https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/07/283983.htm
Background Briefing With Senior State Department Official
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Special Briefing
ert Brussels, Belgium
July 10, 2018
MODERATOR: So [Senior State Department Official] is just going to talk on
background as a State Department official a little bit about the Secretary’s
meetings today and some of what [State Department Official] has been doing on
Iran and engaging our partners and allies. So we’ve just got 10 minutes, so
[Senior State Department Official], you good?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Okay.
QUESTION: We can’t hear anything.
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I’ll speak loudly. There
was a delegation of senior State Department officials from various bureaus who
spent three days in Saudi Arabia for consultations with the minister of foreign
affairs, minister of state, the defense minister, the energy minister, and the
chiefs of state security, and the chief of intelligence.
And we went to Saudi Arabia to coordinate
stronger pressure on Iran. We discussed new ways to deprive the regime of
revenues to terrorize people and to terrorize other nations. We discussed how
Iran uses embassies as cover to plot terrorist attacks.
The most recent example is the plot that
the Belgians foiled, and we had an Iranian diplomat out of the Austrian embassy
as part of the plot to bomb a meeting of Iranian OPPOSITION leaders in Paris.
And the United States is urging all nations to carefully examine diplomats in
Iranian embassies to ensure their countries’ own security. If Iran can plot
bomb attacks in Paris, they can plot attacks anywhere in the world, and we urge
all nations to be vigilant about Iran using embassies as diplomatic cover to
plot terrorist attacks.
In our meeting with the Saudi energy
minister, we discussed maintaining a well-supplied oil market to guard against
volatility. We coordinated – we discussed U.S. oil sanctions to deny Iran
revenue to finance terrorism. We talked about minimizing market disruptions and
helping partners find alternatives to Iranian supply of oil.
Very broadly, Saudi Arabia is a key
partner in our effort to isolate and pressure Iran. And as I said, we had a
number of bureaus from the State Department to discuss energy, diplomacy,
security, and economic pressure. We were also joined by Treasury Under
Secretary Sigal Mandelker for some of these meetings so that they can hear from
Treasury officials and coordinate our efforts on applying maximum economic
pressure on Iran.
We also have State Department officials
visiting – they have visited Bahrain today. We have the Secretary, who has
concluded his visit to Abu Dhabi. And these visits from the Secretary and
senior State Department officials in the Gulf, spending a number of days with
UAE, Saudi, and Bahrain, shows that the United States and its Gulf partners are
working very well together to push back on Iran until it starts behaving like a
normal country. The combined efforts of the United States and Gulf states are a
powerful deterrent, and we will continue to explore ideas and initiatives to
raise the costs on Iran for its malign behavior.
We will be in Brussels for the next couple
of days for the NATO summit, and the Secretary will use various opportunities
to consult with E3 ministers informally on the way forward on Iran. But he will
also be conducting other bilats, and Iran will be on that agenda.
That’s it.
QUESTION: [Senior State Department Official], you were obviously in Vienna.
You saw some of your counterparts there. Was the meeting of the JCPOA the first
since the United States dropped out of the deal? What happened there? I mean,
you’ve been talking about basically preaching to the choir with your friends in
the Middle East, and Europe isn’t quite the choir anymore for you guys. How did
those meetings go? Are you going to be able to get back on track with Europe
post breakup? They have sounded far more skeptical of doing the kinds of things
you had sort of gotten them to agree to if you had stayed in the deal
(inaudible).
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: There was a scheduled
meeting of political directors in Vienna on the margins of the Joint Commission
ministerial. Logistically, we ended up having some scheduling issues, so we
will be meeting with the political directors in Brussels. We had to postpone
the meeting by a couple of days to accommodate some – since you had all the
ministers in Vienna and there was only a short window to pull the meeting off,
so we’re going to be doing it in Brussels tomorrow or Thursday.
QUESTION: Which political directors will be in that meeting?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The UK, France, and
Germany.
QUESTION: Can you (inaudible)?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes. There is still – no
matter how much people write about the transatlantic rifts, in the case of
Iran, we agree on much more than we disagree. The European nations are as
frustrated as we are with Iran’s missile program, missile attacks, which they
are facilitating with the Houthis. We’re seeing press reports just now about
the Saudis intercepting another Houthi missile, which I think we can presume
was supplied by the Iranians.
So we will continue to work with the – our
European allies on – to address the entire range of Iran’s malign threats. And
there’s no shortage of work to be done, and we’re working well together on
those threats.
QUESTION: Well, (inaudible) in terms of the embassies (inaudible). So I know
there’s been a lot of talk aimed at this arrest of the Iranian diplomat
(inaudible) maybe not a false flag, but some kind of a – you think it’s legit,
number one?
And then two, are you going beyond this
urgent call to look at diplomats, to say that they should be expelled, that
they should be closing Iranian embassies?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The most recent plot in
Europe by Iranians is another chapter in a long history that dates back to
1984, when Iran was starting these hijackings on commercial airliners,
bombings, assassinations. So when you look at what Iran has done just in Europe
since 1984 and continuing up to the present, all nations need to exercise
vigilance to protect themselves against the Iranian threat. And this is only
the most recent example of Iran using diplomatic cover to plot terrorism. And
we certainly want all countries to make good decisions about their own
security, and we think Iran presents an enduring threat to nations, and they need
to be vigilant.
QUESTION: And so you take this arrest and then this (inaudible) seriously?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Very seriously. We are
working very closely with the Belgians and the Austrians and the Germans to get
to the bottom of this plot to conduct a bomb attack in Paris that had two
Americans speaking, attending.
QUESTION: And you believe Iran is responsible?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes, we do.
QUESTION: Do you know – you don’t (inaudible) --
QUESTION: Do you know whether the target was the MEK or the Americans
visiting (inaudible)?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I can’t speculate on
that.
MODERATOR: Just a couple more questions.
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: We do not believe Iran’s
ludicrous claim that this is a false flag.
QUESTION: What about – the fight obviously against Iran has led to a
disastrous situation in Yemen. The Secretary had conversations with
(inaudible). How – what is the United States looking for in terms of UAE’s
attacks in Yemen and the situation improving in Yemen? It keeps getting worse.
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I think some of this is
covered in the readout. Do you have the readout yet of the meeting? Was that
supplied?
QUESTION: Yeah, we do. We got the (inaudible).
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, the Secretary has
talked of the role that Iran has played to really worsen and deepen the
humanitarian situation in Yemen. When Iran supplies missiles that are fired
into a commercial airport, it threatens people from every nation who are flying
into another country’s airport. So we talked about how to better deter Iran,
how to cut off their supply lines so that they’re not able to supply the
Houthis with material to conduct bomb attacks inside Saudi Arabia. We think a
role – that Iran has played a very large role in contributing to the
humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.
QUESTION: What about Saudi or Yemenis’ responsibility in Yemen, Saudi or the
UAE?
MODERATOR: Guys, we – we got to – we got to go, but I can – I can – I think I
can probably connect you with David Satterfield, who’s been involved in the –
he’s our Yemen guy.
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: On the political track,
yes.
MODERATOR: On the – yeah (inaudible).
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, we very strongly
support the work of Martin Griffiths and we know that there’s been a lot of –
Martin has been working very hard on this and so we strongly support those
efforts that are led by Martin Griffiths.
QUESTION: Can you just give us any more on the oils --
MODERATOR: Okay, guys. (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: -- on the oils side, on the other side of this whole thing, the
folks who are actually importing Iranian oil? What are the conversations
looking like with them? Are you convinced that they’ll actually be cutting off
supply by --
QUESTION: By the 4th.
QUESTION: -- the November deadline?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yeah, November 4th.
Well, the – we are – we know that most of Iran’s hard currency is derived from
its exports of oil, and Iran uses its oil revenues to finance foreign wars and
stoke violence throughout the Middle East. I mean, we are very serious and
determined about re-imposing our sanctions that were lifted under the Iran
nuclear deal, and we are working very closely with nations to provide
alternatives to the Iranian supply of oil. We’re very confident that we’ll be
able to do that without minimizing – without – and we’ll be able to do that
without market disruptions and working closely with the Saudis and other oil
producing nations to make sure that we have a well-supplied oil market.
MODERATOR: Great. (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: So no update? You talked to Japan and you talked to China, India --
QUESTION: India?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Our road show teams have
been in Japan and Korea and have had very good consultations with them on the
snapback of our oil sanctions.
MODERATOR: [Senior State Department Official] has got to get back to work.
Thanks, guys.
QUESTION: All right. Thank you.
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you.
https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/07/283983.htmBackground
Briefing With Senior State Department Official
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