MS NAUERT: Just one announcement to start today. Sometimes we have many, just one today. It’s summertime; you would think it would be slow, but it has been pretty busy here.

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QUESTION: Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi has said that Iraq will continue trading with Iran, but it won’t use the dollar. What is your response to that?

MS NAUERT: Yeah, I mean, we’ve certainly seen that report. That’s something that was just brought to my attention a short while ago. Overall I can tell you we continue our efforts by the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to resolve the issues between the government and Baghdad. You know our concerns about Iran and about trading with Iran, and we will continue to hold countries accountable for any violation of sanctions.

QUESTION: But is his statement acceptable to you?

MS NAUERT: Laurie, you know – we’ve been here long enough together – that we don’t comment on every foreign leader’s comments that a foreign leader will make.

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QUESTION: Hi. Probably you have seen or heard that the – that Iran’s spiritual/revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said that there won’t be any talking with the U.S., or in general he has forbidden talking with the United States. Given that the administration has expressed openness to discussions on all the subjects, would you consider this Iran’s response to that proposition?

MS NAUERT: Would we consider that to be Iran’s response? I mean, we certainly heard the response. The United States remains hopeful that the people of Saudi Arabia will continue to make their viewpoints very well known.

QUESTION: Iran.

QUESTION: Iran.

MS NAUERT: Excuse me, sorry. Thank you.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) the people of Saudi Arabia should not continue to --

MS NAUERT: Pardon me. Okay, going on autopilot there. Thank you for that correction very much. My apologies.

Look, we saw the – we heard the statement, we saw the statement, and it’s just something where we’re not going to respond to something that every government official from around the world has to say.

QUESTION: Well, this is --

MS NAUERT: I think we’ve been very clear in terms of our policy regarding Iran and our concerns and our continued concerns about Iran’s bad behavior around the world. We are not the only nation to have seen that, witnessed that, who have been hurt by it, many other countries as well. And we remain firm in our policy of standing up against Iran, against its malign activities.

QUESTION: Is there going to be a deadline for a response from Iran?

MS NAUERT: Look, I’m not putting out any kinds of deadlines or anything. I think we’ve been very clear about our policies.

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