State Department Noon Briefing, Friday, October 19
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2000 12:50 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
Q: Events in the Middle East. How does this building see what's going
on as the agreement begins to take shape or not take shape, depending
on --
MR. BOUCHER: Okay, let me go back a little bit. As the Secretary
pointed out to those of us on the airplane, both sides have issued the
statements that were called for in Sharm el Sheikh calling for an end
to the violence. Israel has opened the Gaza airport and international
passages, including at Rafah and Alanby. Israel has also announced
that it will lift the internal closure in the West Bank. Security
contacts between the two sides have also resumed, and there have been
meetings with security officials.
At the same time, I think we need to make clear, as we have before,
implementation is what matters. Calming the situation is what
mattered; an end to the violence and end to the harm and the wounded
and the killing is what really matters. So we have no illusions about
how difficult this is going to be. We are pleased to see that the two
sides are taking steps in parallel to implement their commitments at
Sharm el Sheikh, and we do have hope that because the leaders have
made these commitments and are starting to show themselves that they
intend to fulfill them. But we will continue to follow the situation
very, very closely, and obviously to play our part in security
committees and other steps where we can help.
Q: Mr. Ben Ami accused the Palestinians of violating the deal already
by failing to disarm Fatah militiamen, and the Israelis used
helicopter gun ships. Do you consider either of these actions or
inactions to be violations of the agreement reached at Sharm el
Sheikh?
MR. BOUCHER: I think we have declined thus far to go through in all
its specific detail the kinds of security steps that we expected the
sides to take, either by commitment to each other or based on
understandings reached with us. So I can't get into sort of making a
checklist or giving grades on specific steps. I do think it is
important that all sides, that both sides, continue to take these
steps and that their security people continue to discuss them and work
out any differences that they may have over the kinds of steps and the
way the steps are being taken.
Q: Yes. When you said commitments to themselves, you're talking about
the commitments made in Paris, right, not the ones - because there
were no commitments made to each other at Sharm, right?
MR. BOUCHER: Well, there were commitments made in group meetings, and
then there were commitments made in bilateral meetings, I think is the
way to explain it.
Q: Yes, but when you talk about the commitments, mutual commitments
that the Palestinians and Israelis have made to themselves --
MR. BOUCHER: Let me do it this way. The President, in his statement --
yes, there were commitments made in Paris, first of all. Second of
all, the President, in his statement, outlined the steps that the
parties were committed to taking, right? And those are well known to
all of us. And so, in addition, we have not provided further details
on the kinds of steps the parties might take, but there are
understandings about other things that they could do that would help
the situation, and we expect to see implementation.
....
Q: Things didn't go so well for the US and Israeli position yesterday
at the United Nations, and apparently the Secretary General asked them
to discontinue this Middle East dialogue until he can come back and
address the General Assembly on Friday. Has the Secretary spoken to
him, asked him to do something on Friday that would head off another
resolution that would not be to the US liking, or what's your effort
on that front?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think the Secretary has spoken to him for a day
or two at least since Sharm, since Sharm el Sheikh. Let me sort of
give you our basic - tell you our basic position on this. I think it
is probably well known to you all.
But at the meeting yesterday at the General Assembly, the
representatives of Israel and the Palestinian Authority outlined their
positions on the violence in the occupied territories. The session
will continue later this week when the Secretary General is expected
to brief the General Assembly on the events at Sharm el Sheikh.
We do not support this session. We believe it is counter-productive.
We believe the priority now should be on the implementation of the
understandings that were reached at Sharm el Sheikh, and we believe
these understandings form the best basis for progress. They have been
endorsed by the parties, by President Clinton, by the UN Secretary
General, by the Egyptians, by the Jordanians. And we really think that
that constitutes the best hope for progress, and we don't think the
session in New York can help; we think, in fact, it is
counter-productive.
Q: There was a transcript from the plane yesterday. I don't know if it
was on background on what. So a senior official said, traveling back
from Saudi Arabia yesterday, that rhetoric is not important now; what
is important is on the ground. Is that a way for the State Department
to say that what happens at the UN doesn't matter, because it's just
rhetoric?
MR. BOUCHER: I think we go a little bit beyond that. The Secretary
spoke to reporters on the airplane and talked a little bit about
various events that were going on, and said that what is really
important, as I just said, is implementation, and that rhetoric and
some of these other events could in fact be counter-productive. We
certainly think that this discussion of the type being held at the
General Assembly would be counter-productive, and we really think the
emphasis needs to be the agreements that were reached at Sharm el
Sheikh by the parties with the support and the effort of the
international community that was represented there.
Q: Speaking of these events, is one of those events that you're
referring to the upcoming Arab Summit over the weekend, and are you --
is the US concerned that this might end with a lot of anti-Israeli
rhetoric that might aggravate the situation over there?
MR. BOUCHER: I think the way to put it is that - first of all, we
would note again the substantial international or regional
representation at the Sharm el Sheikh meetings. The President and
Secretary Albright, I think, made particular note of the roles that
President Mubarak, Jordanian King Abdullah, had played for their work
on behalf of peace. Their efforts, both publicly and behind the
scenes, were invaluable. Secretary General Kofi Annan was there and
made special efforts there. So there were a lot of people involved in
helping this out.
We have been in continuous contact with regional leaders on the
situation in the peace process. We have found broad agreement that
both sides must do everything they can to cease violence, restore
calm, find a way back to the negotiating table. So we would believe
that the other Arab leaders who are meeting would understand the
sensitivity of the current situation and of the commitments made at
Sharm el Sheikh.
At this critical juncture, we would expect that Arab leaders will make
every effort to make a constructive and positive contribution to the
successful implementation of the Sharm el Sheikh understandings and to
the eventual restoration of negotiations. So that is what we would
hope they would do at the meeting. And until the meeting is occurring,
I am not going to try to characterize it otherwise.
Q: Can I follow up? Did you get an indication from the Jordanian King
and the Egyptian President that they understand that there are
so-called extremist elements of the Arab world coming to this summit,
and they are going to try to temper any kind of statements that are
going to come out of it?
MR. BOUCHER: Well, I think we know that there are a variety of
opinions that are going to be represented at any meeting of Arab
leaders. We also know, as I think I have been pointing out by citing
the people who were at the summit or noting - look back at our
conversations in Saudi Arabia, look back at - the Secretary has been
on the telephone with various people; the Foreign Minister of Tunisia,
for example.
So we also know that there is a substantial body of opinion in the
Arab world that supports the Sharm el Sheikh agreement, that thinks
the importance right now is on restoring calm, ending the violence,
ending the harm, the deaths, the hurt that is being felt in the
region, and looking for a way of restoring the peace process, and who
believe that the Sharm el Sheikh agreement does that. And so we would
hope that those who feel constructive about the Sharm el Sheikh
agreement would also look for a constructive outcome.
Obviously there are people with different opinions, but there is a
substantial body of Arab leaders who we believe take a positive
attitude towards this and are looking for a constructive outcome.
Q: I have a couple of questions on the same subject. First of all, I
think it is customary for the Secretary to send a letter around to her
counterparts before every Arab summit. Do you know whether the
Secretary has done that yet, and can we assume that the message in it
is pretty much the one you just delivered here?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know if it is customary, I don't know if it has
been done. But if it were done, I am sure it would be consistent with
what we say in public. So let me check on the letter.
Q: And secondly, from what you are saying, you seem fairly confident
that Arab leaders with a positive attitude constitute the majority.
MR. BOUCHER: No, I thought I was very careful not to say that. I said
there is a substantial number, a substantial body of Arab leaders we
know who have been positive --
Q: Well, overall, I got the impression that you felt fairly confident
that the --
MR. BOUCHER: I stick with what I say, not for impressions that others
make of them.
Q: Majority is perhaps the wrong word, but --
MR. BOUCHER: Yes, it is.
Q: - but those with a positive attitude would carry more weight in
Cairo --
MR. BOUCHER: I didn't say that either.
Q: Oh, well, how - well - (Laughter).
MR. BOUCHER: I will refer you back to the transcript. I just said it.
I know what I said. But I really don't want to try to have other
people --
Q: Do you feel fairly confident that the outcome will meet your
requirements?
MR. BOUCHER: The answer to that question is we will have to see.
Q: Still on the same thing. When the Secretary spoke to the President
of Yemen the other day, did she bring up this specific - what you
have just been talking about?
MR. BOUCHER: I think the Secretary has had a number of discussions
with Arab leaders --
Q: Let me just continue. The Yemen news agency says that the Secretary
asked him specifically to, or told him specifically, that the United
States was counting on Yemen at the Arab summit meeting to help temper
any kind of wild statement that might come out. And I'm just wondering
-- I mean, are they - is the Yemen press agency - is the Yemeni
President, does he - never mind. Is that what she said to him?
MR. BOUCHER: All right. The answer is the Yemeni press agency may be
better informed about this specific phone call than I am. I have gone
through these discussions that the Secretary has had with other Arab
leaders in a general sense. I don't have specific quotes from specific
phone calls.
In her phone calls and her discussions that she had in Saudi Arabia
and with Arab leaders and generally in Sharm, she has encouraged the
need to support the agreements at Sharm el Sheikh. She has discussed
the positive outcome we felt those gave us, the positive prospect of
implementation and really changing the situation on the ground; and
encourage people, whether they are in the meetings at the Arab League
or elsewhere to support these and see how everybody can make this the
future of the region and not otherwise. But as far as specific quotes
from a specific conversation, I'm afraid I just don't have that.
Q: Well, other than the phone calls that she made to the Yemen
President and to the Tunisian Foreign Minster, and other than the
people that she did see personally - Bashar, the Saudis and the
people that she saw in Sharm - who else in the Arab world has she
spoken to to convey the US message on your expectations or your hopes
for the summit?
MR. BOUCHER: I think that is it, but that is a fairly long list: the
people who were in Sharm, the people she talked to in Saudi Arabia,
and the phone calls that she has made. She hadn't made - she didn't
make any further phone calls from the airplane last night.
Q: Could you - given that the Secretary raised this topic with Asad
but didn't get much of a response, could you give us the latest
assessment by the State Department of the strength of Hezbollah? And
was she disappointed that she didn't get more of a response from Asad
in terms of helping convince them to release Israeli soldiers?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't really have anything further to what the
Secretary said 12 hours ago, or maybe a little more than that. She
discussed this fairly thoroughly on the airplane. I really don't have
anything subsequent to that.
Q: Well, is he still regarded as the Arab leader that has the most
influence, or --
MR. BOUCHER: I really don't think we've quite characterized it that
way in the past, but I am not in a position to characterize it now.
Q: We have a pretty clear idea of what you would like the Arab summit
to do and say. Can you give us an idea of what you don't want it to
say, what you're worried that it might do that would upset your plans
for the region?
MR. BOUCHER: I think obviously we are looking --
Q: Given the Iraqis executive --
MR. BOUCHER: We are looking for a constructive - for it to be
constructive, for it to support the process that was started at Sharm
el Sheikh. Obviously, they are going to have this discussion, and they
will decide what they do.
But, in any event, we would hope that whatever happened at these
meetings, whether it is this one or the United Nations one, would not
inflame the situation or support a return to violence. We all know
that is not the future that we want for the region and, above all,
that is not the future that the Israelis and the Palestinians want for
themselves. And they are trying to take steps to restore calm and to
get back to the peace process, and we think the international
community should be supporting them in that.
(The briefing was concluded at 1:30 P.M.)
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