Albright Appears on ABC's Good Morning America
INTERVIEW OF SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT
BY ABC
GOOD MORNING AMERICA
October 9, 2000
Washington, D.C.
Q: Joining us now from Washington, Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright. Madame Secretary, good morning.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Good morning.
Q: Will there, in fact, be a summit meeting including President
Clinton in an effort to stop the violence and restart the peace
process?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, we spent all day. Yesterday on the phone
looking for various ways to try to change the whole dynamic. What has
to happen is that they have to disengage. We have to try to see about
finding out the facts and get back to the peace track. There are a
number of ideas out there, and that it is one of them -- a Cairo
summit -- but there has been no final decision made.
Q: Does President Clinton believe that his physical presence could
perhaps alter the process here?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: President Clinton has played a unique role in the
Middle East generally, and has spent a lot of time on the details of
the peace process and has excellent relations with all those involved-
The question is, what can be done now to change the dynamic?
Q: I know that President Clinton has spoken over the weekend -- or at
least it's been reported that the President spoke over the weekend
with both leaders. What did he have to say to Yasser Arafat?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: The President has really been on the phone full
time. He has been working very hard to basically say that violence is
not the solution, they have to get back to the peace process, and that
it's important to realize that there is no military solution to this.
This has to be done politically, and we have to get them disengaged.
That has been his message.
He also talked to President Asad of Syria because of the concern about
the three Israeli soldiers that have been captured by Hezbollah and
the necessity to send them back. And so he has been involved in that,
also.
Q: You had an opportunity to meet with both leaders last week. After
talking with them, do you believe that they do indeed have the ability
to make any more concessions and yet still preserve their own
political support?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: We actually had a very good meeting of six hours
together where they were face to face, and they worked out a lot of
the security arrangements that are in place now. And as Morton Dean
reported, there is more calm. But it's not a matter of concessions.
It's a matter of both of them understanding that they can't have 100
percent of what they want and that there can't be a victor and a
loser; they both have to come out of this. I think they are capable of
it, but the cycle of violence has to be broken. The tragedy here is
that there's violence, there's a funeral, there's more violence, and
we have to break this downward spiral.
Q: You talk about breaking the cycle of violence. As we mentioned a
few moments earlier, the Prime Minister had issued an ultimatum saying
if the violence does not end by sunset today, he will take whatever
steps am necessary to protect the Israeli people. That certainly
suggests that there could be increased violence on behalf of the
Israelis in accordance with that.
Has the United States Government asked the Prime Minister to withhold
any additional action while these negotiations are taking place?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: We have been talking about the necessity of
disengaging and
of trying to use every kind of measure to get the security forces
talking to each other; and they have, been, and we're hoping very much
that they will be able to defuse this in some way. As you have
mentioned, or Morton Dean mentioned, it's quieter, and because it's a
High Holy Day for the Israelis there is calm on the streets in
Jerusalem. But the question here is where we go from here. We're going
to spend all day, obviously, in a full diplomatic press here. I have
been talking to various foreign ministers and Secretary General Kofi
Annan, and everybody is working very hard across the board to try to
defuse the situation as quickly as possible.
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