Briefing Skipper; Zelaya, New York, Yemen, Lee Myung-Bak
Posted By Josh RoginTuesday, September 22, 2009 - 11:13 PM Share
In which we scour the transcript of the State Department's
daily presser so you don't have to. Here are the highlights of today's briefing
by spokesman Ian Kelly:
Kelly calls for calm in Tegucigalpa, where ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya
is holed up in the Brazilian Embassy. America
is "discussing" how to give assistance to that embassy, where power and water
services have been cut off. Meanwhile, the State Department is still pushing
the San Jose Accord, "which remains the best approach
to resolve this crisis," Kelly said. "There is no plan B at this point."
No
comment on the arrests of three terror suspects in New York who have links back to
Pakistan and no new specific threat information that would cause an increased
level of alert in New York as the U.N. General Assembly gets rolling.
The U.S. Embassy in South Africa is
closed after pretty credible
information was received that threatened the security of U.S. government
installations there. "We've
notified the American community in South Africa to remain vigilant when they're
in the vicinity of U.S. government facilities," said Kelly, but no comment on
whether there was an al Qaeda link.
The U.S. is speeding assistance to some 150,000
internally displaced refugees in Yemen, and the State Department is "deeply
concerned" about the violence between the
Yemeni government and the al-Houthi opposition groups, Kelly said. He couldn't
confirm reports that the Iranians are stoking the
flames.
Following the mayhem caused by the leak
of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's assessment calling for more troops to
Afghanistan, Kelly said about the State Department's contribution, "We weigh in constantly, but once all
of the assessments are in, there will be a deliberation in the National
Security Council that the secretary will participate in."
Kelly wouldn't sign on to the "grand bargain"
proposed by South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak proposed yesterday for solving
the North Korean nuclear crisis, but did say that if Pyongyang lived up to its
commitments, "we'd prepare to discuss some kind of
package of steps that we could take." Has Lee been reading the Cato Institute's Web site?
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