Responding to questions at a press briefing, Williams said she had not seen the actual text of the President’s comments, but she said there would be no implications for this country. According to her, possible ramifications are “total speculation”. Asked whether the US is concerned that President Jagdeo made the comments while in Iran, she pointed out that US President Barack Obama has been making “overtures” for better relations with Tehran. She said while there has not been any real progress in relations and the US has concerns about the recent election violence in Iran, it is not going to go out and tell nations that they cannot visit other countries.
Last Thursday, Jagdeo accused the US of acting in its own interest around the world and of blocking a visit of regional leaders to the quake-devastated Haiti. “I was informed that a delegation comprised of Latin American leaders who were going to visit Haiti and contribute aid to that country faced the objection of the US government and could not make the humanitarian move,” he was quoted as saying by the Iranian News Agency (IRNA). A delegation of Caricom leaders, including Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit– the chairman of Caricom — was turned back twice by US officials manning the airport in Port-au-Prince. Jagdeo made the comments during the last day of his visit to Iran, while in a meeting with that country’s Vice-President Veep Rahimi.
Following the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti, its government decided to hand over control of the airport to the US — a decision criticised by Rahimi, who stated that the presence of US forces in Haiti was seriously affecting efforts by other countries to provide assistance to the country in its hour of need. According to IRNA, President Jagdeo referring to Rahimi’s comments stated: “I am agreed with the entire axis of your comments.”
Williams said it is “terribly frustrating” in such a massive crisis that not enough assistance is getting to all the persons in need but she emphasised that they have been doing as much as they can. “In a way, I guess, it is sort of a compliment to the United States that everyone thinks… that the moment a disaster happens that we ought to be able within a just a few hours to have complete relief efforts on the ground to help everyone. But the reality is it takes time,” she said.
She also noted that the Haitian government is running the country and while it is “terribly stressed” following the earthquake it is assisting in the coordinating of relief in collaboration with the UN. She said every morning the government has a meeting with UN and US officials and other principal partners to coordinate and prioritise assistance of the day.
According to Williams, the US presence in Haiti is purely humanitarian and it has made it clear that it is in a support role to the UN when it comes to security. “So most of our forces there are on direct relief efforts and in those terms I mean the soldiers on the ground are there passing out supplies. And they are also able to, if the UN requires of them or the government of Haiti requires it, to do more but the primarily role is on the relief side,” she said.
Williams said the US will do as much as it can and will continue to do more but there are going to be people who are not happy with that because they don’t want to see the United States playing a major role. “The most important thing is to help people and that’s what we will do,” she added.
She also made it clear that it is not only the US that is offering needed assistance to the Haitian people but many other countries such as the country’s neighbour the Dominican Republic, Cuba, which has allowed its air space to be used in the transport of aid, Venezuela, all Caricom nations, and Israel. “This has been a terrible, terrible tragedy but some of the international cooperation that is happening because of it is really, really encouraging to see,” she said.
