|
|
QUESTION: What's the ' what's your latest understanding of the situation in Syria? Have you heard from the Turkish foreign minister about his trip?
MS. NULAND: As you know, the Secretary and Minister Davutoglu spoke the other day before he went in to Syria. We are expecting them to speak again when the foreign minister has finished his consultations, but we haven't yet had that call. I think the meetings are ongoing on the ground in Syria now.
QUESTION: That's not scheduled, then? It's basically whenever he finishes?
MS. NULAND: Right.
QUESTION: Do you expect that today?
MS. NULAND: Unclear whether they will speak today, but they will speak as soon as he has completed his round.
QUESTION: In his conversations so far, apparently, President Asad has said that they will not relent in going after terrorists. What do ' do you make anything of that?
MS. NULAND: We've seen the same press reports you have. It is deeply regrettable that President Asad does not seem to be hearing the increasingly loud voice of the international community, a voice of concern that is now growing in strength, in volume, and in number of countries making their views known. I would note in particular that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had a very strong statement yesterday abhorring the violence and calling on the regime for change. We've also seen the statement of the GCC and the Arab League. So the pressure on Asad is growing. The concern is that he is not listening.
QUESTION: Are you ' you're referring to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia?
MS. NULAND: Yes.
QUESTION: Which was, I think, Sunday.
MS. NULAND: That's right.
QUESTION: Not yesterday.
MS. NULAND: That's right.
QUESTION: Are you aware of King Abdullah ' of the other King Abdullah has said anything? He's a bit closer to the action.
MS. NULAND: I'm not aware. We'll check for you what we've seen. But I was ' just now I was referring to Saudi Arabia.
QUESTION: What do you think of the claim by the Syrian regime that there are militant elements that actually provoke these firefights and so on?
MS. NULAND: The kind of violence and use of armor and tanks against innocents that we've seen in Syria can't be justified on any basis.
QUESTION: So, Toria, with the United ' with these countries now, we've got the GCC, the Arab League, individual countries, what does the U.S. want to see them do? I mean, what's the message from the United States other than, of course, calling for him to stop the violence? But how far does the U.S. want them to go? Should they ' should the U.S. ' be calling for him directly to step down?
MS. NULAND: As the Secretary said last week, our concern had been that we hadn't had enough voices, particularly in the neighborhood, making clear that the path that he is on is unacceptable and is abhorrent. And that has changed radically, particularly given his horrible choices in Hama and in Deir al-Zour over the last week.
So to start with, the political condemnation is growing. As you know, the United States and many other countries have significant sanctions on Syria. We want to continue to work with our partners and particularly those with continuing economic interest in Syria to strengthen those sanctions. So those conversations are ongoing. We still believe that further action in the UN would be helpful, although the president's statement last week began to set the table for that.
And clearly, the decision by Foreign Minister Davutoglu, one of Syria's near neighbors, to go and give the message of the international community directly is significant, and we hope the regime is listening.
QUESTION: Can I follow up on that?
MS. NULAND: Please, Kirit.
QUESTION: I believe the UN is supposed to meet to follow up sometime this week. You said that you believe that the time is ' or that you believe that further UN action could be warranted. Do you think there should be a push for sanctions at the UN this week?
MS. NULAND: I don't want to speak to the timing. We had the president's statement last week. But I think what's significant in terms of what further UN action would represent is that the chorus and the community of nations who do not want to stand silent in the face of this kind of violence is growing. And that's important, obviously, in a UN context if we're going to take further steps there.
QUESTION: On the sanctions, do you expect these sanctions to include, one, gas and oil, and second, air transport, a boycott of giving access to Syrian airways, and vice versa?
MS. NULAND: Well, we have said in the past that we are particularly interested in further oil and gas sanctions. This is not something that would particularly apply in the United States context because our own economic contacts with Syria are limited. With regard to other things, we're asking all countries with trade relations with Syria to look deeply at what they can do to continue to pressure the regime.
QUESTION: Quickly, and I'm sure you've seen the latest comments from Foreign Minister Lavrov, which appear to be more critical than Russia has been in the past. Do you sense that Russia has now turned and that, therefore, it may actually be possible to get action and a resolution at the UN Security Council when it was not previously?
MS. NULAND: The actions that Asad has taken in the last week, I think, have certainly caught the attention of those countries which were more reticent to criticize him publicly, and that's why you're beginning to see this stronger public condemnation. We continue to believe that that political condemnation needs to be followed by increasing action on the economic side to increase the pressure on Syria.
In the back.
QUESTION: Did you discuss those economic sanctions with Turkish officials yesterday? Fred Hof met with the chief advisor of prime minister yesterday. And could you give us some details on this meeting?
MS. NULAND: Fred Hof, as you know, was talking to Turkey, was talking to a number of European countries. He's on a broad swing to look particularly at the issue of sanctions. I don't want to get into the specifics of those discussions, but they were primarily designed to talk about how we can up the economic pressure.
QUESTION: Is it possible to put in sanctions, bilateral sanctions to ' I mean, not United Nations Security Council only, but between Turkey and Syria like United States and Syria?
MS. NULAND: Well, certainly, any nation, it's within their sovereign right to apply sanctions bilaterally. That's the route that the United States has taken in the absence of stronger UN international action, so any of Turkey's neighbors or other countries could certainly go that route --
QUESTION: The last --
MS. NULAND: -- if they made that sovereign decision to do so.
QUESTION: Turkish officials from foreign ministry said today ' this morning, actually ' that Davutoglu will not convey any international community or someone else messages to Syrian officials, but only Turkish Government message. What does it mean?
MS. NULAND: Well, it's obviously appropriate that the Turkish foreign minister should convey the message of Turkey, Syria's neighbor. Our interest is in staying closely coordinated with all of our allies, with all of Syria's neighbors, as this diplomacy goes forward. And we've been very gratified in particular by the close coordination that the Secretary has had with Foreign Minister Davutoglu.
Please.
QUESTION: Why Foreign Minister Davutoglu was in Damascus today across Syria about (inaudible) people who were killed? And plus, the armored vehicles of Syria apparently was entering the city of Ibis, which is a very close Turkish quarter Would it be unfair to take this as an initial reaction of how the Syria sees Turkish reach out?
MS. NULAND: Sounds like that's a question for the Syrians, not a question for us. But our hope and our expectation is that the Syrian regime will hear the message that Foreign Minister Davutoglu is bringing and will heed the increasing call from the international community, which is joining us in calling for an end to the violence, a withdrawal of forces, and a beginning of a true political democratic process.
Elise --
QUESTION: Is the buffer zone right now ' is |
