Middle East Digest - September 22, 2008
Bureau of Public Affairs The Middle East Digest provides text and audio from the Daily Press Briefing. For the full briefings, please visit daily press briefings. From the Daily Press Briefing of September 22, 2008 This was a very – this was a heinous act that was committed by terrorists who have no interest in anything other than maiming and killing innocent civilians. And we’re going to step up our efforts and work with the Pakistanis to do what we can. MR. WOOD: Well, I don’t want to speculate or outline red lines here. The North Koreans know what they need to do with regard to the verification regime. We’re very concerned, as I said, about what the North appears to be doing at the Yongbyon facility. And there really is no change in our policy. But I don’t want to get into, you know, outlining what we may or may not do if North Korea does this or that. What we’re going to try to do is lead them back on the path that they agreed to go on toward denuclearization. Charley. QUESTION: Just back to Pakistan. MR. WOOD: Yes. QUESTION: Is it correct that the United States will not be assisting the investigation in the Pakistan explosion? And do you have any new details about Americans wounded in the explosion? MR. WOOD: Yeah, to your first question, the Ministry of Interior has told us that it does not at the moment need any outside assistance for the investigation; however, we stand ready to assist the Pakistanis with this investigation if they, you know, ask us for assistance. In terms of Americans, I can confirm for you that two Department of Defense employees died of the injuries sustained in the bombing on Saturday. And we have one State Department contractor who is currently unaccounted for, and we are obviously looking to try to update the status of this individual. And I believe there were three U.S. Embassy employees who were injured and one contractor injured in the blast. As far as I know, there aren’t any private American citizens who have been hurt. But again, there is still more work to be done in terms of identifying remains in the hotel. And we’ll update you, should there need to be an update on that. QUESTION: And excuse me, so the – the missing contractor – is that an American citizen? MR. WOOD: It’s a Department of State contractor. QUESTION: No more details, though? MR. WOOD: Yeah, I don’t have any more detail at this point. Here in -- QUESTION: Comment about the new Japanese Prime Minister? MR. WOOD: Hold on. Let’s see – did you want to stay – did you want to -- QUESTION: On Pakistan, yeah -- MR. WOOD: Yeah. Mm-hmm. QUESTION: -- a couple of things. One, British Airways has suspended its flights to Pakistan out of security fears and -- after this bombing. I just wondered if you’re aware of any similar, sort of, American moves or related, sort of, moves to – MR. WOOD: I’m not -- QUESTION: -- security. MR. WOOD: Yeah, I know that since the bombing, the embassy’s issued three travel warnings and we’ll obviously be looking – we’ll obviously update our security posture, you know, should we need to do so. What was the other part of your question? QUESTION: Well, I was trying to think if there are any other security moves that you might make, but I think you’ve just, you know -- MR. WOOD: Yeah, we won’t – obviously, won’t discuss them here. But we’ll obviously – we’re reviewing our posture. QUESTION: But more broadly, does this episode not make you rethink your relationship in terms of aid to the Pakistani Government on the military side, especially – and their commitment to fighting terrorism? MR. WOOD: No. The Pakistanis have told us that they are committed to this fight. And it’s clearly in our national interests to help the Pakistanis pursue the Taliban and al-Qaida extremists. And I’m not aware of any plans or any thought being given to the idea of, you know, reducing military assistance. This is a long-term process or project -- however you want to call it -- to root out extremism in this part of the world. It’s going to take time. But we’re going to be persistent in our efforts. We’ve pledged our cooperation to Pakistan and to the Government of Afghanistan to do what we can to help. And so, I can assure you, as I said earlier, we are going to redouble our efforts to try to counter this extremism that threatens stability in the region. QUESTION: Just one more. There’s a bill in the Senate, the Biden-Lugar legislation, which would give them 15 billion in non-military aid over 10 years. I think the general thought is that the Bush Administration supports this. Do you know whether you do or whether you do (inaudible)? MR. WOOD: Well, I really don’t want to get into, you know, characterizing pending legislation, except that obviously we have conversations all the time with members of Congress and their staffs about how we can best support, you know, this effort to fight extremism. That’s clearly in our national interests. And we’ll continue to do so. But I think you’ll find on both sides of the aisle, certainly within the Administration, the understanding that we need to step up our efforts to counter extremism in this region. And other questions? Charley. |
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