Yemen and Iran
This is interesting. Referencing the Houthis, Saleh and Iran:
QUESTION: My name is Munir. I’m with Asharq Alawsat newspaper and I would like to ask you first about your trip. Is it going to be to only Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and United Arab Emirate or some other country? Are you going to stop in Israel, for example?
The second thing, how can you face the Iranian influence in the region, for example, in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon with Hamas, even in Yemen? Some people here in the U.S. say Iranian — Iran is better off after Saddam. Now, we have information leaking from Syria that they get an offer from Iran to rebuild Syria military. They are going to get maybe a billion of dollars. Hamas, as Hany said, getting money from Iran. Even in Yemen and north of Yemen, the military conflict — as journalists, we see Iranian influence.
How can you face the influence of Iran in the region?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, you are right about the negative impact of Iran’s policies in the region and the fact that Iran is pursuing policies that are destabilizing in the region and in fact, that they are doing it in — it appears in more places than before. But I would just make three points.
The first is, there has to be a consensus among the states and concerted action among the states that are worried about what Iran is doing in the international system to challenge Iran’s aggressive policies. That means, for instance, challenging Iran to stop funding terrorists. It means challenging Iran on its nuclear weapons program. It means speaking up for the people of Iran who shouldn’t be isolated from the international community. As you know, we announced that we’re going to put forward some money for Iran democracy. People should be trying to reach out to the Iranian people
But I do believe that if the Iranians understand that their policies are going to be challenged, not — people are not just going to turn a blind eye to what Iran is doing, that their policies are going to be challenged, that Iran itself will have to make some choices, which is, does Iran really wish to take on the international community to keep carrying out policies that are so counterproductive?
As it turns out, the — on the nuclear policy, they are really almost all alone. I think their supporters in the IAEA were Syria — which has, by the way, become their sidekick in their hostile policies in international politics as they both play all kinds of games in Lebanon, for instance. Syria has become their sidekick. But the countries that supported them were Syria, Cuba, and Venezuela.
Now, I would say perhaps Iran ought to look at where it is when the countries that support you are Syria, Cuba, and Venezuela; not the major Arab states, not any of the European states. This isn’t just about the United States. This is about incredible isolation. And so, I do think that Iran needs to know that its policies are going to be challenged, but perhaps Iran should look at where it is and I don’t actually see that Iran is in a very good situation.
QUESTION: And your trip will press on Iran issue?
SECRETARY RICE: No. I’m going out to — I’ll be — the answer to your first question is Egypt, Saudi, and UAE. I won’t go to Israel or to the Palestinian territories on this trip. But I just — there are a lot of things to talk about. We need to talk about the future of the peace process and about Hamas. We need to talk about Iran. I want to talk to people about Iraq, where we’re soon going to have the formation of a new government and where I would hope that Iraq’s neighbors are ready now to support Iraq as it moves toward the establishment of a permanent government. The Iraqis are going to need the support of their neighbors. The neighbors have been very helpful, by the way, in working with the Sunnis to get them more involved in the political system and so, I think we’ll talk some more about that.
It’s a broad range of — there are a broad range of issues to talk about and the only reason that I will not go to Jordan is that the — His Majesty was just here, so we had extensive discussions when he was here.
