MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon, everybody. Don't have anything to start off with, off the top, so we can get into your questions.

QUESTION: Can I start with Chris Hill -- where he is, where he's going?

MR. MCCORMACK: He's in Beijing. He's going to be up in Shenyang on Wednesday, I can tell you that. So Tuesday, he’ll probably be on his way up there. I can't tell you exactly what route he's going to be taking. But he's going to be attending the bilateral working group on denuclearization. And I think those talks were scheduled the last two days. Is that --

QUESTION: Wednesday and Thursday?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. Yeah, Wednesday and Thursday and then I expect he'll be winding his way back here, although I don't know what his travel schedule is. And that's all part of this series of bilateral working groups that are going to be taking place really throughout the month of August. I don't have any updates in terms of dates for you from the last time we talked about this last week. One of those is going to be a U.S.-North Korea bilateral working group. I don't know the when and the where of that one.

QUESTION: Does he have any meetings in Beijing prior to the working group talks?

MR. MCCORMACK: He did. I saw some transcripts. He did a couple of meetings, I believe. I think he saw Kim Gye Gwan. I think he was scheduled to meeting with Wu Dawei, his Chinese counterpart. I don't know if he has any others scheduled.

QUESTION: Any indications of North Korea's declaration of nuclear weapons and its plan to disable it?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, the transcript that I saw -- and I have to admit, I haven't talked to Chris, so -- but the -- I'm working off the transcript that I saw of his conversation with some of your colleagues in Beijing was that they had some good discussions and that this was all (inaudible) a couple of things: getting to this definition of, well, what constitutes disablement, what does that mean, and also talking a little bit about what the full declaration on the North Korean side would mean. I don't believe that they've reached any final conclusions, but this wasn't supposed to be one of those meetings where you reach final conclusions. But my impression from reading his transcript was that they made some good progress. But I'm just working off his public comments, as opposed to having any deeper insight based on the conversation with him.

Yeah.

QUESTION: The release of two hostages from Taliban in Afghanistan, do you have any comment on that?

MR. MCCORMACK: I'm very pleased that these two individuals are going to be reunited safely with their families. We would hope that all of these individuals would be released immediately unharmed. That's what everybody would like to see.

QUESTION: Do you have any idea of what intention the Taliban -- persons released?

MR. MCCORMACK: I can't offer any further comment on it.

Yeah. Michel.

QUESTION: Sean, the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has said that Britain's and the international community's refusal to speak to the Palestinian movement, Hamas, is doing more harm than good and it will further jeopardize peace. Do you have any comment on that?

MR. MCCORMACK: I haven't seen the statement or this report. I don't know where that comes from. But the Quartet which comprises the EU, the United States, the UN, as well as Russia, all believe as well as others, that dealing directly with Hamas in the absence of their -- the meeting of the conditions laid out by the Quartet, is not something that we would do. They -- now they were in government, they consistently refused to meet those requirements and I haven't seen any indication thus far that they are planning to meet those requirements and just the opposite. Their recent actions were over the past month and a half or so in Gaza would indicate that they have no intention of trying to meet the conditions laid out by the international community.

Yeah, Lambros.

QUESTION: Yeah. Mr. McCormack, on Turkey, according to reports, the Turkish authorities did not allow the exhibition of Cyprus (inaudible) to place a special visit to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew based in Istanbul, Turkey. I'm wondering, Mr. McCormack, if you comment on that since the U.S. Government is very concerned on matters of religious freedom and human rights.

MR. MCCORMACK: I'll have to get you an answer, Lambros. I'm not familiar with the particular issue.

Yeah.

QUESTION: On India; can you comment on the Prime Minister's comments that they are free to test a nuclear weapon under the negotiations?

MR. MCCORMACK: I hadn't seen the comments. We'll get you an answer.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Any update on Under Secretary Burns' travel to Israel, Egypt, and the Gulf states?

MR. MCCORMACK: He's going to -- I don't have his itinerary. He's going to be leaving tomorrow. I know his first stop is going to be in Israel. I don't know what the rest of his itinerary is. We'll try to get that for you.

QUESTION: There have been reports that Burns -- Mr. Burns had made some comments critical of Egypt's move towards democracy and that resulted in the cancellation of his meeting with the Foreign Minister.

MR. MCCORMACK: I hadn't seen that. These were comments he was alleged to have made where and when?

QUESTION: On -- I'm not sure when, but it was over the weekend. There was reports from our bureau in Cairo that they have heard of this.

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't think Nick made any public comments. I'm not sure --

QUESTION: What happened was the Egyptian Foreign Ministry put out a statement that was critical of your criticism or whoever's --

MR. MCCORMACK: Critical of my criticism?

QUESTION: Of the -- of U.S. criticism. Do you know anything about that?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, I didn't see it. Well, if you're looking for some answer with regard to Nick's meeting and whether or not that -- he had one scheduled and is going to have one, we'll include some response to you as part of the wider response about what Nick's travel itinerary might be.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Now when --

MR. MCCORMACK: Nice try, Charlie.

QUESTION: There's a senior Iraqi Sunni cleric who is quoted as calling for the United States to cut ties with the Maliki government -- accuses the Maliki government of being partisan, pro-Shiite, and ineffective. Any comment?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. I hadn't seen the comments, but we're working with the elected government of the Iraqi people and that is the Maliki government; not only with Prime Minister Maliki, but also with important political party leaders, some of whom are in the government or have representatives in the government, some of whom are not in the government.

It's important that they all come together. It's important that they all come together to work on the problems that the Iraqi people sent them to Baghdad to try to resolve and to try to bring some greater strategic stability to that country. I know that Prime Minister Maliki has talked recently about the fact they were going to try to gather up some of those political leaders in Baghdad. And certainly, that is an opportune moment to try to tackle some of these issues.

Dave.

QUESTION: What were you hoping to achieve with that designation of Ansar al-Islam as a terrorist group, given that they don't have assets to freeze, I presume, of the United States?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, they -- right, well --

QUESTION: Fatah.

MR. MCCORMACK: Fatah al-Islam. This is one of those issues where -- just in the case where they might have some assets within the reach of the U.S. Government in the United States, then you take these actions. It's also beyond that practical step as an important statement that this is a terrorist organization. There is a slight difference between this designation and the designation as a foreign terrorist organization. They come under different executive orders. But the practical effect is that it labels this group as a terrorist -- as a type of terrorist organization --

QUESTION: Can I --

MR. MCCORMACK: -- under U.S. Government law and regulation.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Is there any more on this? Because I just wanted to go back to South Asia for a second.

QUESTION: Just one, Sean. I'm just curious; the Secretary signed order on Thursday and an announcement was made today whether any reason for this delay in the announcement.

MR. MCCORMACK: Nothing in particular, other than just that sometimes, it takes some time from putting pen to paper to it getting out in public, but no.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you know if -- Benazir Bhutto has been hopping around various parts of the States recently. She's going to be in New York, or she is in New York right now, going to be speaking. Has she had any contact with people in the building?

MR. MCCORMACK: Has she been to the building?

QUESTION: No. Has she had any contact with --

MR. MCCORMACK: Has she had any contact with people in the building? You know, Matt, you know, I'm sure she has contacts with lots of different people. I'm not going to comment on any of her particular meetings. You can ask her what meetings she's had.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Quick one. Iranian judicial authorities yesterday said that they had concluded their investigations into the cases of Ms. Esfandiari and Mr. Kian Tajbakhsh. One, do you have any comment on that? Two, is this is good, bad or indifferent? Do you have any sense of the significance of this? And three, if we could just do a quick review of where you are in terms of the status of the four Americans who have not been -- who, you know, three are in prison and one has not been allowed to leave the country, and also, Mr. Levinson, whether there's any update on him or on his family's possible plans to go visit.

MR. MCCORMACK: Sure. We'll work in reverse order. I don't have any update on the travel of Mrs. Levinson or any updated information on Mr. Levinson, his whereabouts. As for the individuals you talked about -- Dr. Esfandiari, Dr. Tajbakhsh, Ali Shakeri and Parnaz Azima -- we don't have -- I don't have any further information for you. Still have not been granted consular access to those individuals despite our requests via the Swiss to have that access.

I can't describe any particular motivation to what the Iranians have done. I don't know if it signals anything. But the bottom line here is that these are trumped up charges against all of these individuals. Three of the four individuals that we just -- that I just talked about, they were in Iran visiting sick relatives. These are all people that, one way or the other, are dedicated to promoting dialogue in some way between the United States and Iran, or, at least, at the very least, promoting more freedom of expression within Iran itself.

Whatever case may be, they do not pose a threat in any way, shape or form, to the Iranian people or the Iranian Government. I can't tell you why the Iranian Government decided to arrest these individuals and prevent them from leaving in the first place. I don't know. I can't tell you, you know, any more where we are in this process that I hope will lead to their being released and allowed to return safely to their families in the immediate future. That should have happened long ago. As a matter of fact, it should have never happened. But it being the case that they were detained, they should be allowed to leave immediately and be reunited with their families

QUESTION: And just one other quick one. The European Union's envoy on Kosovo, Walter Ischinger, is quoted as having said that a partition of Kosovo could be an option if the Kosovar Serbs and Albanians agreed to it. I don't think this is something that you guys had previously espoused. Do you have a comment on it?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, our position remains the same, and that is independence based on the Ahtisaari proposal. Our position hasn't changed.

QUESTION: Sean, are you aware of any meeting that's coming up in Vienna, August 30th, about this Kosovo situation; some kind of troika -- Serbs and Kosovars?

MR. MCCORMACK: I think they just had one. I think there was just a meeting involving those parties, a troika meeting, but I don't know about the end of the month. It could be. There is a lot of -- a lot of diplomatic activities surrounding Kosovo. I can't keep up with all the meetings that are going on.

Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION: In light of the Karl Rove announcement today, what are Secretary Rice's plans in that regard related to the decisions around Labor Day through -- and staying through 2009 -- into 2009?

MR. MCCORMACK: The basic question is: Is she planning on sticking around? The question -- the answer to that question is, yes. We all -- all appointees serve at the pleasure of the President, but she’s got a lot on the agenda for the next, I think, what, 16, 17 months now. And she has a lot that she wants to accomplish on behalf of this President, on behalf of the American people.

There are -- we all know what the issues are that are out there trying to push forward the process of bringing peace or greater stability, peace and stability, to the Middle East, working on Iraq, working on the issue of the threat posed by Iran, working to denuclearize the North Korean Peninsula, as well a whole host of other issues that we might not talk about on a daily basis. Those are all on her agenda. So she’s got a lot -- a lot to work on and she looks forward to tackling those issues, and when she’s done, heading back to Stanford.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you know anything as far as the Moroccan-Polisario talks about Western Sahara, the (inaudible) from that last week in New York?

MR. MCCORMACK: Oh, I’ll have to --

QUESTION: -- New York?

MR. MCCORMACK: I’ll have to get you something on that.

QUESTION: Right. Okay.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. MCCORMACK: Okay. Right.

(The briefing was concluded at 12:53 p.m.)

DPB # 143