













Minister’s Office: 02 6277 7500 or 0434 664 589                                       Department: 02 6261 1555





MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP

TRANSCRIPT OF DOORSTOP WITH AL ARABIYA ARABIC

BAHRAIN

4 DECEMBER 2010





Subjects: Manama dialogue; Iran’s nuclear program; WikiLeaks





E & O E - PROOF ONLY

REPORTER:  First of all, what’s your opinion about the Manama dialogue?

MR RUDD:  It’s always better to talk than not to talk. Therefore, the opportunity to sit down  with our friends from across the region and across the world on the big challenges of the  Gulf and more broadly the Middle East is good, including the opportunity to sit down and  discuss things with the Iranians.  So this has been a good thing, and I think the fact that we  have a well established dialogue in Manama is better than what we had before, which was  no second track dialogue of this nature.  Full marks to the IISS for doing it.

REPORTER:  [translation] There are people who say that there are connections between Al  Qaeda and Iran.  What do you say to that?

MR RUDD:  Well, there’s always going to be conflicting analyses of these sorts of questions.   I think all states here in the immediate region would condemn terrorism, and condemn all  sources of terrorism, Al Qaeda or institutions associated with Al Qaeda.  I think the key  challenge is for all states to cooperate on the real challenges of security.  With the Iranians,



Minister’s Office: 02 6277 7500 or 0434 664 589                                       Department: 02 6261 1555

2



our big challenge of course, is their nuclear program. That is where we must focus our  negotiations.  The P5+1 is about to meet.  I’ll be myself sitting down to have discussions with  the Iranian Foreign Minister later today.  Let’s take this one step at a time.  Terrorism,  however, has not gone away.  It remains, it’s a challenge for us all, and we must continue to  have all of our security forces working together on this common challenge.

REPORTER:  [translation]  Do you seriously think that the Iranian nuclear program is a threat  to the Gulf region?

MR RUDD:  I believe that when Iran is in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and  Iran is in violation of its own obligations under the NPT and the International Atomic Energy  Agency, then Iran represents a security problem for all of us - and not just the Gulf.   Therefore we encourage our friends in Iran to draw on the great strengths of their  civilisation and their culture and their wisdom and their learning to look at new ways of real  cooperation with the region, and the international community.  I think the Americans in the  last few days through Secretary of State Clinton have held out a hand again to the Iranians.   It’s important that the Iranians take that hand, and do something new and different when  they meet as P5+1.

REPORTER: [translation] Who do you think has profited from what’s happened with  WikiLeaks?

MR RUDD:  I don’t believe anyone has profited from what has happened with the  unauthorised release of classified information.  You see diplomacy is necessary.  Diplomacy  is done in secret because diplomacy seeks to solve problems for which there are no other  public solutions.  Therefore what is at stake here is the essence of how we deal with  international problems;  the machinery through which we deal with international problems  - the mechanism through which we deal with international problems, in the language in  which we deal with international problems.  And when this is all put into the public domain,  it’s a problem for all of us to combine our efforts to deal with some of our fundamental  challenges.  Therefore we in Australia condemn the release of this material.  It helps  nobody.  In fact it is a real problem for us all.

REPORTER:  Thank you very much.

END



