Turkish Russian Conflicts - US State Department Briefing On Fire

• published: 11 Dec 2015
• views: 180

QUESTION: Turkey. Thank you. Does the U.S. approve of Turkey’s development of forces in Iraq without the permission of the Iraqi Government? MR KIRBY: I think we’ve dealt with this, haven’t we? QUESTION: Do you approve of it? Does the United States approve of it? MR KIRBY: I’ve talked about this several times this week. I’d refer you to the transcripts of the last two or three days. But what I can tell you just in short is that we want all counter-ISIL efforts inside Iraq to be done with the full coordination and permission of the Iraqi Government – let me finish. QUESTION: In this case -- MR KIRBY: Let me finish. QUESTION: Sure, sorry. MR KIRBY: With the cooperation and the approval of the Iraqi Government, as our military operations have been inside Iraq. And we understand that Turkey and Iraq are in a dialogue about this issue, and that we’re encouraged by that. And we think that that’s the right venue for this is for the two countries to work this out bilaterally. QUESTION: Well, in this case, it hasn’t been done with Iraq’s permission, so does this mean that you disapprove of what Turkey did? MR KIRBY: I’m not going to take a position one way or the other on approving or disapproving. I’ve already said what our position is on counter-ISIL efforts in Iraq. We want all of those efforts by any country to be done in full coordination and with the permission of, the approval of, the sovereign Government of Iraq. And we understand that this particular deployment, this particular presence, is something that the two governments are talking about, and by golly, that’s the right way that this should be worked out. And so we’re glad to see that. QUESTION: Well, the Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi asked NATO to put pressure on Turkey to pull out the troops. Has the U.S. intervened in any way, and in what way? MR KIRBY: The prime minister is the prime minister of a sovereign country. And I haven’t seen that particular decision, but certainly, if that’s how he has decided he wants to pursue this, then those are his decisions to make. QUESTION: Well, you’re not offering any assessment of what Turkey did. You are saying words, but essentially, the U.S. is silent on what Turkey did. Is the reason for the silence the fact that the U.S. is using the Incirlik base in Turkey and doesn’t want to lose access to it? MR KIRBY: Oh, so here we go. This is what you’re really getting at. Look, nobody is being silent about this. If you’d been at the briefing the last several days, you would have seen, or if you looked at the transcript, you would have seen -- QUESTION: But you’re saying – you’re not offering an assessment. MR KIRBY: I’m going to do it one more time with you, one more round here, and then we’re going to go to somebody else. You would have seen that I’ve been nothing but open and candid about our views about this particular troop issue between Turkey and Iraq. The United States has not been silent. We’ve not been silent one whit about it. And we believe – and I’ll say it again – that this needs to be worked out bilaterally between the two countries. And our stance on that is because that’s what we really believe. I don’t know how many times I’ve stood up here this week and talked about bilateral relations between two different countries, and the expectation that the United States ought to intervene in every issue between every two countries, I think is just completely ridiculous. So we want them to work this out directly, and they are, and we’re encouraged by that. And it has nothing to do with the cooperation and the assistance that we enjoy from – the coalition enjoys from Turkey, whether it’s Incirlik or the other cooperative efforts that Turkey is employing against ISIL. Okay? QUESTION: But you’re saying -- MR KIRBY: I think I’ve dealt with your questions quite enough. Yes, ma’am. QUESTION: It’s a different question. It’s a different question.