USA: British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and U.Secretary of State Rice call for real action against Kurdish rebels

Record ID: 565516

  • Title: USA: British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and U.Secretary of State Rice call for real action against Kurdish rebels
  • Date: 23rd October 2007
  • Summary: (BN17): WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 22, 2007) (STATE DEPARTMENT TV) . U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE AND BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY DAVID MILIBAND WALKING INTO NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY DAVID MILIBAND SAYING: "The role of the Iraqi government in Baghdad and in northern Iraq, the Kurdish authority there is absolutely key. And as you'll see from the quite detailed statement that we've both put out tonight, Condi and I, you'll see that we are absolutely determined to ensure that there are real deeds that allow the Turkish government to say to their own people that the international community and critically the Iraqi government are taking this issue with the seriousness that it deserves. And if the trilateral process involving the United States can also be engaged, that can only be a good thing in building the right sort of partnership to take this forward." MILIBAND AND RICE LISTENING TO QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE SAYING: "The United States is determined to work with our allies in Iraq and to work with our allies in Turkey to try and deal with what is a very difficult situation of terrorism from a fairly remote part of northern Iraq. And it requires information sharing, it requires a great deal of coordination. But I am quite certain that we can sit down and work this together if we have enough political will." MILIBAND AND RICE LISTENING TO REPORTER'S QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY DAVID MILIBAND SAYING: "Whether you look at the Middle East including in Iraq, whether you look at the important issues in Pakistan, whether you look at the issues in central and eastern Europe and western Balkans and relationship with Russia, those are all areas where the fact is that the Britain and the United States are working very, very closely together and this is not a relationship marked by frictions. It's a relationship marked by a real sense of shared and common purpose." RICE AND MILIBAND (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE SAYING: "As to bridges being rebuild, I don't think bridges were ever cut. So you don't have to rebuild something that has never been cut." RICE AND MILIBAND WALKING OUT
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVADVNGBZ0E19EE18CQ60CQWJ76G
  • Story Text: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband urge Iraqi and Kurdish regional government authorities to act to halt Kurdish rebel attacks on Turkey.
    British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday (October 22) urged Iraqi and Kurdish regional government authorities to take immediate steps to halt attacks in Turkey by Kurdish rebel based in Iraq.
    Miliband and Rice were speaking in Washington, a day after 12 Turkish soldiers were killed in an ambush by separatist Kurdish rebels. Eight other soliders remain missing.
    Miliband said "we are absolutely determined to ensure that there are real deeds that allow the Turkish government to say to their own people that the international community and critically the Iraqi government are taking this issue with the seriousness that it deserves."
    Rice said the United States "is determined to work with our allies in Iraq and to work with our allies in Turkey to try and deal with what is a very difficult situation of terrorism from a fairly remote part of northern Iraq."
    The U.S. designates the PKK, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, who carried out the attack on Turkish soldiers on Sunday (October 21), as an international terrorist organisation.
    Turkey said on Monday it would exhaust diplomatic channels before launching any military strike into northern Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels.
    The joint statement also called for the international community "to support Turkey and Iraq in their efforts to "eliminate this threat".
    The United States and Britain have proposed a meeting of officials from the United States, Turkey and Iraq next month to discuss how to stop Kurdish rebel attacks into Turkey.
    Rice and Miliband, said that they hoped ministers from the three countries could meet during a conference on Iraq, set for Istanbul on Nov.
    2-3.
    Miliband and Rice also stressed the good relations between their two nations.

    "Whether you look at the Middle East including in Iraq, whether you look at the important issues in Pakistan, whether you look at the issues in central and eastern Europe and western Balkans and relationship with Russia, those are all areas where the fact is that the Britain and the United States are working very, very closely together and this is not a relationship marked by frictions. It's a relationship marked by a real sense of shared and common purpose," Miliband said.
    Rice refuted suggestions that bridges between the two nations needed to be rebuilt. "As to bridges being rebuilt, I don't think bridges were ever cut. So you don't have to rebuild something that has never been cut," she said.
  • Copyright Holder: STATE DEPARTMENT TV
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register