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Skriven 2006-08-14 23:31:14 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0608141) for Mon, 2006 Aug 14
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Press Briefing by Tony Snow
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 14, 2006

Press Briefing by Tony Snow
White House Conference Center Briefing Room



10:16 A.M. EDT

MR. SNOW: Let me run you through a bit of what's going on with the
President's day. Then we will get to questions. First, let me -- I'll run
through the President's day.

He is meeting right now with the Secretary of Defense and the defense
policy and programs team at the Pentagon, will have lunch with experts on
Iraq. Those experts are Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East Politics at the
Naval Post-Graduate School; Eric Davis, professor of Political Science at
Rutgers University; Carole O'Leary, scholar-in-residence for the Middle
East Initiative at American University; and Reuel Marc Gerecht, who is a
resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

After lunch, he will travel to the State Department, meeting with the
Secretary of State and the foreign policy team; will deliver a statement on
foreign policy from the State Department at approximately 3:30 p.m. And at
4:25 p.m., there will be the signing of HR 5683, to preserve the Mount
Soledad Veterans Memorial in San Diego, California.

An update on the situation in Lebanon: Since the cease-fire this morning,
there have been no rocket attacks, no defensive movements. There have been
two minor military skirmishes between Israeli and Hezbollah forces.

Let me see what else we have here. In addition, there was a foreign leader
call this morning at the behest -- it was initiated by Italian Prime
Minister Romano Prodi, about the situation in Lebanon. The two of them
welcomed the passage of the U.N. Security Council resolution -- that's 1701
-- and discussed how to ensure that the enhanced UNIFIL authorized by the
resolution will succeed in its mission. The President thanked the Prime
Minister for Italy's willingness to contribute troops to the international
force, and the President stressed that Iran and Syria must halt their
supply of weapons to Hezbollah and respect the sovereignty of Lebanon.

In addition, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior, at the top
of the hour, will be announcing that routine surveillance has indicated the
possible presence of an H5N1 avian influenza virus in wild mute swans in
Michigan. However, this is not what we're accustomed to hearing about from
Asia. At this point, they believe it is a strain of low pathogenicity,
similar to strains that have been seen before in North America. It does not
appear to be related to the highly pathogenic strain that has spread
through birds in Asia, Europe, and Africa. For further information, I would
direct you to the briefing by Interior and Agriculture Department officials
who will be talking about that in just a few minutes.

I'm ready for questions. Terry.

Q As you look at this, the month-long war in the Mideast, who won?

MR. SNOW: I'm not sure -- right now what's won is diplomacy has won. There
has been an attempt to make effective U.N. Security Council Resolution
1559, which called for the abolition of militias in the southern part of
Lebanon, and also -- by the way, that would include Hezbollah or any other
militias -- and also the cessation of attempts to arm such militias from
abroad. That is now the focus of efforts by the United States, the United
Nations, the international community.

At this point, we are hoping that the people of Lebanon will be the
ultimate victors because they'll be able to have a government in which the
democratic will of the people is expressed through the policies of that
government, and they don't have to be worrying about Hezbollah having its
own independent foreign policy or the ability to try to wage war and engage
neighboring states.

Q Do you think that Hezbollah has been weakened? What is its strength --

MR. SNOW: I'm not going to give you a military assessment. I mean, it's
pretty obvious that there's been some weakening; I'm not going to try to
assess it. But by Israeli reckoning, more than 500 Hezbollah guerillas
killed, certainly rocket capacity has degraded, and so on. But, again, it
would be presumptuous of me to try to give you an on-the-ground military
assessment. I will let the interested parties talk about that.

Brett.

Q Tony, the President has spoken many times about the support from Syria
and Iran for Hezbollah. Is he confident now, under the terms of the
cease-fire, that that support will somehow be interrupted?

MR. SNOW: Well, we're going to find out, aren't we? That really does have
to be one of the things that -- one of the outcomes of this. I think, in
part, it will require placing on the northern border of Lebanon somebody
who is capable of handling security in such a way as to intercept,
interrupt and, with any luck, stop the transport into Lebanon of arms from
Iran and Syria.

It's folly to make predictions, but that is certainly the intention. It's
one of the reasons why we're talking about the beefed up UNIFIL force. It's
one of the reasons why the President was talking today with Prime Minister
Prodi about ways to work forward -- to move forward, and it's why there
have been ongoing discussions with some of our allies to build a much more
robust force than UNIFIL has had in the past, or, for that matter, more
robust than the capabilities, at least at present, of the Lebanese armed
forces.

Q But northern border protection is not part of this cease-fire.

MR. SNOW: Well, it's -- one of the things in it is making effective the
provisions of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which does, in fact,
specify that armaments should not be coming in from foreign governments.

Now, you're right. I don't want to be trying to prejudge what people are
going to be doing, but it does seem that there's going to be some need to
be able to prevent the influx of weapons into the country.

Martha.

Q Tony, you mentioned there were no defensive actions today after the
cease-fire. What do you define as "defensive actions"? If Israel continues
to go into areas after being attacked, is that a defensive action?

MR. SNOW: It appears at this point -- let me just put it this way -- nobody
seems to have initiated any kind of movements, and I'll leave it at that
for now.

Q Could you define what you mean by "defensive action", why you chose to
use that language?

MR. SNOW: Because that was the language that was recited to me. (Laughter.)

Q Well, what does it mean?

MR. SNOW: That's a very good question. Why don't we -- I'll tell you what.
We'll try to be more specific in terms of

-- let me be very precise. There have been no troop movements, apparently,
on either side designed to change the military status quo that prevailed at
5:00 a.m. GMT, which is when the cease-fire took hold. And rather than
getting myself into the sticky wicket of trying to define "defensive,"
because I have a feeling it's going to be one of those
you-know-it-when-you-see-it deals, I can tell you that there have been two
minor skirmishes and that is it today.

Helen.

Q I have two questions. Did the President call for the respect of
sovereignty by both sides?

MR. SNOW: Respect of sovereignty?

Q You just mentioned Hezbollah.

MR SNOW: I think what happens here is that -- yes, the President has called
for everybody to respect the sovereignty of the government of Lebanon. And
one of the things that he's pointed out in the past is that when you've had
a power vacuum in the South, which has been the case in the past, it has
invited Hezbollah to go in and serve as a government within a government or
state within a state. The Israelis have agreed to pull out as international
forces move in, providing credible security for the people in southern
Lebanon, and also, at the same time, providing some assurance that
Hezbollah will not try to rearm again.

Q My second question: Why does the President want to modify the Geneva
accords, conventions, to prevent inhumane, cruel treatment of detainees?

MR. SNOW: The President has never suggested modifying the Geneva
conventions.

Q You mean that all these stories are wrong?

MR. SNOW: Well, the Geneva conventions, as has been construed -- there are
two things you've got to keep in mind. Number one, the Geneva conventions
always must be construed especially -- you're talking about Common Article
Three?

Q Yes.

MR. SNOW: -- in manners that are consistent with the U.S. law. The second
thing is this is a new situation because the Geneva conventions in the past
have not been construed as applying to those who do not fight for duly
constituted military forces. We will wait to see when we have a final
decision on how to implement the Hamdan case. I think, at this point, what
you're reacting to is things that you've seen, and I'll be happy to
entertain more specific questions when we have a proffer.

Q Are these all speculative and not true?

MR. SNOW: No, it's all trying to figure out the proper way also. One of the
difficulties in Common Article Three is that there's a great deal of vague
language and rather than, "trying to change the Geneva accords," what we're
trying to do is to interpret them.

Q Does the President have any concern about how Prime Minister Olmert's
political standing has been affected by all of this? A lot of criticism
within his own country and around the world.

MR. SNOW: No, but I think the President does understand what happens when
you're in a period of war, which is that you're always going to take some
political heat if you're trying to do what you think is right. And he
certainly understands and appreciates the fact that there are going to be
responses from people in any nation that is affected by war, and he
certainly has a keen understanding and appreciation.

Q Prime Minister Olmert today said that Israel will continue to pursue
Hezbollah leaders, "everywhere and any time." I mean, do you view that as
in line with the cease-fire?

MR. SNOW: Well, I think what we ought to do is just to see what people do
on the ground and we'll react to things going on on the ground.

Q Tony, could you characterize for us the President's, the administration's
impressions of this cessation of hostilities so far? And also, is it still
the case that no U.S. troops will be involved in this beefed up UNIFIL
force?

MR. SNOW: As the President has said, at some point U.S. forces may be
involved in kind of support or logistics, but --

Q But not UNIFIL --

MR. SNOW: No. It's probably a little premature to be taking a look at a
cease-fire that's been in effect for nine-and-a-half hours, but I think the
one thing we can say is that this is one of the things that the President
and the Secretary of State have been pushing forward from July 12th on,
which is to try to create conditions diplomatically that are going to
provide some credible way of giving effect to U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1559.

So that is why there's been a lot of conversation -- and as you saw, there
was that diplomatic taffy pull as we tried to figure out how to get to the
resolution that all sides would support, in which you would have a
resolution that had clearly stated goals; that would define what we were
talking about in terms of security and sovereignty for the government of
Lebanon in the southern part of Lebanon; that would have an international
commitment so that the armed forces, the Lebanese armed forces also would
have the kind of support they need to effectively control the southern part
of the country; and would not only restate the provisions of 1559, but also
look forward on some of the other questions that have been raised. And
there is language within the resolution to deal with some of the
outstanding negotiation issues including that of prisoners.

Q So, no adjectives -- hopeful, optimistic?

MR. SNOW: It's been nine-and-a-half hours. I mean, it's what -- the one
thing you want to do is, obviously, we want not only for the cease-fire to
hold, but to set in train the kind of events that are going to get us to
where we want to be, which is a freestanding, democratic government in
Lebanon that no longer has to worry about provocations that are waged
within it's borders by a militia that does not represent the people of
Lebanon.

Q How soon do you expect the international force to start deploying in
there, and who should be in it? I mean, you've talked about the United
States' role -- who else? Who should be in it?

MR. SNOW: I'll let you ask the parties involved. That is a matter of
ongoing discussion. I think the French and Italians have been on record as
having some interest, but I would be loathe to try to tell you exactly
who's going to be in it. My understanding is that a lot of these things
ought to be worked out within the next couple of weeks. Deployment
schedules we'll get to you as soon as we know about it.

Q And you're confident that what's on the ground now is going to hold while
the international community sort of slowly ramps up into this --

MR. SNOW: I think -- no. Look, it's going to require good behavior on the
part of Hezbollah, and we're going to have to see. We've had statements
coming out that would indicate that people say that they're not going to
abide by it, but so far they have. No rockets fired by Hezbollah today. And
we hope that everybody will stay true to this cease-fire, and that the
government of Lebanon, again, will be able to have the credibility.

But a piece of paper outlines the way forward, but a lot of times that
still has to be conducted by people on the ground, the people also within
Lebanon. The Lebanese government has a role to play; the governments of
Syria and Iran have a role to play; Hezbollah has a role to play; the
Israelis have a role to play. And we'll have to see how all those things
work out in the hours, days, and weeks ahead.

Jim.

Q Tony, what does the President want to get out of today's meeting with
these experts? And, if I may, I guess he's had several of these now -- have
these meetings affected policy at least in terms of tactics? And how open
today is he to hearing about ideas about changing tactics?

MR. SNOW: Well, number one, these meetings happen all the time and the
meetings that we're going through today are meetings with the national
security team. Tomorrow we'll have the Homeland Security and Counter-terror
team. We'll have the economic advisors at the end of the week. He does that
every summer.

Today's topics at the Department of Defense have to deal -- first, the
conversation deals with transformation within the Department of Defense,
which, as you know, has been a priority of the Secretary from the very
beginning, and also some discussion of the Far East. The Iraq experts are
being brought in today to help provide differing views and overviews of the
situation, in particular taking a look at the roles, the politics, the
outlooks, the culture of Sunni, Shia and Kurd forces within Iraq, but also
to take a broader look at the region, see how everything pieces together.

I think it's safe to say what the President does in sessions like this is
invite people to express very openly their candid views on things. And
you're going to find people who have disagreements within this group of
four about the situation, about who could play what role. But, having said
that, they play a role in the sense that they add to the President's
knowledge and understanding of the region; they introduce new ideas and
they allow him to question closely people who spend the vast majority of
their time studying issues that are of keen concern to him, and at this
point, of the country.

Q Even dissenters?

MR. SNOW: Yes, absolutely. And, Helen, that's an important point. We do not
in "Amen" choruses. What you do is you invite smart people in who have
different points of view. At Camp David, we heard widely differing
recommendations on how to proceed militarily within Iraq. And that is a
very useful service. You don't want people who are simply saying exactly
the same thing. You want to be able to take an issue, look at it from
different angles, try to understand the arguments and the information that
motivates those arguments. It gives the President just a much broader
spectrum by which to view what's going on.

Q But does that affect the policy? And there's been a lot of -- there
continues to be criticism of the efficacy of the plan to quell the
violence, so is this part of a process of honing the tactics, changing the
tactics?

MR. SNOW: Well, the tactical responsibilities still lie, for instance on
military operations, with the generals on the ground. The President uses
this to shape his thinking about issues. It's not as if somebody says, "you
know, I heard something really good at lunch, let's change tactics." It
doesn't quite operate in that way. But what does happen is that the
President finds himself -- he wants to look at creative ways of looking at
the situation, and I think it's useful, not merely for the President, but
for everybody involved.

Since I'm here, I won't -- I'm not likely to be at the lunch, I may get
there in time, but if not, I'm getting full readouts on the note-taking.
Furthermore, read books of all the things that the people have put
together. I think it's important for all of us to try to learn as much as
possible, and this is part of the ongoing dialogue that the President has
been inviting for quite some time.

Q Tony, while there's been a lot of welcoming by Democrats of the
cease-fire, there's also been a lot of criticism of getting there. What's
your response to some of the Democrats' criticism?

MR. SNOW: I need to have a specific criticism. I don't want to just be --

Q That the President didn't press hard enough from the beginning.

MR. SNOW: Well, it's a peculiar criticism, since the President was the
first to talk about it within hours of the seizure of Israeli hostages on
the 12th of July. And furthermore, at that juncture -- and I would invite
you to go back and look at the press avail he did that day with Chancellor
Merkel -- laid out the principles that ended up not only being the guiding
principles, but the core principles of the United Nations resolution.
Furthermore, the United States took a lead role in the diplomacy from the
very beginning, and ended up working with the French and others to try to
come to a resolution. And, in addition, on a welcome note, Secretary
General Annan also, in the final hours, was playing a very constructive
role, as well, making sure that the process moved forward in a way that
achieved the goals that the President outlined at the very beginning.

So, I'm sorry, but it may be a handy criticism to say that the President is
not engaged, but it simply doesn't fit the facts in this case.

Peter.

Q Is there any disappointment in the administration that Israel didn't do a
better job of knocking out Hezbollah?

MR. SNOW: No. There's been a lot of speculation that the United States has
been engaged in military coordination, cooperation with Israel, and it's
not the case. And furthermore, the notion that we're sort of sitting back,
saying, "get them, get them, get them; we're buying you time," that's not
the way it worked. If you take a look at the diplomacy last week, we were
pushing very hard to try to get a resolution wrapped up as quickly as
possible. So the answer is, no.

Q Can you talk about the economic advisors event on Friday? And how is that
going to be different from what he's done in past summers?

MR. SNOW: You know, I'll give you a fuller readout as it approaches, but
it's going to be the same sort of thing he typically does, which is to take
a look forward, how do we build on the strength and growth in the economy.
But rather than give you a boiler plate answer, which is what I'm doing at
this moment, I'll try to get you something that's a little more specific
and useful.

Goyal, go ahead.

Q Two questions, yeah, one on Lebanon. Tony, what was accomplished? The
terrorists are still there. Those soldiers who are still there. So many
people died, and their supporters and their financials are still there.
Nobody has been punished as far as this war is concerned. What was
accomplished?

MR. SNOW: Well, number one, you've leaped to a whole lot of conclusions
that I'm not sure are fully grounded in fact, Goyal. It will take some time
to assess what was done. I guarantee you that some of the terrorists were
punished. Furthermore, what you now have is a global emphasis on the roles
of Iran and Syria in terms of helping foment violence within Lebanon, and
also trying to foil the democratic aspirations of people in Lebanon, and
also the Palestinian Authority, for that matter. That's an important
advancement because it does make clear who's responsible not only on the
ground, but regionally, for supporting the kind of violence that we have
seen.

In addition, what you also have -- Secretary Annan pointed this out last
week -- there have been no prior commitment to UNIFIL troops to say, okay,
you need to make sure that the militias are not operating in the south.
That's now crystal clear. That is absolutely part of the mandate of forces
that are going to be there in the South.

You also have a commitment on the part of -- on all parties to make sure
that the government of Lebanon has the ability to stand up and govern the
entirety of its country and exercise sovereignty effectively. So I think
what you've had is one of those clarifying moments where people really do
realize all the factors that are in play, and now are working together to
try to figure out a proper way and a diplomatic way and as peaceful a way
as possible to move forward so we can get to democracy without further
bloodshed and violence.

Q I have another one on --

MR. SNOW: If it's on India and Pakistan, I can't help you. But if you've
got something -- what you need to do, if you've got an India-Pakistan --

Q -- terrorism and Britain --

MR. SNOW: Okay, that's fine. Go ahead.

Q I have been saying this for the last 10 years, and now I think all the
front-page headlines in The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago
Tribune, and U.S. and British officials are also saying -- my question is,
does still the President trust and still consider allies General Musharraf
and Pakistan?

MR. SNOW: Well, the Pakistanis, as the British have pointed out, played a
very important role in breaking this cell. And President Musharraf has
certainly taken considerable risks in moving against terror, and we welcome
all advancements in breaking into the terror network.

Q Cuba, the statement over the weekend, the photographic evidence that
Fidel Castro is alive, if not totally well -- but he told his people, be
prepared for adverse news. Would adverse news for Cuba be good news for the
White House?

MR. SNOW: We'll have to find out. I mean, heaven knows. At least they came
up -- first you had the cheesy photo shop picture; at least the second one
was a little better.

Q Can you give us a sense of where the U.S. government right now thinks the
threat level is for an attack on the United States, off of this plot? The
terror threat came down one notch today, but the ringleader is still out
there, other guys are still out there they haven't caught yet. What is the
message here?

MR. SNOW: With all due respect, we never answer questions like that. We're
just never going to provide operational information about the whereabouts,
the tactics. But what I can repeat is the fact that we went from red back
to orange, as have the Brits. So there has been some degradation at least
of this particular threat.

Q So what does that mean? We're getting back to the whole question of what
do the color codes mean. How are people supposed to react to that, getting
on planes --

MR. SNOW: Well, as I said last week when it was red, it's safe to fly on
airplanes. And I think hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people
experienced that over the weekend. So it's still safe to fly on airplanes,
but it's also important to be vigilant and look out for things that may be
-- may seem to be a little bit fishy, and do what you can to play your
role.

Q Does the President support the Republican candidate for Senate in
Connecticut?

MR. SNOW: The President supports the democratic process in the state of
Connecticut, and wishes them a successful election in November.

Q Wait a minute. I realize he supports democracy, but I'm wondering, does
he actually support his own party's candidate?

MR. SNOW: I know that's not news --

Q Why aren't you committing -- why wouldn't the President commit support
for the Republican candidate in that --

MR. SNOW: I don't know. Why do you ask? Is there something about the
candidate that I should know about that would lead to judgments?

Q I'm just asking you --

MR. SNOW: No, that's just a --

Q -- it seems like a very natural thing, why wouldn't he support a member
of his own party? Is it because he's well behind in the polls? Is it
because the President likes Joe Lieberman? What's -- why not?

MR. SNOW: There may be -- there are a whole host of reasons the President
-- I'm just not going to play.

Q It's not really a game --

MR. SNOW: It's not a game. It's not a game, but I'll -- okay, I'll tell you
what. I'll refer you to the political office to give you the full judgments
on that. I think you know the situation in Connecticut.

Q Could you clear up for us the situation regarding whether there was
pressure from the U.S. on the British as to when the arrests should be
made, or whether there was a disagreement as to when the arrests should be
--

MR. SNOW: I'll refer you the Fran Townsend, who denied it all. I just -- I
don't have any information beyond what Fran said over the weekend.

Q One other quick one.

MR. SNOW: Sure.

Q As far as security on the trains is concerned, we know that trains have
been targeted in other countries by al Qaeda-type terrorists. I took Amtrak
on Friday; there is no security whatsoever on our trains. Are we going to
do anything about that?

MR. SNOW: I'll refer that to Homeland Security. I think they may have a
different take on it.

Q Following on Keith's question, so we should not routinely assume that the
President is supporting the Republican nominee --

MR. SNOW: I think there's some peculiar characteristics going on in the
Republican Party with the President candidate, and why don't you wait and
see what happens?

Q What are those characteristics?

MR. SNOW: I think I was asking you and you wouldn't play, so --

Q Are there any other states where there are peculiar characteristics, or
is this one unique?

MR. SNOW: I think this one may be unique. But we'll find out. Look, I know
what you're trying to do and it's great and it's great fun, but --

Q -- get an answer.

MR. SNOW: Yes, well, they know the answer.

Go ahead.

Q Back to Victoria's question, apparently, Amtrak has put in place some
things, how passengers get tickets, but that is the only thing. As Victoria
said, there are no metal or -- detectors. There are no security agents on
the trains. And former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, last week,
said that Amtrak is one of the vulnerabilities of this fight, as well as
the port. So what next --

MR. SNOW: Rather than trying to get me to answer a question that I don't
have the information on, I really would refer you to Homeland Security. I
know that there have been efforts and they have been documented in the past
for dealing with trains. I'm just -- A, I'm not going to go into
operational detail, and B, honestly, April, I just -- I don't have the
background to answer your questions.

Q We saw what happened in Madrid, and we saw what happened in --

MR. SNOW: There's always concern about terrorism. But in terms of the
specifics of how we're handling the train situation, I'm just not briefed
up. I can't -- I don't want to do you the disservice of dancing around it
and trying to pretend I know something I don't know.

Q Can you ask Homeland --

MR. SNOW: Why don't you --

Q I will call, but your call will get through faster.

MR. SNOW: I'll facilitate the phone call if you have difficulty. I'll make
sure yours just gets right through. (Laughter.)

Mike.

Q To follow up on Peter's question, is it worrisome or sobering that, given
a month, Israel wasn't able to defeat, contain, degrade Hezbollah?

MR. SNOW: Again, I think you guys are trying to keep scorecards based on
impressions. I don't know -- if you can tell me exactly what the situation
in on the ground and precisely how Hezbollah has been affected, then you
ought to ask the Israelis about that. That is an Israeli strategic
question.

The concern of this administration, from the start, has been very clear: to
try to lay the basis for dealing with the root cause, which is Hezbollah
aggression, and also to put in place a force that is going to be able to
deter and deal with that aggression in the future. But you are asking me to
render judgment on a military operation in which we play no part, and
therefore, it's simply inappropriate for me to be entertaining such
questions. You can call the Israeli embassy or you can call the Israeli
military and try to get their own judgments on this, but it is not
something that is of germane concern for us.

Q No, it's just in the past you've said it was part of the global war on
terror, and that's --

MR. SNOW: And it is part of the global war on terrorism. But what you're
asking for is an operational assessment of what's been going on with the
Israelis and Hezbollah. I think what you were asking me to do was to assess
what you considered the military objectives on the part of Israel and how
we would assess their success in meeting those goals. And my point is
that's a question for them and not for me.

Q But, Tony, would you like to see Hezbollah degraded?

MR. SNOW: We would like to see Hezbollah stop committing acts of terror. We
also would like to see Hezbollah take the political path rather than the
terror path.

Q Don't you want to see them disarmed?

Q But not militarily degraded --

MR. SNOW: Disarmament is something that will be the responsibility of the
sovereign government of Lebanon with the assistance of international
forces. It is part of the resolution, as it was part of Resolution 1559. So
the answer is, yes, we would like to see that happen. But it is not
something that's going to happen overnight. It is going to take concerted
action on the part of the government of Lebanon and also on the part of the
forces that are there operating in conjunction with and in support of the
Lebanese armed forces.

Q Tony, did the President have a chance to see "60 Minutes" last night,
and/or do you have a reaction to the Iranian President's statement that
their program is civil and it's this country that wants to make bombs out
of --

MR. SNOW: Well, I think it's pretty clear that the international community
disagrees, as having been expressed with the U.N. Security Council
resolution, and also the P3 plus one, which we're also working in
conjunction with the Iranians. What we have said is, if you want it to be
civil, we're perfectly willing to support that; let's do it in a way that
it can be verifiable and let's move forward.

Also, furthermore, if it's guaranteed -- we don't have any problem with the
peaceful, civil use of nuclear energy in Iran. As a matter of fact, we've
been encouraging it for a number of countries, to eliminate the global
dependence on oil or the addiction to oil. Having said that, it is of
sufficient concern to a number of countries, with the situation with
centrifuges and some of the other things, that if the Iranians do, in fact,
want to make it clear that they're interested in civil -- not only can they
sit down at the table, not only can they stop the enrichment and
reprocessing-related activities with regard to those centrifuges, but there
will be willing support for Western nations to help them develop peaceful
civil nuclear power. And in addition there are any number of other
inducements -- economic, cultural, social, political, and otherwise. And
we've made that clear to the Iranians, and we hope that President
Ahmadinejad will take us up on it.

Q Do you think the President watched the interview?

MR. SNOW: I have no idea. I didn't ask him this morning.

Q Thank you.

MR. SNOW: Okay. Thank you.

END 10:46 EDT
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