U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing
DPB # 80
Friday, June 8, 2001  12:45 P.M.
(On The Record Unless Otherwise Noted)

QUESTION:  What does the State Department think of the opinion issued
today in the US Court of Appeals in the case of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran?  And what effect will this have on your whole
designation process?
MR. BOUCHER:  Interesting question.  I'll have to find out.
QUESTION:  You haven't been told?  Oh, something went wrong, then.
MR. BOUCHER:  I'm sorry, I wasn't reading the Reuters wire this morning
and so I wasn't aware of the decision.
QUESTION:  (Inaudible.)
MR. BOUCHER:  Well, nice of them to pass on the word to me that there
were people interested in the topic.  I'll check on it.
QUESTION:  Anything you want to say about the election - in Iran?
MR. BOUCHER:  Any particular election?  President Bush congratulated
Prime Minister Blair.
QUESTION:  I just said in Iran.
MR. BOUCHER:  In Iran?  I'm sorry.
QUESTION:  Maybe you didn't hear that, but I said election in Iran.
MR. BOUCHER:  As you know, we don't comment or think the issue is who
gets elected, but whether the wishes of the Iranian people are respected
and whether real change is allowed to take place based on their wishes.
The turnout in large number seems to indicate that there is a great
desire for freedom, for openness, for the rule of law, for the better
lives for the Iranian people and their children.  It is our hope that
those voices will be heard and that the wishes of the voters will be
respected.
QUESTION:  Do you have anything to say about the fact that 90 percent or
so of the people who wanted to be candidates were not permitted to
certify their candidacy?
MR. BOUCHER:  At this point, I think we are going to stick to commenting
on the turnout and leave it at that.  We have had comments in the past
about the system there, and I think if you look in our Human Rights
Report you'll find some comments about it there.
QUESTION:  A follow-up?  Any possibility of easing sanctions against the
regime?
MR. BOUCHER:  I don't want to speculate on things like that.  At this
point, we're still concerned about the activities and the policies of
Iran in a number of areas.
QUESTION:  Well, does the Department have a position on the efforts on
the Hill to extend ILSA for five years?
MR. BOUCHER:  We have been in contact with the Hill.  We've had
consultations with Members of Congress about the Iran-Libya Sanctions
Act.  It is an important issue that is coming up, and we have been
talking about it with people on the Hill.  At this point, I don't think
I can go beyond that.
QUESTION:  Can you say whether you are seeking a shorter extension?
MR. BOUCHER:  I can't say anything in particular at this point because
we're still talking with members of Congress about comparing views with
them on how we should proceed.
QUESTION:  Are you actively campaigning against this extension at all?
MR. BOUCHER:  As I said, we're still talking to people, and I'll leave
it at that for the moment.
QUESTION:  You're a bit late.
MR. BOUCHER:  No, we're not a bit late.
QUESTION:  Have you spoken to Senator Schumer?
MR. BOUCHER:  I don't have a list of people we've spoken to.  We've been
in contact with a number of people and their staffs on the Hill.  We
know who is interested in the subject.  We obviously consider this to be
an important issue that involves a lot of our relationships in the
world, and we are talking to various people on the Hill about how we can
handle this.