Press Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest, 9/19/2014
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

12:41 P.M. EDT

MR. EARNEST: Good afternoon, everybody. At the beginning of today’s briefing -- you see that I’m joined today by the National Security Advisor to the President, Susan Rice. She is here to do two things. The first is to give you a little preview about the activities planned for the President’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly next week. After she presents -- sort of lays out what the President’s activities will look like, she will stick around and take a few questions. She does have to go to a meeting shortly, so she won’t be able to take a lot of questions, but she’ll take a few of them and then I will take whatever is left over.

So with that, Susan, you want to begin?

AMBASSADOR RICE: Good afternoon, everyone. Actually, what I want to do is say a few things about what has transpired over the course of the last week, and then preview the President’s trip to the UN General Assembly and then take a few questions.

So as you’ve seen over the course of the last week, the President has been very engaged in driving our progress on a number of national security priorities. Let me highlight a few of those areas and then I’ll get into the UNGA.

First, we continue to implement our strategy to go on the offensive against ISIL. We’re focusing on multiple lines of effort, including using our unique military capabilities to deny ISIL safe haven, and building the international coalition to support our efforts.

As you heard the President say last night, we’re very pleased with the bipartisan vote in Congress to give us the necessary authorities to train and equip the moderate Syrian opposition. And we’re grateful to both the House and the Senate for acting quickly on these authorities.

The reason this is so important is that our strategy entails using local forces to fight ISIL on the ground. Iraqi security forces have already taken the fight to ISIL, along with their Kurdish colleagues, with U.S. support. And obviously now we’ll be in a position to train and equip the Syrian opposition forces, which will have the ability to do the same inside of Syria.

To be clear, as we’ve said repeatedly, our strategy does not involve U.S. troops on the ground in a combat role in either Iraq or Syria. And no U.S. troops will be in Syria as part of the train-and-equip program. This program will be hosted outside of Syria, in partnership with neighboring countries.

At CENTCOM earlier this week, the President underscored the importance of building a broad coalition of nations to offer assistance in the comprehensive campaign to combat ISIL. To date, more than 40 countries have offered assistance, and we’re particularly pleased that France has joined us in conducting airstrikes in Iraq, and there are many other countries in the region and beyond offering other important assistance.

This afternoon, Secretary Kerry will be in New York to chair an important session of the United Nations Security Council on Iraq. And that session will underscore international support for the new inclusive government in Iraq, and it will galvanize and support our efforts to build this coalition to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.

This work of coalition-building is ongoing. It is something that all of the President’s senior advisors are actively involved in, and of course, the President himself. And this process will continue through next week at UNGA and beyond.

Another important element of the President’s agenda this week was our trip to the CDC in Atlanta, where the President outlined our intensified response to confronting the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. The President has made very clear that this is a national security priority. And while we assess that the Ebola epidemic does not pose a significant risk of spreading to the United States, it is nonetheless the largest epidemic of its sort in history, and the first such in West Africa.

And therefore, we have put in place a whole-of-government effort that will build on the measures that we began back in March when this first occurred. But the response now will leverage the unique capabilities of the United States military, as well as that of our AID and development community, and of course our health and disease control experts to bring this epidemic under control.

And then, of course, yesterday we welcomed President Poroshenko of Ukraine to the White House, and this was a very important opportunity for us to reaffirm the United States’ very strong support for Ukraine, its independence, its sovereignty, its territorial integrity, and its democratic transition and economic evolution.

Yesterday, we were able to announce an additional $53 million in assistance to Ukraine. That is primarily additional security systems of $46 million. I think that totals to assistance to Ukraine from the United States of about $290 million thus far this year.

Now, let me turn, if I may, to next week, which will be another intense foreign policy and national security week.

The President will travel to New York on Tuesday. His first engagement at the UN will be the Climate Summit, which is a meeting of world leaders convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The meeting will showcase climate action commitments from governments, local leaders and the private sector in an effort to build will and a new global climate change agreement in time for 2015, when the milestone summit will occur.

President Obama will speak at that summit and emphasize the ambitious actions that we’ve taken under his climate action plan to reduce carbon pollution at home, and he’ll also stress that all major economies need to step up to the plate if we’re to avoid the dangerous consequences of climate change.

The President will then attend the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, as he has in the past, where he’ll address how the administration, in partnership with other governments, non-governmental organizations and the philanthropic community is deepening its commitment to defend and strengthen civil society globally. This even will mark one year since the President launched the Stand With Civil Society Initiative last week at -- last year at the General Assembly. This was a groundbreaking effort to support, defend and sustain the work of civil society around the world amidst a rising tide of restrictions on its work.

On Wednesday morning, the President will deliver his annual address to the UN General Assembly, and later in the day, he will chair a landmark meeting of the United Nations Security Council, focused on the foreign terrorist fighter threat. This convening of world leaders is another element of our comprehensive response to the challenge posed by ISIL. And we expect during that U.N. Security Council session to be able to adopt a Chapter 7 resolution that will expand upon current obligations within international law, and underscore the centrality of countering violent extremism, which is a key part of the effort to suppress the foreign terrorist fighter threat.

This will be only the second time that an American President has chaired the United Nations Security Council. Some of you may recall that President Obama did it back in 2009. That was the first time, and that was a summit on nonproliferation. As in 2009, the United States has the rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of September, and thus, the ability to convene and chair such a summit.

Later the same day, the President will speak at the Open Government Partnership high-level event. You may recall, this is an initiative that the United States launched in 2011. It is co-hosted this year by Indonesian President Yudhoyono, who is, as you know, outgoing; and Mexican President Pe?a Nieto.

This is a very important initiative that was launched by the President, as I mentioned, with seven other founding members three years ago. And now, it has grown to some 64 countries, and we have generated commitments from countries around the world to more open, transparent and accountable governance, fighting corruption and energizing civic engagement.

The last day will be Thursday the 25th, and the President will then address a high-level meeting chaired by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the Ebola epidemic. And we will build on the momentum of the President’s announcement this week where he stepped up our commitment, and we expect this will be an occasion where other countries will announce additional commitments to the global fight against Ebola. And it will also be an opportunity for the U.N. to detail its plans to support the effort to meet unmet needs. And we expect commitments in the form of financial assistance, equipment, personnel, and efforts to construct treatment units.

Finally, while in New York, the President will, as he always does, have the opportunity to hold some bilateral meetings with other world leaders, and to participate in other functions such as his reception that he hosts every year for visiting heads of state, the Secretary-General’s annual luncheon, et cetera. And we’ll have more details about those engagements and the schedule in the coming days.

MR. EARNEST: All right. Jim, do you want to get us started?

Q Thank you, Ambassador Rice. Wanted to ask you about ISIL. The French say that, in full support of the mission, they’re willing to carry out airstrikes but only in Iraq. And I’m wondering whether you run -- as you build a coalition, whether you run the risk of creating a bifurcated coalition, one that is willing to carry out the fight against ISIL only in Iraq but not in Syria. And I’m wondering if you have any other more commitments to take the fight to Syria, as you have from Saudi Arabia, to conduct training there?

AMBASSADOR RICE: Jim, I don’t think we’re going to have a bifurcated coalition. This will be a unified coalition. It’s one operation. It will be under a common command. And we will continue to welcome the involvement of partners who will make different contributions based on their capacity, based on their varying political circumstances. But it will be unified, it will be cohesive, and it will be under one single command authority.

And so I’m quite encouraged that we will have a number of countries participate in various different ways. Already, Australia has indicated an active involvement; the British have been involved along with the French and the Australians and the Canadians in the humanitarian operation inside of Iraq. And we do anticipate that to the extent that action is necessary in Syria, that there will be other countries involved in this alongside the United States.

Q So the President told us last week that he had authorized airstrikes in Syria. What more needs to take place before that actually happens? Has he received recommendations from the Pentagon?

AMBASSADOR RICE: Well, I think we’ve been clear, and the President has outlined, that his strategy entails not only broadening the effort against ISIL in Iraq, and going on the offensive in support of Iraqi forces against ISIL in Iraq, but it will necessarily in all likelihood involve action in Syria. And he has said he is prepared to take that action.

I don’t think it would be appropriate or wise for me to telegraph from the podium exactly when that will occur and what steps may need to be taken before that is to occur.

Q But do you need to build a broader coalition, or is it -- what --

AMBASSADOR RICE: I think, as I said, I’m not going to give you any precision or prediction on when that might occur. Obviously, we are working every day to build the coalition that -- we’re making good progress in that regard. And there are other elements of the comprehensive approach that we’re pulling together that are important aspects of the overall strategy.

MR. EARNEST: Roger.

Q Thank you. On the UN Security Council resolution -- do you have agreement among the members now? Do you expect any trouble? And what does the resolution seek?

AMBASSADOR RICE: Well, the resolution -- first of all, I do expect that we will have a successful resolution, which means agreement among at least a majority of member states and no vetoes. But I expect, actually, it will be a resolution that we’re able to reach unanimity on, given the import of the issue.

In my experience, in New York, the resolutions are rarely concluded this far out in advance. I know the negotiations are going on, but I think they’re going comparatively well.

Such a resolution would build on the existing international legal architecture. You may recall UN Security Council Resolution 1373 that was passed not long after 9/11 that dealt in part with the challenge of the flow of foreign terrorists into combat zones. This will build on that. It will increase the obligations on states to try to prevent and deter the flow of foreign fighters. It will also place new emphasis on the challenge of countering violent extremism in one’s own domestic context, is an important part of the larger challenge.

So it will move the ball down the field in terms of the international legal architecture and obligations on states to try to combat this challenge.