J. ADAM ERELI HOLDS STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR NEWS BRIEFING.

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Original Source: Political Transcript Wire

STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR NEWS BRIEFING

AUGUST 10, 2005

SPEAKER: J. ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY SPOKESMAN

[*] ERELI: Welcome, everyone. I don't have any announcements so we can go straight to your questions of which there are one.

QUESTION: Just one. Could I do -- actually, it's probably not the expected one -- Iraq? There seems to be a fair bit of political strife, political chaos on the road to the constitution. Can you talk about any U.S. concerns about the various things that have been happening this week -- a deposed Baghdad mayor -- I mean, lots of things happening, in Samallah (ph) there have been some issues and not to mention the sandstorm?

Any concerns about a delay in meeting the deadline on drafting a constitution and what the U.S. role is, what specifically Ambassador Khalilzad's doing to try to avoid a problem?

ERELI: The simple answer to your question is that the political process in Iraq is on track. The constitution committee is hard at work drafting a constitution. It wants to meet the August 15th deadline. We're doing everything we can to support them, as are the other partners of Iraq: the U.N. and the international community.

There was, yesterday, a summit of Iraqi leaders to discuss issues related to the constitution. This is, obviously, an Iraqi process. The Iraqis are writing the constitution. It is a constitution for Iraqis.

There are also, obviously, difficult tough questions to address: issues of federalism, issues of rights, issues of resource sharing. These are all questions that the Iraqis are debating, discussing.

I would say that it is our understanding that these discussions have been productive. They're moving forward.

We have always tried to be supportive of the Iraqi efforts. And I would say that, basically, we assist them in ways that they request, that they ask of us, as do Iraq's other partners that are committed to helping to stand up a democratic and sovereign Iraq.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Asked for. I mean, Ambassador Khalilzad's been fairly prominent in this process.

ERELI: Well, we meet with -- Ambassador Khalilzad has been very dynamic and energetic in meeting with different stakeholders in the process as they seek our views, our opinions on things. But not just ours, others' as well. The U.N. special representative is very involved. Other countries are being consulted on their ideas.

I think the Iraqis are looking for input, looking for ideas, and bouncing ideas off of others as they work to fashion something that is uniquely Iraqi and responsive to Iraq's very unique history and very unique set of circumstances. This is, in some ways, a consultative process where the Iraqis are consulting with a wide variety of partners.

But it's important to stress that the final product will be the result of Iraqi deliberations...

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