QUESTION: Have your ace geographers been able to determine what Southwest Asia is and thereby figure out what exactly Dennis Ross’s mandate is?
MR. WOOD: I’m so shocked that you asked that question. Let me give you my best – our best read of this. From our standpoint, the countries that make up areas of the Gulf and Southwest Asia include Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen, and those are the countries.
QUESTION: Not – not Afghanistan and Pakistan?
MR. WOOD: Look, Ambassador Ross will look at the entire region, should he be asked to, including Afghanistan. But this is something that would be worked out. You were – you asked the question yesterday about Ambassador Holbrooke and whether there was going to be some kind of, I don’t know, conflict over who is working in – on that particular issues in that country.
Look, Ambassador Ross and Ambassador Holbrooke will work together where necessary if they need to, if there’s some kind of overlap. But that’s, in essence, the State Department’s geographical breakdown of Southwest Asia.
Ca commence déjà à ne plus être très clair, voire même contradictoire avec ce qui a été dit dans l'annonce officelle, qui parle de "deux guerres", donc très probablement l'Irak et l'Afghanistan. Le problème étant que dans la liste présentée, l'Afghanistan ne fait plus partie du lot. Point soulevé après où la confusion prend place :
QUESTION: Okay. So it does not – it is not the same breakdown as the military uses?
MR. WOOD: No, the military uses a different breakdown, but I’d have to refer you to them for their specific breakdown.
(...)
QUESTION: So if Ambassador Ross is special envoy – special advisor for Gulf and Southwest Asia, what is the difference between Gulf and Southwest Asia?
MR. WOOD: Look --
QUESTION: For me, this is Gulf.
MR. WOOD: Well, it may be for you. For others, it may be different. I’d have to – I’ve given you what the Department’s position is with regard to the geographic makeup of the region.
QUESTION: Okay. But on Iran, like for instance, if someone – if the United States wanted to engage Iran on, for instance, Afghanistan, and you’ve said before from this podium that Afghanistan could play – Iran, sorry, could play a helpful role in Afghanistan – who would be kind of handling that? Would that be the special advisor for Southwest Asia in Iran, or would it be the special advisor for Afghanistan and Pakistan? Because Ambassador Holbrooke has said that he thought Iran could play a helpful role, and that suggests that he might be handling that kind of dialogue.
MR. WOOD: Well, this is—again, this is speculation. You know, we’ll have to see what happens if, indeed, we get to that point about who handles an issue with regard to Iran. It really depends on, you know, a variety of factors. I can’t – it’s hypothetical, so I just can’t give you an answer specifically on that. So --
(...)
QUESTION: Yes. You know, I’m a little confused because in your statement to announce Dennis Ross’s appointment as the Southwest Asia person, you referred to two wars in the region. So which is the other war? Iraq – was Afghanistan part of that and then you took it away because of Holbrooke’s complaints or --
MR. WOOD: No.
QUESTION: Just a wee bit confused here.
MR. WOOD: No, there are two wars that are raging in that region, and I’m talking about the larger region.
QUESTION: But that was included within the Southwest Asia that you demarcated in the statement.
MR. WOOD: Right. Like I said, Afghanistan is one of those issues where you have a lot of individuals who have some interests and equities in dealing with it. And as I said, if we get to a point where there is a need to have both Ambassador Ross and Ambassador Holbrooke engaging on different elements of it, they will. And they will certainly – you know, they’ll do that. But we are very clear in that statement, I think, in terms of where we see wars raging and the need to have appropriate people working on these issues.
QUESTION: Because in the CIA fact book, a book which a lot of people use, Southwest Asia does include Afghanistan. So --
MR. WOOD: Well, that’s the CIA. I’m giving you – again, I gave you what the State Department’s position is on the region.
QUESTION: Well, it sounds like you – it sounds like you have a turf battle brewing, if not already begun. Maybe you should lock Holbrooke and Ross up in a room and fight it out?
MR. WOOD: That’s your characterization. There’s no turf war going on here.
QUESTION: Well, no, Robert, because I believe that originally, Afghanistan was included in this – in Dennis’s (inaudible) here, and it’s interesting that it’s been taken out, so --
QUESTION: So was it removed, though, because – with the wars referring to the war in Afghanistan? I mean, was it removed because --
MR. WOOD: I just spelled this out for you. I don’t have anything more to say on it.
La confusion est évidente et visiblement, le Département ne s'attendait guère à ce que l'annonce provoque une telle polémique. N'exagérons rien non plus, à part quelques journalistes tenaces et bloggeurs acharnés, la question n'attire pas foule.
A la décharge de Wood, le journaliste fait erreur lorsqu'il prétend que le CIA Factbook inclut l'Afghanistan dans l'Asie du sud-ouest. Rien de tel. Par contre, on trouve une telle référence sur le site de la CIA. Tout comme sur le site de Foggy Bottom (cf. mon précédent post sur la question), l'Asie du sud-ouest est évoquée en relation avec le trafic d'héroïne, mais l'Afghanistan ou le Pakistan ne figurent pas dans cette région lorsqu'ils sont traités sous un angle politique. Au Département d'Etat, ils sont sous la responsabilité du Bureau pour l'Asie Centrale et du Sud, de manière tout à fait logique.
En fait, la confusion sur le terme d'Asie du sud-ouest est simplement liée au fait que c'est un terme très peu usité, car en Occident, on parle de Moyen Orient. A l'ONU, ils ont voulu changer le terme de "Moyen Orient", car c'était perçu comme trop occident-centré.
Il n'en reste pas moins que sur le dossier iranien, la question mérite d'être posée : qui va coordonner les négociations si elles s'ouvrent entre les Etats-Unis et l'Iran sur l'Afghanistan ? De plus, doit-on déduire de ce flou artistique que Ross sera le point focal pour l'articulation d'une politique cohérente de Washington sur l'Iran ?
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