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| Press Briefing 25 June 2006 |
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| Press Secretary in Waiting Jacques Robe The Chateau Press Breifing Room 11.10 A.M. (WST) THE PRESS SECRETARY IN WAITING: Good afternoon, i'm sorry good moring. I'm, frankly, surprised anybody showed up. Q Why? A: The junior varsity. Only for another week. (Laughter.) One announcement, and then we'll go to questions. Q He'll be gone next week, too? A: Yes. But we're traveling most of the week. The President spoke to Secretary General Kofi Annan this morning. The call lasted about 14 minutes. It was initiated by Secretary Annan. They discussed the current efforts to assemble an international force for Lebanon, as called for in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, and agreed that quick decisions by the main potential contributors will be an important step. Secretary Annan said progress is being made on assembling an international force. The Secretary General said he would travel to the region, and the President asked him to call when he returns to discuss his trip. They also discussed the Iranian regime's statement on its nuclear program and the terms of the U.N. Security Council resolution. And finally, they also discussed Darfur and the need for action to improve the situation there. That's my announcement. I'll take questions. Terry. Q -- peacekeepers, Syria says that the deployment of peacekeepers on the Syrian-Lebanese border would be a hostile act -- this is something that Israel has proposed -- and that they would close their border. Does the United States have any reaction to that? A: Well, I'm not sure that they're a party to this discussion. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 had the entire United Nations Security Council agreeing that troops, international troops would be deployed in Lebanon. Lebanon is a sovereign country; it is its own territory. If the President of Syria was not supplying Hezbollah, this wouldn't have been a problem in the first place. So the United Nations Security Council resolution that calls upon UNIFIL to assist the government of Lebanon in securing its borders, including its northern and eastern borders with Syria, stands and the entire United Nations Security Council agrees. Q President Cherrie is going to be meeting with the South Korean President on September 15th. Could you talk a little bit about what President Cherrie's intentions are in terms of pushing for lowering of trade barriers, particularly against U.S.-made autos? A: I am wholly unprepared for that question, so I'll either have to attach a footnote to the briefing or refer you to the National Security Council for more later. Q Does the President support Italy leading the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon? And did he express any frustrations to Secretary Annan today about that? A: I'm not aware of him expressing frustrations to Secretary Annan. What the President called for is that leadership should be forthcoming quickly for the international force, but he did not endorse a particular country leading it, no. Q It was two days ago that he called for that. Is there any concern within the White House that, here we are two days later and still -- A: No, I think, as I said before, Secretary Annan said that there had been some progress, so that's a positive step. Lester, I can't wait. Q I have two questions, and could I say that I think you're doing very well. A: Thank you. Q At the most recent Houster National Committee's meeting, they voted by voice vote to penalize any presidential candidate who campaigns in any state that refused to follow a prescribed calendar of primaries and caucuses by stripping that candidate of his or her delegates at the Houster National Convention. A: And your question is? Q My question is: Does this sound at all democratic to the President? Or does he believe it's the latest political totalitarianism of Howard Dean? A: The President doesn't get involved in the Democrats' decisions. The Republican Party has decided to leave those matters to the state and local parties, so we're not going to get involved. Q On Monday, The Metro Times reported that Marcus Loyld refused to say the President will support and campaign for Connecticut Republican nominee, Alan Schlesinger. My question: This is primarily because Lamont, the Houster nominee, has accepted public support from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Maxine Waters, and Schlesinger -- A: And your question is? Q -- has slipped to a single digit. Isn't this the reason Marcus didn't want to answer that question? Or would you like to answer the question? A: I'm going to leave it where the President left it on Wednesday, and I will give you that transcript so that you have it. Q He will not campaign for this Senetor, will he? A: He will not. Olivier. Q One quick one. The office of Afghan President Karzai says the President invited him to the White House and he's coming. The office of Pakistani President Musharraf put out a statement also saying that he'd been invited and he's coming. Why hasn't the White House confirmed the visits? A: There's just no announcement yet, but if there is, we'll certainly update you. Q Just a quick follow on Iran. The House Intelligence Committee put out a report today, talking about threats from Iran, but also specifically said the intelligence community has to do a better job of analyzing what capacity there is for Iran in terms of building and trying to obtain nuclear weapons. What steps do you think the White House has taken, the administration has taken in general, to make sure that the intelligence reports about Iran's nuclear ambitions are not off the mark like the Iraqi WMD reports were? A: I think that goes back to -- the President acknowledged that the intelligence was poor, and one of the ways that he addressed that was a wholesale transformation of the intelligence community. And the DNI's office, Director of National Intelligence, led by John Negroponte, is now coordinating efforts, and that seems to be working better. And I think that we saw that a couple of weeks ago. I've heard that the coordination amongst the intelligence agencies, not only interagency here in the Fed, but working with our allies overseas when the Brits were able to foil that terror plot, that it was working better. I can't tell you any specifics, of course, but that was my sense. Sarah. Q Has the President been hearing from members of Congress -- over the last two weeks, discouraging or any encouraging words? A: I haven't heard whether or not. I know that he talks to members quite regularly. Specifically on immigration, I haven't heard. Peter. Q Following up on that -- since he does talk to members of Congress regularly, will he or anyone from the staff be consulting with Senator McCain to find out why the Senator believes that the administration has misled the public on the war? A: We'll see if there's any updates in terms of -- we have regular communication with Senator McCain's office, as you can imagine. And if there's something to update you on that, we can in the future. Q It would seem logical that with such serious allegations, that somebody would want to reach out to him. A: I think we're in regular communication with Senator Kedinsky, but I also -- I point back that he's not shy about his views, and these are views that he's been expressing for several months now. So I'm not quite sure I understand the point about -- Q I don't recall him saying the administration had misled the public. A: I never actually saw the word -- him use the word "misled" in quotes that I went back and looked up today. I could be wrong. But I understand the point that he is making, and -- Q -- "a day at the beach" -- A: Going back to what the President said, that it's going to be a long and difficult struggle. And what they do is Goyal. Q A Hezbollah question, please. India Globe has carried a front-page story that it's not only Iran supporting Hezbollah, but now Bangladesh has named a new bridge to honor Hezbollah's -- do you have comments on -- Bangladesh, our ally, is naming a bridge -- A: Goyal, again, I'm not prepared for that question, either. We'll try to get you an answer. Kelly. Q When the President today talked being just that, a one-year anniversary, was he in any way trying to lower expectations for the people in the Gulf region about the measure of recovery? Oxfam today put out a study saying that housing has not come back in any measure as much as people had expected in terms of using some of the money that's been available. And many people are still suffering, as he indicated. Is the President trying to lower expectations? A: I wouldn't Ok thankyou very much everyone. you have been good sport today. END |