QUESTION: Honduras.
MR. KELLY: Elise. Yes.
QUESTION: Can you talk about the review of U.S. aid to Honduras in the wake of the coup –President Zelaya?
MR. KELLY: Yeah. As we talked about yesterday, there is a provision in section – I think it’s 7008 of the foreign operation act that obliges us to make a legal assessment of the facts on the ground and whether or not the funds cut-off provision applies to these circumstances. And so there is this process that’s going on right now in our Office of the Legal Adviser.
QUESTION: Well, but there are also things that you don’t need to go through these kind of complicated provisions, like the Millennium Challenge Account or other – I mean, aren’t you also reviewing kind of what you can do, kind of quickly, without the kind of complicated foreign service --
MR. KELLY: Well, I think – because of the situation and the very dramatic nature of the events there and our profound concern about what’s going on there, I think we’re looking at a number of aspects of our cooperation. But what I was referring to is this very, very specific legal provision that applies.
QUESTION: Just --
MR. KELLY: Yeah, Charlie.
QUESTION: -- without being simplistic, and I understand there are legalities, but if you’ve got a president who’s been ousted, and you’ve got troops in charge, not constitutionally elected, I’m --
MR. KELLY: Well, yeah.
QUESTION: -- not quite sure what the complication is.
MR. KELLY: Well, okay. You heard what the Secretary said yesterday. She said that there is a coup.
QUESTION: Well --
MR. KELLY: The President said there’s a coup.
QUESTION: Right.
MR. KELLY: We do have some facts, of course, and the facts are that the constitutional order in Honduras has been overturned. But there’s also a – there’s a process that we need to follow, and that we are following now. And it’s a legal matter. And as you all know, when you – when a legal issue is involved, it’s good to consult your lawyers, so that’s what we’re doing.
Yeah, Sylvie.
QUESTION: President Zelaya was supposed to come here later today and to meet with a U.S. official. Is it somebody from this building, and who?
MR. KELLY: Well, as you know, President Zelaya has gone to New York. We understand that he’s gone to the UN. He’s been invited by the president of the UN General Assembly to address the General Assembly. I think that’s – I don’t know if that has started yet, but that was the plan.
In addition, we understand that he wants to come down to Washington and participate in the special General Assembly of the Organization of American States. If he does come down to Washington, and we expect he will, State Department officials plan to meet with him.
QUESTION: Who?
MR. KELLY: I’m sorry?
QUESTION: Who?
MR. KELLY: I can’t tell you right now who he’s going to meet with. But we’ll be able to tell you later.
QUESTION: Well, if he’s the president, that you’re legally recognizing him as the president of Honduras, and he was just thrown out on a coup, and you’re raising --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- all this support for him, why doesn’t President Obama or Secretary Clinton meet with him?
MR. KELLY: Well, for one thing, Secretary Clinton is not in the office. For another, I think you’ll have to address that to the White House. This is just something that came up today, and I understand that people from the State Department will meet with him today.
QUESTION: Can you tell us, I mean, what your message to him would be when you meet him? He’s expressed some desire to return to Honduras on Thursday.
MR. KELLY: Well, I think our message is going to be the same message that we’ve said publicly, that Secretary Clinton said yesterday and President Obama has said – that we think that President Zelaya is the democratically elected constitutional president of Honduras and should be allowed to serve out the rest of his term. And we’re working very closely through the mechanism of the Organization of American States, and we think that what happened in Honduras was inconsistent with the principles of the Inter-American charter, and that we need to work this multilaterally.
At the same time, there are fast-moving events up at the UN, too.
And so I think this is an opportunity to show our support for the presidentially – I mean, democratically elected president of Honduras, and also talk to him about how we’ve been coordinating with our allies, and part of that is in the OAS.
QUESTION: Do you think it’s a good idea for him to return on Thursday like he wants to?
MR. KELLY: I’m not going to – I’m just – I think it’s a good idea for him to be reinstated as the president of Honduras.
QUESTION: Will the U.S. be willing to provide any security for him if he returns to Honduras on Thursday?
MR. KELLY: That’s just not a question I’m prepared to answer, actually.
Yeah, Jill.
QUESTION: Yeah, Ian, just getting back – I hate to be kind of asking another legal question.
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: But just – you say constitutional – you do have the facts. The constitutional order has been overturned.
MR. KELLY: Right.
QUESTION: Okay. So is that the trigger? Is that enough to cut aid? Because then you said there’s a legal process to follow.
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: In other words, have you defined – is that the trigger we have – you know, overthrow the constitutional order, therefore we have the right to cut the aid?
MR. KELLY: Well, we – like I say, there’s a process. We want to make sure that the newly confirmed Legal Adviser of the State Department Harold Koh and his team has a chance to make a determination on this.
QUESTION: Okay. So --
MR. KELLY: So that’s what’s happening right now.
QUESTION: Okay. So that’s not enough to stop the aid? The overturning of the constitutional order is not legally enough for you to stop that aid?
MR. KELLY: We need to have our legal experts look at the law, look at the facts on the ground, and make a determination.
QUESTION: And how long is that going to take?
MR. KELLY: Oh, it won’t take long. I can’t tell you exactly how long it’ll take, but I would expect it wouldn’t take very long.
…
QUESTION: Ian, why is the Secretary working at home today?
MR. KELLY: I’m sorry?
QUESTION: Why is the Secretary working at home today?
MR. KELLY: Well, I think you can imagine why she’s working from home. She had a very serious break in her elbow, and she is – she’s recovering from that. I mean, you saw her yesterday. She’s energetic, she’s fully engaged, but we need to make sure that she heals and then can get back to a full schedule where she can come in every day.
QUESTION: Okay. We saw her yesterday and she did look good. That’s why I was just struck by the fact that she was back home today.
MR. KELLY: Yeah, well, she’s a little – she’s in some pain.
QUESTION: But we shouldn’t read anything into the fact that she is home and President Zelaya may be coming down here?
MR. KELLY: No, no, no, you shouldn’t read anything into that at all. I mean, that – I mean, we announced that – that part of her schedule was determined before we knew President Zelaya was coming down.
…
QUESTION: Ian, just to go back to something that you spoke about earlier. You said that the Legal Adviser’s Office is now formally looking at the question of whether there should be a legal determination on whether a military coup has occurred in Honduras.
MR. KELLY: Right.
QUESTION: One, yesterday, Secretary Clinton told us that you were withholding that determination for now and not --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: You know, she didn’t say that you had --
MR. KELLY: (Inaudible) withholding.
QUESTION: -- (inaudible) the process, but you know, holding on --
MR. KELLY: She was – okay. Finish your question?
QUESTION: I think it was withholding. Yeah. And –
QUESTION: She said --
QUESTION: Yeah, and so my question is does the fact that you’ve begun the process mean that you are no longer withholding that, that you may actually come to a quick decision on this? As you suggested – you were just now – you said you didn’t think it would take very long.
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: So – because it – my understanding from yesterday was you were holding off on that determination, partly to give time for diplomacy to work.
MR. KELLY: Mm-hmm, yeah.
QUESTION: I’m trying to understand if the fact that L is now reviewing this --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- implies that you’re not withholding --
MR. KELLY: Right. Yesterday, we weren’t prepared to make a public determination that the – that this clause in the law applied. And as I said earlier, I spoke to our Office of Legal Adviser, and they’ve said we’ve got our analysis ongoing of this. So I would imagine that once we’ve made that determination, we’ll make the announcement.
QUESTION: But you’re already reviewing other areas that don’t fall into this specific clause on aid.
MR. KELLY: Yeah. We’re reviewing all of our assistance.
…
QUESTION: Can I move you to Honduras a minute?
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: To Latin America?
MR. KELLY: Okay.
QUESTION: Brazil has decided to remove the ambassador in Honduras. I want to know what information do you have from the U.S. Embassy in Honduras at this moment. Is there any plan of any ambassador removal if the situation deepens or there is any bad news there continuing?
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: And also, today, there is a special extraordinary session in the American Organization States.
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: And I spoke with some of the ambassadors, and all the foreign ministers of Latin America are coming. I want to know who is representing the U.S. in the meeting.
MR. KELLY: Yeah. That’s correct. There is going to be a – as I said before, a special session of the General Assembly of the OAS. It’s going to be later on this afternoon. We’ll get you information on who will represent us at this meeting.
As far as the Embassy’s involvement, we – our ambassador there, Ambassador Llorens, remains in place. We’re concerned about the situation on the ground there, so we’ve issued a Warden Message and Travel Alert – I believe that was yesterday – advising American citizens to defer nonessential travel to Honduras until further notice.
The Embassy is open today only for emergency services, and so there are no visa services available. But as far as decisions on Ambassador Llorens, he remains in place.
QUESTION: What about nonessential personnel?
MR. KELLY: There – I don’t believe that there’s any plans now to remove nonessential personnel.
QUESTION: But the Secretary --
MR. KELLY: Of course, we’re evaluating the situation daily.
QUESTION: The Secretary’s not going to attend the OAS?
MR. KELLY: I don’t believe so.
