No Negotiations with the Journalists’ Kidnappers - PM Says

PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu refuted yesterday a previous statement of Mircea Geoana, president of the Social Democrat Party (opposition), who said that the kidnappers of the three Romanian journalists in Iraq asked for a certain amount of money and that the Romanian government entered the negotiations pledging a smaller amount.

Tariceanu said he was shocked to see Geoana’s statement, given the latter’s position as minister for foreign affairs in the previous SDP government.

"I expected (Geoana) to display more self-censorship given his former position as foreign minister and his current one, as head of a political party," said Tariceanu. "I have no data to support (Mr. Geoana’s) allegations, so I ask him to exercise more self-restraint with his future statements on such topic," said Tariceanu.

Geoana also explained his grounds for making previously the statement in question.
He said that he picked upon "speculations and intelligence which are roaming the region and the international media as well, and are part of the regular public communications strategy and pressure the kidnappers usually exert," Geoana said.
He added that there is nothing out of the ordinary his statement reported, since the pattern was common to other cases of kidnapping too.

Geoana also said that his statement followed the one made by President Traian Basescu, "who said that he was optimist regarding the fate of the Romanian journalists, hence I naturally inferred that there are positive elements in the negotiations with the kidnappers."

Geoana also said that his statement was supported by intelligence "from a specific source" and refused to elaborate which one. Geoana added that he did not inform the authorities on the intelligence he was in possession of, since the latter did not engage in any dialogue with the political parties.