Press Relations » Daily Press Briefings » 2013 » January » Daily Press Briefing – January 17, 2013

Victoria Nuland
Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
January 17, 2013
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Index for Today’s Briefing

EGYPT
Statements by Egyptian Presidency / Religious Tolerance / Uphold International Obligations
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QUESTION: No – well, Egypt. So were you able to track down the presidential spokesman’s comments? And are they enough of a repudiation, or does the President, President Morsi, have to come out himself and say it?

MS. NULAND: Well, the Egyptians issued two statements yesterday. The second one – in the second one yesterday evening, the Egyptian presidency explicitly rejected all forms of discrimination and incitement to violence or hostility on the basis of religion. And from our perspective, that statement was an important first step to make clear that the type of offensive rhetoric that we saw in 2010 is not acceptable, not productive, and shouldn’t be part of a democratic Egypt.

That said, we look to President Morsi and Egyptian leaders to demonstrate, in both word and in deed, their commitment to religious tolerance and to upholding all of Egypt’s international obligations.

QUESTION: Does that include a speech? Does that include a speech?

MS. NULAND: As I said, we consider what was issued by the presidency yesterday to be a good first step, and we will continue to track what is done, both in word and in deed, with regard to religious tolerance and with regard to international obligations.

QUESTION: But Toria, did it go far enough?

MS. NULAND: Again, I think I’ve spoken to the fact that we consider this a good first step, and they need to keep moving.

QUESTION: Does this call into question Morsi’s reliability as a partner in the region? Is this someone that the U.S. wants to be associated with if he doesn’t do anything beyond this first step, this statement that came out last night?

MS. NULAND: I think we’ve said all along that the United States has a deep interest in Egypt’s continuing transition to democracy, in Egypt’s economic success, in advancement of regional security, in Egypt working well with its neighbors in support of regional security, in upholding the peace treaty with Israel. It’s on that basis that we need to continue to work intensively with the Government of Egypt on all of these fronts, including, as I said, to continue to deepen and broaden respect for religious tolerance, and support broadly within the body politic for the steps that President Morsi has already taken to uphold the peace treaty, to work well with Israel on issues of common interest like Gaza. But this is a process going forward.

QUESTION: So when you say it’s an important first step, does that mean that you’re not really sure you believe him?

MS. NULAND: Matt, I’m not going to parse it any further than to say they’ve taken a first step, we’re going to keep watching in word and in deed.

QUESTION: Well, you specifically – on the other day when I asked about this the first time, you said that you wanted him to repudiate it. Is a spokesman doing it – is that good enough?

MS. NULAND: This was a –

QUESTION: What is it going to –

MS. NULAND: This was a strong statement from his office, which we consider a good first step. I’m really not going to parse it further than that.

QUESTION: Well, but he said this stuff personally in a speech and also in a television interview. And when you say it’s an important first step but it’s not – but you’re looking for more, that would imply that you want to hear it from him directly and that you’re not really convinced, that you think that he – that this statement from the presidency is just kind of window dressing and trying to just make –

QUESTION: Make it go away?

QUESTION: Exactly, trying to have it not become – not be an issue as Congress continues to look at assistance. So am I – is that supposition wrong?

MS. NULAND: Matt, I don’t think I can be any clearer than to say –

QUESTION: Sure you can. You can say, “We want President Morsi to go out — ”

MS. NULAND: Matt.

QUESTION: — “and make a speech in which he says everything that his office — ”

MS. NULAND: Would you like to stand here or would you like me to answer your question?

QUESTION: No, I’d like to – you’re saying you can’t be more specific. And whenever a government official –

MS. NULAND: If you –

QUESTION: — or, in fact, whenever anyone says you can’t be more specific, generally, they’re wrong. You can be a lot more specific.

MS. NULAND: Since you didn’t let me finish my sentence –

QUESTION: Okay. Go ahead.

MS. NULAND: — I don’t think we can be any more specific than to say what I said in my second sentence, and which I’ve now said twice and I’ll say a third time, which is that we look to President Morsi and Egypt’s leaders to demonstrate, in both word and deed going forward, their commitment to religious tolerance and to upholding Egypt’s international obligations. I think that makes very clear that we’re looking for continued demonstration of their commitment to these things.

QUESTION: But from him personally as well as the rest of the leadership?

MS. NULAND: From President Morsi and his – and Egypt’s leaders. I think I said that, Matt.

QUESTION: Okay. All right.

QUESTION: You mentioned two statements –

MS. NULAND: I’m – I think I’m going to get some Q-tips, maybe, for the front bench.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: You mentioned two statements?

MS. NULAND: There was an early statement and then there was a late – the lines that I quoted from were from the second statement yesterday evening out of the President’s –

QUESTION: The Q-tip line is really just exactly more of the stuff that I was talking about from the White House. I don’t understand why you think it is inappropriate or wrong for us to be asking questions for you to clarify exactly what you want from the Egyptian President.

MS. NULAND: Because I did clarify. You just didn’t hear it the first time.

Go ahead, Said.

QUESTION: What kind of steps should be demonstrated? You said they should demonstrate steps.

MS. NULAND: Said, I think we’ve parsed this as much as we need to today.

Anything else? Should we move on?
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http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2013/01/202993.htm

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