Daily
Press Briefing
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 24, 2005
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QUESTION:
France is saying that it wants to wait until the final
Mehlis report before it will support sanctions, but the
U.S. and France have both said that they're on the same
page. So does that mean that also the U.S. wants to wait
until the final report is out before you consider sanctions
against Syria?
MR.
MCCORMACK: I think where we are right now in
terms of the Mehlis report, let me sort of walk you through
how I see the next week unfolding. Tomorrow, Mr. Mehlis
is going to be presenting his report to the Security Council.
There will be a discussion at the level of permanent representative,
at the level of ambassador, in the Security Council, at
which they will start the formal multilateral discussion
of Mr. Mehlis' report.
There have already been a number of discussions on a bilateral
basis among members of the Security Council. The Secretary,
of course, had an opportunity to discuss this issue at
length with Foreign Secretary Straw over the weekend during
the visit to Alabama. After tomorrow, I expect those consultations
both up in New York and between capitals to continue.
Right now, what we are discussing and working towards,
although a final date has not yet been set, is for a ministerial
level meeting of the Security Council a week from today,
on the 31st of October. And at that point, I think the
ministers will have an opportunity to discuss what course
of action to take. I think that certainly given the gravity
of what we have seen in the Mehlis report, which at the
very least includes Syria's non-cooperation with the Mehlis
investigation and also includes potential Syrian provision
of false information to the Mehlis investigators as well
as the report pointing to potential high-level Syrian
implication in the assassination of a former prime minister
of another state, this is a subject and a report worthy
of discussion at the ministerial level.
So that's at this point how we see the next week unfolding.
There's going to be a lot of diplomacy, a lot of discussion
about this topic.
QUESTION:
You said a discussion -- Monday?
QUESTION:
You didn't answer my question. Are France and the U.S.
still on the same page or does the U.S. -- at this point,
they're saying that they want to wait until the final
report. Does the U.S. -- are you leaning towards waiting
until the final report?
MR.
MCCORMACK: Well, at this point, I think what
everybody is discussing is a resolution. And I think that
you have, certainly, you have seen Foreign Secretary Straw
talk about a resolution. I think that that is the way
the Security Council acts. And I think that that is, you
know -- that is really the central focus of the discussions
now. Now in terms of what might be included in a potential
resolution, again, first we want to have the meeting tomorrow
at which you have the ambassadors be able to receive the
report in a formal discussion in the Security Council
from Mr. Mehlis and then you want to have a discussion
about what might be included in a potential resolution
that would -- and that discussion would unfold, I would
expect, over the coming days. Now, I'm not going to prejudge
what may or may not be a potential resolution. I think,
you know, those will be discussions to be had through
diplomatic channels, as I think is appropriate.
QUESTION:
I don't mean (inaudible), but you all have the report
already, don't you?
MR.
MCCORMACK: We do. But we have not had an opportunity,
Barry, in a formal sense in the Security Council to have
a discussion of it and for Mr. Mehlis to be able to have
a give and take with the members of the Security Council.
Yes. But we do all have the report, yes, and it's quite
troubling, I think.
QUESTION:
Follow up onto the timeline. Do -- would you anticipate
the ministerial level meeting which you describe expecting
to be a week from today to put a resolution out then?
MR.
MCCORMACK: At this point --
QUESTION:
Or would that be more talking?
MR.
MCCORMACK: At this point, Charlie, I think I'm
going to stick with the fact that everybody thinks that
certainly a resolution would be appropriate with respect
to this report, at least in the initial discussions that
we have had among our close allies. Well, let's see how
the diplomacy unfolds over the coming week or so and what
action at the ministerial level the ministers decide to
take. I'm not going to prejudge anything at this point,
Charlie.
QUESTION:
Do you happen to have anything current on contact or discussion
with the Syrians? They had a news conference Friday, and
of course they reject everything in this. It's all part
of U.S. unhappiness with their position on the Iraq war,
that the material here is heavily dependent on one person
who couldn't be every place that he said to have been,
that it's a political document. There was something else
-- that it couldn't stand up in a court of law.
I mean, I don't want to try even to take you to step --
through all their accusations, but have they carried this
-- brought this to the U.S. in a formal way?
MR.
MCCORMACK: I'm not aware of any formal diplomatic
representation to us in particular. Barry, as you know,
our -- we have called back our Ambassador; she has not
returned to Damascus. We do have an embassy there. I think
the Syrian Government needs to focus on cooperation with
the UN Security Council Resolution 1595, which of course
is the resolution that led to the Mehlis investigation.
The Mehlis report is very troubling and it was -- it outlines
and it details, I think in great detail, Syria's non-cooperation
with Mr. Mehlis and his investigation and a provision
in one instance that I have read in the report of actually
providing false information to the investigation. So these
are very serious matters that Syria needs to deal with.
They need to address them. This is a matter of intense
interest among the international community. I think the
international community is watching very closely Syria's
actions and their ongoing cooperation or lack thereof
with Mr. Mehlis' investigation. Secretary General Annan
has extended the mandate for that investigation to December
15th, I believe.
So all of these topics will be a subject of discussion
both between capitals but also in the Security Council.
QUESTION:
Well, the extension of the investigation doesn't preclude
action, does it, by --
MR.
MCCORMACK: That's correct.
QUESTION:
Okay.
MR.
MCCORMACK: That's correct. Action in terms of
--
QUESTION:
Security Council --
MR.
MCCORMACK: Diplomatic actions. Yes, yes.
Yes, Peter.
QUESTION:
Sean, just to follow up with two questions on that. Are
you anticipating any action tomorrow from the perm reps,
maybe a President's statement, something to respond to
this?
MR.
MCCORMACK: I think at this point, Peter, that
is more a meeting for a formal presentation of the report
and a discussion that the Security Council can have with
Mr. Mehlis in terms of his report and what he found at
this point in his investigations.
QUESTION:
So you don't expect any statement of response to --
MR.
MCCORMACK: Again, I'm not going to -- I'm not
going to prejudge what the Council may decide to do at
that point, but I expect that it will be more of a discussion.
QUESTION:
Also, the second thing is that the Dutch Foreign Minister,
when he came out from the Secretary, said that they did
discuss, obviously, this case and there was some discussion
of moving some of the proceedings to The Hague, sort of
a Lockerbie sort of thing and maybe trying some of the
suspects in The Hague. Is this something that the Secretary
is favoring, is looking at?
MR.
MCCORMACK: Well, I think at this point, Peter,
what we are concerned with is that the Lebanese people
and the international community have confidence that whatever
the results and whatever the findings of this report,
wherever it may lead, that those responsible for this
assassination are held to account.
Now, I think it's too early to talk about what form that
may take. The investigation is still ongoing. But I think
the Lebanese people and the Lebanese Government and the
international community can be assured that we as well
as others want to see justice be done in this case. And
whatever the forum or format, we believe that the Lebanese
people need to have a very heavy input to whatever judicial
process there is. So I think the international community
is going to be working with the Lebanese Government in
the weeks and months ahead on this very question, but
I don't -- at this point I don't think we're going to
try to prejudge where those discussions may lead.
QUESTION:
Can you at least confirm that this was discussed between
the Secretary and the Dutch Foreign Minister, because
that's what he said? I mean, the possibility of --
MR.
MCCORMACK: What I will say is that they did discuss
the issue of, ultimately, those responsible for this act
must face justice in some kind of judicial procedure.
QUESTION:
While we're on that meeting, was there any discussion
of the nominations by the U.S. for an ambassador to the
Netherlands? There's been, as you know, opposition to
him in the Netherlands.
MR.
MCCORMACK: It did not come up.
QUESTION:
It's controversial --
MR.
MCCORMACK: It didn't come up in the portion of
the meeting that I was in. They had some one-on-one time,
so it didn't come up in the portion of the meeting I was
in.
QUESTION:
Can I just -- I'm sorry -- just follow-up on that transcript?
MR.
MCCORMACK: Sure.
QUESTION:
They discussed some sort of judicial procedure there.
The Dutch Foreign Minister said that he would be -- his
country would be amenable to starting some sort of procedures
in The Hague. Did the Secretary at all respond to that
at all?
MR.
MCCORMACK: In terms of the part of the meeting
that I was in, Peter, they didn't get into that level
of detail of the discussion. Yeah.
Anything else on this topic? Okay.
Thank you.
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