Middle East Digest - September 18, 2008Bureau 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 18, 2008 10:37 a.m. EDT QUESTION: Can you give us an update on the Yemen investigation, what’s going on, who is there looking into it, if anything? Who has -- MR. MCCORMACK: Nothing – nothing really new. Interagency team, including security and law enforcement officials, have launched for* Yemen. The Yemeni side is engaged in an ongoing investigation, so we’re working – we’re going to be working with them. I expect that when our people are *full up*, have their kits unpacked on the ground, they’re going to be doing interviews, forensic investigation, looking for physical evidence as well; all of this with an eye towards understanding the attack, in its – all of its detail, but also gathering any evidence that might be used to hold those responsible to account. QUESTION: Do you know who actually – is it DS, FBI? MR. MCCORMACK: It’s – it’s security and law enforcement officials. I’ve been asked – I’ve been asked just to keep it at that level of generality, so I’m going to have to abide by the wishes of the team members. QUESTION: Okay. Why? MR. MCCORMACK: Matt -- QUESTION: Is it secret? MR. MCCORMACK: No, it’s not secret. I’ve just – I’ve been asked to keep it at that level of generality, and I have to abide by the – I will abide by the wishes of the team members. QUESTION: Okay. Can you – what – there was an American who was killed in this. MR. MCCORMACK: Sadly, yes. QUESTION: Can you go into any more detail about -- MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t have a whole lot more to -- QUESTION: -- who she was, what she was doing there? MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t have a whole lot more detail. Her name was Susan El-baneh*. QUESTION: How is that spelled? MR. MCCORMACK: Let me get the exact spelling for you here. Yeah, a terrible occurrence. Oh, Sarah – excuse me, Sarah El-baneh. Sarah, S-a-r-a-h; last name E-l, hyphen -- QUESTION: Susan. MR. MCCORMACK: Susan, okay. Well, then the press guidance that we have here is inaccurate. That is really a sad thing. I apologize to the family members for that. Last name, E-l, hyphen, B-a-n-e-h. And I – right now, we have an ongoing investigation regarding the attack. I know that her family members talked about the fact that she was there accompanying her sister and brother-in-law. They were waiting in line to apply for visas so the sister and brother-in-law could travel to the United States. QUESTION: Okay. And do you have any more details in terms of exactly what happened? It does appear that the first car was able to breach the first outer gate. Do you have any more specifics on exactly the tick-tock of the – actually what happened and -- MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t have – I don’t have tick-tock for you. We can try to put up the overhead image again, if you like, and I can just talk to it from the podium here as well. Why don’t we bring up – bring up that map. If you remember yesterday, we talked about the front entrance of – maybe I’ll step away from the podium here for – in a second. We can – the first explosion was near the front entrance of the – of the Embassy, and it took out a guard post. It did not breach the actual entrance to the Embassy. There was a second explosion that occurred a bit further down near a pedestrian entrance. So let me just step over and I’ll point out to you the main entrance and where the first explosion was. That occurred right in this area here. The second explosion was up in this area. Now the first explosion took out a guard post, but it did not breach the wall; it did not breach the front entrance of the Embassy. And again, the second explosion took place, as I understand it, a couple minutes later. I don’t have an exact number of minutes for you. In that time between the first explosion and the second explosion, there were attackers that were on foot that took up positions near the front entrance of the Embassy, then you had that second explosion. QUESTION: And both of these were from car bombs? MR. MCCORMACK: Yes, as – as far as we know right now. That – those – that’s based on the reports that we have right now, yes. QUESTION: And so – okay, so the timeline basically is the first car drives up to the main entrance -- MR. MCCORMACK: Yes. QUESTION: -- blows up -- MR. MCCORMACK: Near the main entrance, yes. QUESTION: Near the main entrance, blows up. There is – gunmen take up positions -- MR. MCCORMACK: Near the -- QUESTION: -- shooting? MR. MCCORMACK: Near the front, yes. QUESTION: And then the second car bomb detonates near the pedestrian entrance? MR. MCCORMACK: Correct. QUESTION: And that – which also doesn’t breach anything? MR. MCCORMACK: Correct. Yeah, and again, I can’t offer you an assessment right now. And I’ll – maybe what I’ll try to do is see if we can – see if there’s a possibility of getting any photos that can show the aftereffects of the damage. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that because this is – now falls in the realm of a law enforcement matter. As I understand it, there was not a breach of – a breach of the wall. I’m sure that there was some damage to the outer – the outer wall. I can’t offer you an assessment of that damage. QUESTION: Okay. And then the last one on this. Just – at what point was it that – or where were the gunmen who opened fire on the Yemeni emergency* -- MR. MCCORMACK: Okay, let me – I’ll – again, I’ll step away from the podium for a second. I’ll show you – I’ll point out on the map generally where I understand the attackers who were on foot took up positions. And that was in these areas here, just by the front entrance. And if – you see there are two – two white lines slightly curved there near the front entrance. Those are – those are like Jersey barriers. They’re large – large concrete planters that are intended to impede* any sort of direct, head-on – the ability to kind of directly head on and make a run at the front gate. QUESTION: And what’s the distance between the two entrances? MR. MCCORMACK: I’ll try to – I’ll try to get that for you. Yeah, I don’t have a – I don’t have a scale on this map. Yeah. QUESTION: Sean, is the pedestrian entrance where the American citizen was killed? MR. MCCORMACK: I believe – I believe that was near the front entrance, near that main entrance – near the main entrance. QUESTION: Main entrance? MR. MCCORMACK: Near the main – near the main entrance, yes. QUESTION: And were her brother and sister-in-law killed, too? They were Yemenis? MR. MCCORMACK: I – they are Yemenis and Yemeni citizens, and I do not believe that they were – they were not. QUESTION: The husband -- MR. MCCORMACK: The – I’m sorry. QUESTION: The brother was killed. MR. MCCORMACK: The brother-in-law. QUESTION: I’m sorry. You said brother and sister-in-law, didn’t you? MR. MCCORMACK: I think it was her sister and brother-in-law, yes. QUESTION: Sorry. Okay. So the – one of them was injured as well, then? One was killed -- MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: So that there were two killed in this party of three -- MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: -- and one -- MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: And do you know what age Ms. El-Baneh was? MR. MCCORMACK: She was 18. QUESTION: Eighteen? MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. QUESTION: Was she a dual national or was she a -- MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t – I’ll see if I can find out more information for you, Sue, but I don’t know. MR. MCCORMACK: Well, in terms – it’ll be a discussion about how to move the two-track policy forward. Russia – Russia, as well as all the member states of the P-5+1, have made certain commitments regarding what steps to take next should Iran not comply with the demands of the Security Council and cooperate with the IAEA. Iran has done neither of those things. So the agreement is to move forward with a new sanctions resolution and we’ll discuss that. Now I can’t tell you how far that discussion will get. Typically, around the time of the UN General Assembly, you don’t get much progress on these kinds of high-profile issues, shall we say, in the Security Council. It just doesn’t happen year to year to year. So I would expect that this is probably a discussion that is – will be aimed at seeing where each of the individual states within the P-5+1 are with respect to timeline and moving forward, as well as the content of what a new resolution might look like. And look, in terms of – you know, in terms of, you know, Russia’s or anybody else’s cooperation or, you know, non-cooperation with trying to prevent Iran from developing the technologies that will allow it to obtain a nuclear weapon, that’s not doing us a favor. I think everybody agrees that Iran possessing a nuclear weapon would be a very destabilizing event for the Middle East. So trying to prevent that from happening and to reinforce and uphold global nonproliferation norms is not a favor to the United States or France or Germany or anybody else. That is – that is acting in the interest of the international system. QUESTION: And then President Ahmadinejad said today that – once again, he said Iran would not suspend its – the nuclear – what you* want him* to suspend. And he really sort of brushed aside threats of sanctions and said that it was – really had – wouldn’t have any impact on them and that those who wanted to put sanctions do so because of their own weaknesses, is what he said. I just wondered whether you had any comment on his latest utterances*. MR. MCCORMACK: More of the same, sadly, for Iran and the Iranian people. Samir. QUESTION: Do you know if Russians are going to attend the meeting of the P-5+1? MR. MCCORMACK: I believe they will. |
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