My Qs and As w/State Dpt. Spox Nuland, October 13, 2011

Iran Assasination Plot
QUESTION:  I am little late.  I hope you didn’t already address it, but my question is:  It has been about four days past since the plot unveiled, and you have been engaging with the countries across the world.  How is your first impression,that they can see something is happening within next week or so, near future?
MS. NULAND:  Well, Under Secretary Sherman spoke to this on the Hill earlier today.  I think the President spoke to this.  We’ve had a number of countries come forward with their own statements of condemnation, and we welcome that.  And we’ve had many countries saying that they will look hard at whether their own national nooses are tight enough around Iran, based on the sanctions that the UN has put forward and their own individual sanctions. So that effort continues, and we have – we are also in the process of giving more information to those countries who have asked for it.  

Turkey-Iran-US
QUESTION:  (Inaudible) specific on Turkey, Turkey and USA, their own differences when it comes to Iran and the latest round of sanctions.  Can you tell us, elaborate us how the negotiations or meetings with Turkish counterparts are going forward in terms of new Iranian sanctions?  
MS. NULAND:  I don’t have any details of Ambassador Ricciardone’s intercession with Turkish counterparts in front of me.  I do know that the Secretary and Foreign Minister Davutoglu are to speak either today or tomorrow, so why don’t I give you more after that phone call.


PRESS BRIEFING ON OCTOBER 12, 2011

Iran Plot

QUESTION:  What’s your assessment on the potential gain for the Iranian regime out of such a massive act of terror plan in the U.S. soil?
MS. NULAND:  I can’t even begin to get inside the heads of people who would plan such a thing.

QUESTION:  How do you see the Mexican role within this plot?  Do you see any responsibility from their point?  Or is this a cause for U.S. Government to increase its activities within or with Mexico in coming times?
MS. NULAND:  First of all, thank you for that opening.  I neglected to thank the Mexican Government.  We’ve had superb cooperation with them throughout this period, and that was the – one of the purposes of the Secretary’s conversation with her Mexican counterpart, to thank Mexico for the superb cooperation we’ve had together. 

...

Pro-Assad Demos in Damascus

QUESTION: There were thousands of pro-Asad protesters in Damascus today. How do you read today’s pro-Asad demonstrations?
MS. NULAND The regime obviously has a strong ability to get its message out, but that doesn’t change the fact that, in cities across Syria, peaceful protesters are protesting against this regime. And those people are facing brutality on a daily basis, whether it is Syrian security forces firing on them, whether it is arrests, whether it is torture, imprisonment, et cetera.
QUESTION: Is this an assumption, or do you have any links that you can prove between the regime and the demonstrations, or organizing the demonstrations?
MS. NULAND: The Syrian – regimes of this type, autocratic, dictatorial regimes - are very capable of doing rent-a-crowd when necessary.