Albright on Mideast Peace Process
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman (Aboard the Secretary's Airplane)
For Immediate Release
October 18, 2000
Press Briefing by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright Aboard
Plane En Route Washington, D.C. from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
October 18, 2000
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: (in progress)...happening in the Middle East,
which we're still flying over. What has happened is that both sides
have issued statements as a result of Sharm and the Israelis have in
fact begun to redeploy. They have opened up Rafah and Allenby, that is
the international closure that has been changed, as well as beginning
to do some on the internal closure. So I think we're beginning to see
some of the results of Sharm. As I said yesterday basically we
provided the vehicle for movement and now we have to watch very
carefully what are these beginning steps. Again, I think that we have
to look at it a step at a time and be relatively encouraged by what
has just happened. Again, given the violence that was taking place
over night, I think we just have to keep watching it very carefully.
Q: The initial steps taken after Paris by the two sides too to pull
back some forces and of course it unraveled again, is there anything
different about the steps that you've seen today that ...
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT:...and I don't want to overstate this, but I think
partially the fact that these statements were made, as I understand it
mutually accepted, and the fact that the Israelis have begun these
steps I think is important. But again for me you're going to hear over
the next few days basically a very sober assessment of what is
happening and not in anyway trying to underestimate or overestimate.
So we're just going to keep you informed. Dennis may have a few more
details that he can give you but that's generally where we are.
Q: What about the Palestinians? Have they done anything yet?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: They have issued their statement.
Q: Have you seen anything on the ground yet?
AMBASSADOR ROSS: They've had security meetings together. I think that
what you're probably seeing is a reflection of the kind of parallel
movement.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Now in order to just switch subjects here and give
you another topper -- we're leaving for North Korea on Sunday. We'll
have meetings in Pyongyang Monday and Tuesday. I've had confirmation
of my meeting with Kim Jong Il. On Wednesday we will go to Seoul, meet
there and then have a trilateral there with the Japanese.
Q: Will you go to Tokyo?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Not as we're currently configured because I think
part of it was to try to do the trilateral coordination.
Q: You'll miss the Arab League Summit that way.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Oh my.
(laughter)
Q: Madame Secretary can you tell us what your reaction was to your
conversation with President Bashar Assad?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: First of all I'm very glad that I had this chance
to meet with him in Riyadh because as you know my only previous
meeting had been 10 or 15 minutes at his father's funeral. I think it
was a very interesting meeting. We covered a lot of different subjects
that somehow fall under the purview of what's going on in the region.
I expressed my concern about how what was happening between the
Israelis and Palestinians would affect the region and he also was
concerned about the region itself as well as the events that we've
been talking about at Sharm. I gave him a briefing of what had
happened at Sharm. We talked about the Hezbollah and what their
activities were and his descriptions of them as a social force that
was growing. I found him very interesting. He talked about the
importance of the street generally now in the Arab world. He
understands English so that we were only translating one way and he
wanted to speak in Arabic but made a point always of making sure that
exactly the right word was used. He's a modern person. It's quite
interesting. As we were talking about something to do with the whole
regional issue and he said you've got to make sure that you are not
using -- that you have to think about things in new ways -- you have
to make sure you're not using IBM software in an Apple computer. I
think that in terms of talking to him as a new generation I felt that
he was in fact looking at things in a different way. But again we'll
have to see.
Q: Do you get the impression that Bashar could be in some ways a
facilitator of the peace process in a way that Mubarak and King
Abdullah have been? Do you think he's ready for that kind of role?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I think that's hard to assess and I don't think
it's fair on the basis of this one conversation. But I do think that
he has interesting views and seems to be looking at things in a
relatively open way. But I think it's hard to say. I did enjoy my
conversation with him and it was fairly wide-ranging, not rhetorical
and structured.
Q: Did you ask for his help on the kidnappings? What did he say?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: We did talk about that and the importance of
getting that resolved. He took it on board. I can't say that there was
more than that.
Q: on board?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, he understood that it was important.
Q: Did he say that he could do anything to help?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: That was not the impression I got.
Q: It's kind of out of his hands.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I think that he was talking more about that we
have to have -- I can't say that I got a firm yes in terms of what he
would do.
Q: ...using his influence on Hezbollah...
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: All I can say is he took it on board. He
understood what I was saying without really responding.
Q: How about calming the waters in general and stopping the radio
broadcasts that might be inciting?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Let me just say it was a different kind of a
conversation than one would normally have where I had a set of talking
points that you've got to do "x" and this and this and this. I
certainly did my share of that. I was more interested in kind of
drawing him out. I did talk about what I felt -- and it goes to your
question some time ago, Barry, when you asked me whether Arafat had
done enough to condition his people. Your question I think sparked a
lot in my own thinking -- and I said to him that I thought that the
problem had been that Barak had really done a lot. He had been elected
on a peace plank, and that he had done a lot to condition his people.
But I had a sense that there had not been enough conditioning done and
that there was a disconnect in terms of what was necessary. That's
when we started talking about the street and the fact that there is
huge discontent in terms of what the people feel about the benefits of
peace to them and why they are out there complaining. To that extent
we did talk about incitement.
Q: Did he use the word the street?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Yes.
Q: Can we go back to North Korea for a second. There's been some
criticism about the fact you're going with the intention of trying to
set up a trip for the President. You don't accept that criticism I
take it. What else are you trying to do besides do that?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: First of all I think that we definitely are
probing to see whether the openings that Kim Dae Jung, for which he
got a much deserved Nobel Prize, the extent to which it allows for us
looking at a different set of relationships with North Korea, but
based on our own national interests. To follow-up the discussions that
I had with Vice Marshall Joe and that Chuck Kartman has been having
and Ambassador Sherman has been having on missile moratorium and the
Agreed Framework and generally to make sure that those interests are
met along with having a chance to see the extent to which they want to
break out of their isolation.
Q: On the Sharm event, how do you feel about the somewhat crabby view
that is found in some of our leading newspapers that because they
didn't have a news conference, because it wasn't written down, that
somehow this is a shaky, not very significant accord that the
President worked out?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: First of all, I think that everybody needs to know
that this is a very difficult time and that the point of doing Sharm
was to try to break the cycle of violence and to get some positive
steps on the ground to make it happen. I think that the President did
a remarkable job given the atmosphere and the difficulties of it. I
have to tell you after four years of this that it's not the signed
agreements or the handshakes that make the difference. What makes the
difference is what happens on the ground. Sometimes you can put too
much stock in something signed and sometimes you don't put enough
stock in something agreed to. We'll have to see. In all cases it's
really a matter of seeing what's happening on the ground. These first
steps, I don't want to go over the top here, but basically they're
positive. We just have to see how they are carried out further, what
the reaction is and how you break this very raw atmosphere, which I
clearly felt even in a room in a resort in Sharm el-Sheikh, is very
much evident between these two parties. I think we have to take it a
step at a time. The proof will be on a day-to-day basis and whether
something signed or what the President did, the bridging, in a very
intensive way, in his own special method, and I think that we'll see.
Q: Were you working at one point on a formal agreement, a cease fire
and at what point did it become something of a statement?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: No. You all have written and others have written
that this was hastily arranged, and it was. I mean you do what you can
with what you've got. And something had to be done. There was not a
lot of time for diplomatic preparations because we might still be
doing that. As much as I love formal diplomacy sometimes it's not what
is called for. What happened was that there was some original
discussion about the agenda. We had these three objectives which were
to elaborate on the structures that I had set up in Paris and work out
the various security aspects of that, and obviously George Tenet had a
leading role in that, and then to try to get the fact finding business
worked out and then to get a road back to the peace talks. And I think
we accomplished all three. Now when we talked about that as an agenda,
the agenda itself began to kind of grow not so much in the numbers of
things but in the way they were stated. And the UN was trying to be
helpful in trying to consolidate the various agenda ideas. When we had
the foreign ministers meeting we began to talk about that. I am the
first one to say there are certain issues that certain foreign
ministers -- we have a limited ability to do things at certain times
and when the leaders decide that they're going to put their shoulder
to the wheel and the leader is Bill Clinton, I think it's important
for foreign ministers to step back and let the leaders.
Q: Madame Secretary, can I ask you about your meeting last night or
this morning with Crown Prince Abdullah. We were told that he talked
about people-to-people contacts between Jews and Muslims which seemed
to me to be a rather remarkable thing for a government that used to be
handing out the protocols of the elders of Zion. How did you take this
and what do you think he had in mind?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: He's really quite a remarkable leader who is
operating within the context of a new Middle East and he does believe
very much in people-to-people contacts and in trying to move the
process forward in his own way. I found my discussions with him also
always very productive and I thought he was in a productive mood. What
he talked about was how the anger of the people over what was
happening in Israel and the Palestinian regions had been channeled in
Saudi by charitable works which he had encouraged. Apparently people
came forward with all kinds of donations, their jewelry, various
family items and he talked about the fact that certain people had even
given the deeds to their houses as part of this to channel the
frustration into the useful contribution of charity.
Q: Part of your purpose I gather with this visit has been to try and
ensure as moderate an outcome as possible at the Arab Summit. Is it
your feeling after the discussions that you've had that that is the
likely outcome of the Summit or are you worried that the Summit could
actually contribute to a sharpening of tensions.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I think that all those with whom I spoke are aware
of the importance of the Summit in terms of trying to segue from what
happened at Sharm I don't know whether that will happen. There are a
lot of different elements involved. I think that there is a sense
among some of the Arab leaders with whom I spoke that it's important
to have it be a productive useful Summit from the perspective of not
making the situation in the region more complicated. I have to tell
you I think it's very hard to tell and I hope very much that it's not
a Summit that makes the situation even more complicated. It can in
fact be helpful. It can.
Q: What do you mean by making it more complicated in terms of what the
Summit could produce?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: One of the things that we were trying to do is to
change the atmosphere to support more of a measured approach so as not
to have statements that create additional problems which is one reason
frankly that we don't want the resolution in New York that's being
talked about. I just spoke with Ambassador Holbrooke who gave me an
update of what is happening there. I don't think it's productive. The
bottom line here is we're past rhetorical statements. What everybody
has to look for is facts on the ground that move the process forward
and not kind of a way to please themselves by making statements that
are not helpful. This is truly, I think at the various times that
we've spent together, this is a very serious time, very serious and
none of us are trying to paint anything rosy or have illusions. This
is very serious and I think that people have to be very careful about
what they say, very careful.
Q: Do you hope for a resumption of negotiations?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I don't know. What's going to happen is they will
come to Washington within the next couple of weeks, the negotiators,
not to negotiate but to talk about how to get the process back.
Q: Can you get into the long-term issue about the Oslo process and
that there might be some defects in its construction and how you might
want to repair those?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I have to tell you I think that were it not for
the Oslo process we would have been at a much more dangerous stage
much earlier. It continues to provide the right approach. I think for
people to be saying, "it was a mistake," or that Camp David was a
mistake is not, I think, being fully aware of what we have done here
and how the important part is to get them talking and there has been
progress. To answer your question, I think the Oslo process is the
best process that exists in a very difficult situation.
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