Clarity from the State Dept.:
re: Russian diplomats
QUESTION: Could you also tell us who is physically responsible for protection of foreign diplomatic missions and foreign diplomatic personnel?
MR. ERELI: That would be the Government of -- Iraq is a sovereign country and they're responsible for that issue.
QUESTION: Do you think it needs to be beefed up because your own -- one of your own combat commanders, General Martin Dempsey, in yesterday's Pentagon briefing -- he's responsible for training new Iraqi security forces. I'm quoting from his briefing, "It's just not appropriate yet to be thinking in terms of independent anything in Iraq. They are not independent at this point in time."
Do you think it needs to be beefed up somehow?
MR. ERELI: Well, I don't know if I --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
MR. ERELI: I don't know if I'd link the two -- these two cases. What Dempsey was referring to, which was, broadly speaking, the training of all of Iraq's security forces -- I mean, he said we're not there yet. Well, clearly, we're not there yet.
Daily Press Briefing
Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 28, 2006
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