[Transcript Excerpt]
Daily Press Briefing
Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 23, 2007
ARMENIA
Secretary Rice’s Meeting with Armenian Prime Minister
Iranian President’s Visit to Armenia / Possible Pipeline Agreement
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QUESTION: Do you have anything on the Secretary’s meeting with the
Armenian Prime Minister? I know it’s coming up, but what do you plan
to discuss? Why is it important?
MR. MCCORMACK: All a matter of relations, I think. We have a
significant bilateral assistance program with Armenia and we’ll talk
about that, talk about their continuing process of political and
economic reform. I expect the Secretary will also touch on the issue
of Nagorno-Karabakh and where that — where the process stands in
bringing about a resolution to that conflict.
QUESTION: And what about the genocide resolution?
MR. MCCORMACK: Not on the agenda from our side.
QUESTION: Same subject?
MR. MCCORMACK: Yes.
QUESTION: The President of Iran has been in Armenia for the last
couple of days and reports about that visit suggest that they have
extended a pipeline agreement and that they’re going to build a joint
— this is Armenia and Iran —
MR. MCCORMACK: Right.
QUESTION: — build a joint refinery. Given Armenia’s generally
pro-Western orientation, are you sort of disappointed with this?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I understand that there hasn’t been a final
agreement that has been signed. Often — very oftentimes, you will
have these circumstances where Iran working with other governments
will try to engage in a series of preliminary agreements to lend the
perception that all is normal and well in terms of dealing with Iran
when, in fact, the truth could not be further from that kind of
perception.
We have counseled the Armenians, as we have counseled others who have
entertained entering into these sort of oil and gas agreements with
Iran against doing so. We don’t think the time is right to even be
entertaining the idea of concluding these kinds of agreements. It is
not business as normal with Iran for all the reasons that we have
talked about so very often in this room.
So we will continue to counsel them against entering into any sort of
oil and gas agreements and of course, if there are any applicable laws
that are triggered by any actions taken by any entities, we will take
a look at the agreements with respect to U.S. law.
Source: tm