MR. CROWLEY: Good afternoon. Sorry for the unusual schedule today, but Rich Verma and I were hosting the Senate Youth Conference up in the Ben Franklin Room.
To begin, you’ll see a statement this afternoon coming out shortly. Today marks the third – the three-year anniversary of the disappearance of U.S. citizen Robert Levinson, who went missing in Iran during a business trip to Kish Island in 2007. Mr. Levinson will remain a priority for the United States until he is reunited with his family. The United States also calls on Iran to resolve the cases of the five American citizens who are unjustly detained in Iran: Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, Kian Tajbakhsh, and Reza Taghavi. But we – there’s – in the statement, there is – anyone who has information on Mr. Levinson to contact the State Department or the Levinson family via their website,www.helpboblevinson.com.
The Secretary, after the bilateral this morning with President Preval, had a lunch with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to talk about global economic issues and how they can influence different foreign policy aspects that we here at the State Department are working on.
Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell has arrived in Kuala Lumpur and he will meet with senior Malaysian Government officials and hold a town hall meeting with American Embassy staff members on March 10th, tomorrow. Then he will move on to Vientiane, where he will meet with senior Lao Government officials and attend the U.S.-Lao Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue and also meet with representatives of the Mekong River Commission.
And Scott Gration is currently in Nairobi, where he’s attending the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, Summit on Sudan. Yesterday, he had meetings with the Sudan Troika – Troy --
QUESTION: Troika.
MR. CROWLEY: Troika, thank you.
QUESTION: It’s also, I think, P.J., it’s “IGAD.”
MR. CROWLEY: IGAD, IGAD. Comprised of Norway, the UK, and the United States – and met with the President of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir. He – today, he’s also meeting with Sudanese Second Vice President Ali Osman Taha.
I want to clarify the U.S. position regarding Libya. We are strongly committed to the bilateral U.S.-Libyan relationship, and Secretary Clinton has asked Assistant Secretary Jeff Feltman to travel to Tripoli next week for a series of bilateral consultations
