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Ousted Honduran leader may meet US officials

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-01 10:28

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya are likely to meet US officials in Washington, though not with President Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, officials said Tuesday.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya addresses a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York June 30, 2009. [Agencies]

Zelaya said Monday he would visit Washington on Wednesday before returning to his country, following the coup that ousted him, and the White House and State Department expected him to meet State Department officials.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Zelaya was due in Washington to attend an emergency meeting of Organization of American States (OAS) foreign ministers scheduled for Tuesday.

"If he does come down to Washington, and we expect he will, the State Department officials plan to meet with him," Kelly told reporters.

The message that the Honduran leader will receive from US officials is that "we think that President Zelaya is the democratically elected constitutional president of Honduras and should be allowed to serve out the rest of his term."

But Kelly said Clinton was not scheduled to meet Zelaya - either at the OAS meeting or privately - even though Washington expressed strong public support for him to return to power.

Even though she has worked at the State Department in recent days, he said, Clinton needs to stay at home often in order to recover fully from a fractured elbow that she suffered June 17.

"I think you can imagine why she's working from home. She had a very serious break in her elbow, and she is recovering from that," he said.

"I mean, you saw her yesterday (Monday). She's energetic. She's fully engaged. But we need to make sure that she heals... and can get back to a full schedule where she can come in every day," he added.

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"You shouldn't read anything into that at all," Kelly said when pressed whether some hidden message was being sent.

"Part of her schedule was determined before we knew President Zelaya was coming down," he added.

A State Department official who asked not to be named said Zelaya was expected to meet Thomas Shannon, the outgoing assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs who is set to become the new ambassador to Brazil.

The meeting was not due to take place at the State Department, another official added.

The ousted president was snatched from the presidential palace by Honduran troops early Sunday and sent into exile in the first Central American coup in years.

Obama said on Monday that the coup was "not legal" and that Zelaya remained the president of Honduras.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed that Zelaya was likely to meet State Department officials but not Obama.

Kelly added that the US government is currently reviewing US economic aid to Honduras, but has not yet taken a decision.