[Excerpted]

QUESTION: Yeah. So yesterday you expressed concern for the results of the vote in Gabon. Since you expressed concern, the parliament has burned down, there’s been 1,000 arrests, opposition headquarters has been raided, and Ban Ki-moon has called for the release of political prisoners. Have you any update from the U.S. position? And are U.S. citizens in Libreville safe?

MR KIRBY: Well, we’ve issued – as you might expect, our embassy in Libreville sent a security message out today to inform U.S. citizens of the widespread violent demonstrations throughout Gabon in the aftermath of the presidential election. The embassy urges Americans there to remain at home and off the streets. I don't have any information specifically about the welfare of individual Americans. Obviously --

QUESTION: Have you been in touch with --

MR KIRBY: Hmm?

QUESTION: Have you been in touch with the government or the electoral commission about the provisional results? I noticed in your statement yesterday you called for more transparency and polling-station-by-polling-station results. Obviously, you haven’t received that. Are there any --

MR KIRBY: We are certainly in touch with the Government of Gabon in the wake of the election. And I do want to stress that we deplore the escalation of violence following the release of those results. It’s provisional election results by the government. We urge all parties to come together peacefully in this critical time to halt a slide towards further unrest. We call upon the security forces to respect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all Gabonese citizens and of all residents of Gabon. The international community is watching these events closely and will consider appropriate actions going forward.

QUESTION: And the UN specifically asked for the release of some of the prisoners. Is that something the U.S. associates itself with yet?

MR KIRBY: I don't have – I don't think we have a position on necessarily that. Obviously we don’t want to see – we’ve been very clear, we don’t want to see anybody illegally or unjustifiably detained. But I’m not familiar with this particular call.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR KIRBY: But clearly we would want the release of anybody who is being illegally detained or jailed for freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, being part of a political discourse.

QUESTION: North Korea?

QUESTION: John, more on Gabon?

QUESTION: On Turkey?

MR KIRBY: More on Gabon. Let me stay on Gabon, and then we’ll come around.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Right. Does the United States agree with France or – and EU by calling on the results of election of all polling districts should be announced before an official winner is declared? And then will the United States ask for a recount of the ballots?

MR KIRBY: So what I – as I understand it, no permanent results have been declared. What was released yesterday were provisional results that still need to be certified by the constitutional court. And as I said I think to Dave’s answer, we are encouraging the Government of Gabon to release the individual polling station results. We are asking that the legal procedures for certification of the results be followed according to Gabonese law in a fair and transparent manner.

QUESTION: But does it mean that a recount will be asked?

MR KIRBY: What we are asking for is that the legal procedures for certification be followed according to Gabonese law.

QUESTION: Given the close cooperation between the United States and Gabon, because it’s a – in the effort to fight against terrorism, how will this election affect future cooperation?

MR KIRBY: I think it’s too soon to say. We’re obviously closely watching this situation unfold. We’ve made our concerns known. We’ll continue to do that. But I’m not going to get ahead of any decisions on bilateral cooperation one way or the other.