend to take together.
I will just mention a few of the key elements and principles that are focusing our work. First, the Syrian Government must implement all six points of the Annan initiative, including a real ceasefire agreed to and observed by all parties. Second, Assad must transfer power and depart Syria. Third, an interim representative government must be established through negotiation. And we are firm in our core principles, and we believe we have to keep faith and do justice to the aspirations of the Syrian people. The transition phase must lead to a democratic, representative, and inclusive government. There must be civilian control of the military and security forces and respect for the rule of law and equality before the law for all Syrians regardless of background.
We know that many still cling to the Assad regime because they fear change more. And we have consistently made clear that we support a positive, inclusive democratic transition roadmap. And we have to bring people to that vision and, in effect, move them away from the Assad regime so that they can’t imagine a better future for themselves and Syria.
And secondly, we have to unite the international community behind a plan that is achievable and keeps faith with those inside Syria who are protesting and demonstrating, suffering, and dying for their universal human rights.
We said last night we are prepared to work with any country, including all members of the UN Security Council, and we will do so so long as any such gathering starts from the basic premise that Assad and his regime must give way to a new democratic Syria, and we have to continue to put more pressure and we urge all nations to impose and implement sanctions and close loopholes in existing measures. And we also pledge to improve coordination among the countries that are working with the Syrian opposition. We look forward to a meeting of experts on this subject with representatives of the civilian opposition, hosted by Turkey again in Istanbul at the end of next week. I will be meeting with Kofi Annan tomorrow in Washington. I’ve asked my special advisor on Syrian affairs to go to Moscow tomorrow to discuss the need for a political transition with the Russian Government, and I think we are resolute. None of us is satisfied that the killing continues, but we are determined to move forward together and we reaffirmed that commitment yesterday.
Finally, the foreign minister and I and also the Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and I had an opportunity to review the range of issues our countries are confronting together, including strengthening the economic partnership and cooperation on the transitions in the Middle East and North Africa. And I want to underscore – it probably goes without saying, I said it this morning, I think I’ve said it on every trip to Turkey – the United States stands strongly with Turkey in your fight against the PKK whose long campaign of violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives. And again, let me thank the Ambassador on behalf of the American people for your excellent work in a very difficult time and place.
The United States and Turkey have such a strong and far-ranging relationship that every time Ahmet and I get together, we run out of time before we run out of things to discuss. So I’m grateful for the strong partnership we have, and I look forward always to continuing to deepen and strengthen it in the months and years ahead. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, my friend. (Applause.)
MODERATOR: We will take four questions and we’ll start with the American press. Anyone from the American press?
QUESTION: Yes, Elise Labott.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Elise?
MODERATOR: Yes, ma’am. Elise.
QUESTION: Thank you. This question is for both of you. A lot of the points that you have laid out in this vision for a roadmap are not necessarily new. You’ve been talking about them since you called on President Assad to step down. So what about this vision do you think is even going to help the Russians – convince the Russians to squeeze President Assad to step down? And if they don’t, at what point do you say this violence, as you said, is unconscionable, we need to move ahead without the Russians?
And specifically for the foreign minister, do you believe that, as Kofi Annan is suggesting and as Russia is suggesting, that Iran should be part of international mediation efforts? Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, let me start. And I think it’s clear to everyone that the violence continues; in fact, if anything it seems to worsen. And we have not been successful yet in bringing about the kind of international action that will make a difference to the Assad regime, but I believe that we are continuing to move in that direction. And clearly, we have to reiterate our unity, we have to send a clear message to other nations that are not yet working with us or even actively supporting the Assad regime, that there’s no future in that. And indeed, planning for an orderly transition, we think, will be an important step, because as I said, there are still many inside Syria – and this is human nature – this is totally understandable – who are not yet convinced that there can be a transition that would not make the situation worse for them, their families, their group, their location.
And so we recognized in our meeting last night we have to do more. We also have to do more with the opposition. The opposition has work to do, and that’s why I mentioned that Turkey will convene a meeting of the opposition. Many of us have been working – both Turkey and the United States have – with elements of the opposition. Now it’s difficult for those inside Syria to leave Syria to come to a meeting, but we have to do more to help organize and focus the opposition.
And finally, we think it is important for us to give Kofi Annan and his plan the last amount of support that we can muster, because in order to bring others into a frame of mind to take action in the Security Council, there has to be a final recognition that it’s not working. And he will be addressing the Security Council today and, as I said, I will see him tomorrow.
And on your last point, regarding Iran, it is hard, for the United States certainly, to imagine that a country putting so much effort into keeping Assad in power, and in effect – as I said yesterday in Baku – helping to stage-manage the repression on the people of Syria, would be a constructive actor. And we think that would not be an appropriate participant at this point to include.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: (In Turkish.)
QUESTION: (In Turkish.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, first, as to the transition in Syria, there are a number of examples that I would point to, but perhaps the most recent is the transition in Yemen. It took, frankly, more than a year. It took a lot of international effort. And finally, then-President Saleh gave up power because the pressure, the sanctions, the isolation was just too much. And so he – actually, after clashes and deaths and threats of civil war, he left power. There is now a new president, and there seems to be some consolidation of social stability and security going on in Yemen. It’s too soon to make predictions, but the transition occurred.
So this is a recent example in the region that we can point to. It’s not at all out of the question that something like that could be presented. But in any event, we know that keeping the pressure up, the economic pressure, the isolation, building the case, making the argument to those who are worried about the alternative or supporting Assad, is the hard work of diplomacy. Ahmet and I would like to be able to stand up here and make a pronouncement and save the lives of innocent Syrians. We’re disgusted by what we see happening. But we know that the hard work ahead requires getting more and more people to agree with us that there must be a transition and to help facilitate it.
With respect to our fight against terrorism, we work very closely together, and in fact, we are learning every week how we can be more closely knit together to cooperate and to support Turkey’s fight against the PKK. I will not discuss potential arms transfers that have not been formally notified to Congress, but I will say that the extensive assistance that we currently provide is going to intensify through closer cooperation and planning, and both the foreign minister and I are committed to making sure both of our governments are as focused and coordinated as we can be going against those that threaten Turkey and Turkish lives.
MODERATOR: I think he has a question over there.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Yeah.
QUESTION: Yes. Madam Secretary, thank you. You met with many of the most concerned allies here not only about Syria, but about Iran. With just a little over 10 days to go until your meeting in Moscow, I was wondering if you could say what you expect from Iran and what will happen if you do not reach – if you do not see the concrete actions that you have hoped for. Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, let me start by restating our objective. It’s one that Turkey and the United States and the international community share, and that is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And that is why we’ve always pursued a two-track policy of pressure and diplomacy. And the United States is committed to finding a peaceful resolution, but as I have said, looking toward the meeting in Moscow, we want Iran to come to that meeting to begin the serious work necessary to take place in order to reach a diplomatic solution.
So we want them to come prepared to take concrete steps, particularly in the area of 20 percent enrichment, and we have said – and this is a unified position of the international community and those of us in this negotiation, which include Russia and China – that in response to their actions, we are prepared to take actions of our own. I am convinced that one of the reasons that Iran came back to the negotiating table was because of the success of our pressure strategy, and I want to express publicly our appreciation to Turkey. This is not easy to work to reduce global reliance on Iranian oil, to unwind business dealings with the Central Bank of Iran.
But from what we hear from many, many sources, the fact that the international community was so united made it difficult for Iran to escape the realization that they were either going to have to come to the table to negotiate or remain very isolated with economic consequences that would be detrimental to their country. So we look for Moscow to show concrete steps that can be taken, and I’m not going to prejudge the outcome. Everyone’s working very hard to try to make it a positive meeting.
QUESTION: (In Turkish.)
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: (Laughter.) The question is hard. (In Turkish.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: That was a very thorough answer. (Laughter.) I will not add anything to that other than, once again, to say thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: Thank you. Thank you very much.
AMBASSADOR RICCIARDONE: Thank you very much. Our country owes a great debt of gratitude to Turkey and especially to Ambassador Sahinkaya for his tenacious advocacy and support for Americans in distress during the assisted departure of American citizens from Libya last year. Ambassador Sahinkaya and his skillful and persistent efforts on behalf our four New York Times journalists in March of 2011 testify to the durability and the importance of the Turkish-American friendship. At a time of considerable peril and uncertainty, we were very fortunate to have a diplomatic Ambassador Sahinkaya’s fortitude and integrity and skill tending to our shared interest during the Libyan crisis. And so Madame Secretary, if you would be so kind to hand the plaque over to Ambassador Sahinkaya.
(Applause.)
Thank you very much.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: (In Turkish.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, thank you very much, Ahmet. And thank you and your team for the excellent preparations for this first ministerial meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum. You just heard from the minister an overview of all that we have been working on. The United States views this forum as an excellent opportunity to pursue our common goal of making the world safe from terrorism, but doing it in a way that is in keeping with human rights and the rule of law. And the announcements that Ahmet just related about continuing work that we will do evidences the approach that we are taking, and I’m very pleased that in just the few short months of its existence, the Global Counterterrorism Forum has already helped generate smart and achievable strategies for combating terrorism, and the United States looks forward to continuing our work.
On a few other issues, I want to thank the minister for the meeting that he hosted last night, the ad hoc meeting on Syria intended to intensify our efforts to support the Syrian people, given the urgency of the situation. The regime-sponsored violence that we witnessed again in Hama yesterday is simply unconscionable. Assad has doubled down on his brutality and duplicity, and Syria will not, cannot be peaceful, stable, or certainly democratic until Assad goes. So even as we intensify the sanctions pressure, because as we were meeting in Istanbul, the sanctions working committee of the Friends of the Syrian People was meeting in Washington, the time has come for the international community to unite around a plan for post-Assad Syria. And last night we discussed a number of the steps that we intend to take together.
I will just mention a few of the key elements and principles that are focusing our work. First, the Syrian Government must implement all six points of the Annan initiative, including a real ceasefire agreed to and observed by all parties. Second, Assad must transfer power and depart Syria. Third, an interim representative government must be established through negotiation. And we are firm in our core principles, and we believe we have to keep faith and do justice to the aspirations of the Syrian people. The transition phase must lead to a democratic, representative, and inclusive government. There must be civilian control of the military and security forces and respect for the rule of law and equality before the law for all Syrians regardless of background.
We know that many still cling to the Assad regime because they fear change more. And we have consistently made clear that we support a positive, inclusive democratic transition roadmap. And we have to bring people to that vision and, in effect, move them away from the Assad regime so that they can’t imagine a better future for themselves and Syria.
And secondly, we have to unite the international community behind a plan that is achievable and keeps faith with those inside Syria who are protesting and demonstrating, suffering, and dying for their universal human rights.
We said last night we are prepared to work with any country, including all members of the UN Security Council, and we will do so so long as any such gathering starts from the basic premise that Assad and his regime must give way to a new democratic Syria, and we have to continue to put more pressure and we urge all nations to impose and implement sanctions and close loopholes in existing measures. And we also pledge to improve coordination among the countries that are working with the Syrian opposition. We look forward to a meeting of experts on this subject with representatives of the civilian opposition, hosted by Turkey again in Istanbul at the end of next week. I will be meeting with Kofi Annan tomorrow in Washington. I’ve asked my special advisor on Syrian affairs to go to Moscow tomorrow to discuss the need for a political transition with the Russian Government, and I think we are resolute. None of us is satisfied that the killing continues, but we are determined to move forward together and we reaffirmed that commitment yesterday.
Finally, the foreign minister and I and also the Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and I had an opportunity to review the range of issues our countries are confronting together, including strengthening the economic partnership and cooperation on the transitions in the Middle East and North Africa. And I want to underscore – it probably goes without saying, I said it this morning, I think I’ve said it on every trip to Turkey – the United States stands strongly with Turkey in your fight against the PKK whose long campaign of violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives. And again, let me thank the Ambassador on behalf of the American people for your excellent work in a very difficult time and place.
The United States and Turkey have such a strong and far-ranging relationship that every time Ahmet and I get together, we run out of time before we run out of things to discuss. So I’m grateful for the strong partnership we have, and I look forward always to continuing to deepen and strengthen it in the months and years ahead. Thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, my friend. (Applause.)
MODERATOR: We will take four questions and we’ll start with the American press. Anyone from the American press?
QUESTION: Yes, Elise Labott.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Elise?
MODERATOR: Yes, ma’am. Elise.
QUESTION: Thank you. This question is for both of you. A lot of the points that you have laid out in this vision for a roadmap are not necessarily new. You’ve been talking about them since you called on President Assad to step down. So what about this vision do you think is even going to help the Russians – convince the Russians to squeeze President Assad to step down? And if they don’t, at what point do you say this violence, as you said, is unconscionable, we need to move ahead without the Russians?
And specifically for the foreign minister, do you believe that, as Kofi Annan is suggesting and as Russia is suggesting, that Iran should be part of international mediation efforts? Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, let me start. And I think it’s clear to everyone that the violence continues; in fact, if anything it seems to worsen. And we have not been successful yet in bringing about the kind of international action that will make a difference to the Assad regime, but I believe that we are continuing to move in that direction. And clearly, we have to reiterate our unity, we have to send a clear message to other nations that are not yet working with us or even actively supporting the Assad regime, that there’s no future in that. And indeed, planning for an orderly transition, we think, will be an important step, because as I said, there are still many inside Syria – and this is human nature – this is totally understandable – who are not yet convinced that there can be a transition that would not make the situation worse for them, their families, their group, their location.
And so we recognized in our meeting last night we have to do more. We also have to do more with the opposition. The opposition has work to do, and that’s why I mentioned that Turkey will convene a meeting of the opposition. Many of us have been working – both Turkey and the United States have – with elements of the opposition. Now it’s difficult for those inside Syria to leave Syria to come to a meeting, but we have to do more to help organize and focus the opposition.
And finally, we think it is important for us to give Kofi Annan and his plan the last amount of support that we can muster, because in order to bring others into a frame of mind to take action in the Security Council, there has to be a final recognition that it’s not working. And he will be addressing the Security Council today and, as I said, I will see him tomorrow.
And on your last point, regarding Iran, it is hard, for the United States certainly, to imagine that a country putting so much effort into keeping Assad in power, and in effect – as I said yesterday in Baku – helping to stage-manage the repression on the people of Syria, would be a constructive actor. And we think that would not be an appropriate participant at this point to include.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: (In Turkish.)
QUESTION: (In Turkish.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, first, as to the transition in Syria, there are a number of examples that I would point to, but perhaps the most recent is the transition in Yemen. It took, frankly, more than a year. It took a lot of international effort. And finally, then-President Saleh gave up power because the pressure, the sanctions, the isolation was just too much. And so he – actually, after clashes and deaths and threats of civil war, he left power. There is now a new president, and there seems to be some consolidation of social stability and security going on in Yemen. It’s too soon to make predictions, but the transition occurred.
So this is a recent example in the region that we can point to. It’s not at all out of the question that something like that could be presented. But in any event, we know that keeping the pressure up, the economic pressure, the isolation, building the case, making the argument to those who are worried about the alternative or supporting Assad, is the hard work of diplomacy. Ahmet and I would like to be able to stand up here and make a pronouncement and save the lives of innocent Syrians. We’re disgusted by what we see happening. But we know that the hard work ahead requires getting more and more people to agree with us that there must be a transition and to help facilitate it.
With respect to our fight against terrorism, we work very closely together, and in fact, we are learning every week how we can be more closely knit together to cooperate and to support Turkey’s fight against the PKK. I will not discuss potential arms transfers that have not been formally notified to Congress, but I will say that the extensive assistance that we currently provide is going to intensify through closer cooperation and planning, and both the foreign minister and I are committed to making sure both of our governments are as focused and coordinated as we can be going against those that threaten Turkey and Turkish lives.
MODERATOR: I think he has a question over there.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Yeah.
QUESTION: Yes. Madam Secretary, thank you. You met with many of the most concerned allies here not only about Syria, but about Iran. With just a little over 10 days to go until your meeting in Moscow, I was wondering if you could say what you expect from Iran and what will happen if you do not reach – if you do not see the concrete actions that you have hoped for. Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, let me start by restating our objective. It’s one that Turkey and the United States and the international community share, and that is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And that is why we’ve always pursued a two-track policy of pressure and diplomacy. And the United States is committed to finding a peaceful resolution, but as I have said, looking toward the meeting in Moscow, we want Iran to come to that meeting to begin the serious work necessary to take place in order to reach a diplomatic solution.
So we want them to come prepared to take concrete steps, particularly in the area of 20 percent enrichment, and we have said – and this is a unified position of the international community and those of us in this negotiation, which include Russia and China – that in response to their actions, we are prepared to take actions of our own. I am convinced that one of the reasons that Iran came back to the negotiating table was because of the success of our pressure strategy, and I want to express publicly our appreciation to Turkey. This is not easy to work to reduce global reliance on Iranian oil, to unwind business dealings with the Central Bank of Iran.
But from what we hear from many, many sources, the fact that the international community was so united made it difficult for Iran to escape the realization that they were either going to have to come to the table to negotiate or remain very isolated with economic consequences that would be detrimental to their country. So we look for Moscow to show concrete steps that can be taken, and I’m not going to prejudge the outcome. Everyone’s working very hard to try to make it a positive meeting.
QUESTION: (In Turkish.)
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: (Laughter.) The question is hard. (In Turkish.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: That was a very thorough answer. (Laughter.) I will not add anything to that other than, once again, to say thank you.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: Thank you. Thank you very much.
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