State Dept. talking about the M113 APC in Syria by HA
Elizabeth Trudeau
Director, Press Office/Daily Press Briefing/Washington, DC
November 14, 2016
TRANSCRIPT:
2:01 p.m. EST
QUESTION: Okay. And then nearby, Syria – just – over the weekend you may have seen some photographs that appeared on Twitter and other social media that appeared to show some U.S. tanks being in a Hizballah parade in Homs. Do you know anything about that?
MS TRUDEAU: So I saw the social media report’s very grainy photographs. I have no information on it. I will note that we’re working with our interagency counterparts to find out more information and get some clarity on it.
QUESTION: Well, if – and I realize you will be able to dodge this by saying it’s a hypothetical, but it shouldn’t —
MS TRUDEAU: I love it when you set me up like that.
QUESTION: But it – well, but it shouldn’t really be a hypothetical. If it turns out that these were tanks that were sold to the Lebanese armed forces and then ended up in Hizballah’s hands, wouldn’t that be some kind – wouldn’t that violate some kind of U.S. law?
MS TRUDEAU: Well, Hizballah is a foreign terrorist organization, clearly.
QUESTION: Yeah. So wouldn’t it violate some kind of —
MS TRUDEAU: Why don’t I look for granularity, get some clarity on this? I don’t want to speak —
QUESTION: I’m not interested in – I mean, I am interested, but I think this is a question that can be answered without you knowing definitively whether these tanks —
MS TRUDEAU: Obviously, we would be gravely concerned if equipment ended up in the hands of Hizballah.
QUESTION: Equipment that you sold or gave to the Lebanese armed forces.
MS TRUDEAU: To whomever.
QUESTION: There is a precedent for this. It happened in the middle ‘70s. I mean, the Lebanese army basically broke up and everybody went to his own group, so to speak, or –
MS TRUDEAU: Again, what we’re looking at —
QUESTION: So it could —
MS TRUDEAU: — is sort of a Twitter feed with some grainy photos. As I said, we’re trying to look for clarity on this. As I have more information, either we can discount it or we have more, I’ll definitely come back.
QUESTION: How urgently are you looking into —
MS TRUDEAU: Very much.
QUESTION: Okay.
MS TRUDEAU: Lesley.
QUESTION: No.
MS TRUDEAU: Okay. Matt?
QUESTION: That’s it.
QUESTION: No, thank you.
MS TRUDEAU: Thanks, guys.
(The briefing was concluded at 2:23 p.m.)
Washington Probing if Hizbullah Used U.S.-Made Tanks in Qusayr Parade
Naharnet/November 15/16/The United States has announced that it has launched a probe to determine whether Hizbullah used U.S.-made tanks or armored vehicles in the “military parade” that it recently held in the Syrian border region of Qusayr.“I saw the social media report’s very grainy photographs… We’re working with our interagency counterparts to find out more information and get some clarity on it,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in response to a question during the daily press briefing. Asked whether it would be a violation of U.S. law “if it turns out that these were tanks that were sold to the Lebanese armed forces and then ended up in Hizbullah’s hands,” Trudeau said: “Hizbullah is a foreign terrorist organization, clearly.” “Obviously, we would be gravely concerned if equipment ended up in the hands of Hizbullah,” she added. Asked “how urgently” U.S. authorities were looking into the matter, Trudeau said: “Very much.”Later on Tuesday, the Lebanese army issued a statement clarifying that the vehicles “were not taken from the Lebanese army’s arsenal.”Pictures distributed on social networking websites showed hundreds of Hizbullah fighters taking part in the military parade alongside dozens of tanks, armored vehicles, howitzers and heavy-caliber machineguns. Pro-Hizbullah media outlets said the parade was held on November 11 to mark “Hizbullah’s Martyr Day”.
