20 March 2002
Security Cooperation Is Most Critical Element to Restore Calm
(Boucher condemns suicide bombing in northern Israel) (1950)
State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said cooperation by
Israelis and Palestinians on security matters is the most "critical
element to help restore an atmosphere of calm."
Speaking in Washington March 20, Boucher said the U.S condemned "in
the strongest terms" the suicide bomb attack on an Israeli bus earlier
in the day.
While welcoming the Palestinian Authority's condemnation of the
attack, Boucher said the bombing "only underscores the importance of
immediate maximum Palestinian actions against terror."
Boucher said the U.S. wants to see Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
"make a very serious effort across the board to stop terror attacks."
He added that, "at this point we haven't seen that kind of complete
effort."
"The point is that they need to make every possible step to stop the
violence, everything they can do. A hundred percent effort means
everything you can do should be done," said Boucher.
The spokesman praised the trilateral security meeting held by Israeli,
Palestinian and U.S. officials March 20, and commented upon the
possibility of a future meeting between Chairman Arafat and
Vice-President Cheney, who concluded his visit to the region March 20.
Cheney had spoken of shortly returning to the region while he was in
Israel March 19.
"When the conditions are such that a high level meeting would be
useful and constructive in ending the violence and resuming a
political process, then General Zinni will say so. He's in the region
to accomplish that objective, and we'll continue to work with him to
do that," said Boucher.
Following is an excerpt from the transcript of Boucher's March 20
briefing containing his comments about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict:
(begin excerpt)
QUESTION: An update, if you will, on the efforts in the Middle East. I
don't suppose -- well, maybe I shouldn't suppose. If you care to
address what Cheney was told, that would be neat, although I know he
doesn't work in this building, but certainly Zinni's efforts.
MR. BOUCHER: First of all, let me make clear that we condemn
absolutely in the strongest terms the terrorist suicide bombing in
northern Israel today that left at least seven civilians dead. The
attack only underscores the importance of immediate maximum
Palestinian actions against terror.
We welcome the Palestinian Authority's condemnation of this act. What
we expect from Chairman Arafat and the Palestinians is a 100 percent
effort to do everything he can to control the violence and prevent it.
We further expect Chairman Arafat to begin immediate and serious steps
to get a cease-fire started, to begin implementation of the Tenet work
plan. This includes a clear public commitment to the Tenet security
work plan, unambiguous orders to Palestinian security services to
enforce the cease-fire, and a serious effort to stop terror and
attacks.
These kinds of attacks, this kind of violence, harms the cause that
the Palestinians are seeking. It harms the community and it harms
their future. And Chairman Arafat should do everything possible to
avoid bombers from causing this kind of harm to his community.
We do strongly support the decision today of the parties to
participate in the trilateral security meeting today that is either
ongoing or approximately at this time. I don't have any results yet,
but we do think that cooperation by both sides on security matters is
the most critical way, critical element, to help restore an atmosphere
of calm.
QUESTION: I have a little problem with the word "expect" because it
can be read two ways. It could be your expectation --
MR. BOUCHER: What we want from.
QUESTION: It sounds like Spanish, esperar. Your hope or your
expectation. Which is it?
MR. BOUCHER: Well, it's what we want. It's what we want from Chairman
Arafat. We want to see him take the steps to stop the violence, to
commit unequivocally to the steps of the Tenet security work plan, to
give clear and unambiguous orders to people, and to make a very
serious effort across the board to stop terror attacks, which at this
point we haven't seen that kind of complete effort. But we're having
trilateral meetings, we're trying to get that effort from Chairman
Arafat, and we're trying to continue to establish security by
cooperation with the parties.
QUESTION: I guess the answer to how Zinni is doing is the trilateral
meeting. You held it out yesterday as a step forward. Anything else to
say?
MR. BOUCHER: No, I don't have any other characterizations at this
point. I think we want this process to continue. We want it to achieve
an end to the violence, achieve a cease-fire, and then move into the
cement-and-prevent steps, the steps in the Tenet security work plan
that can help cement the cease-fire and prevent further acts of
violence.
QUESTION: Do you have a response to the statement of Hamas leader
Abdul Aziz Rantisi earlier today, who said that there would be no way
that his organization, Hamas, would be respecting a cease-fire or
anything in the Tenet plan?
MR. BOUCHER: As we have made clear repeatedly from this podium, groups
that want to carry out violence, groups that want to sponsor suicide
bombers or carry out shootings in schoolyards, they need to be
prevented, they need to be stopped. It's not a matter of whether a
leader intends or doesn't intend; it's whether he can or he can't, and
we have to make sure he can't.
QUESTION: Thomas Friedman had an editorial today in the New York Times
which suggested that in order to really maintain peace in that area
that US troops would have to be involved in any peace that were to
prevail in that area. Do you see -- the Secretary has offered
observers possibly to help quell the violence. Do you see observers
simply being another term for US troops?
MR. BOUCHER: No, we don't.
QUESTION: Do you see this -- is this something that has been discussed
or is being discussed?
MR. BOUCHER: First of all, I'm not in the habit of commenting on
commentators all the time. And second of all --
QUESTION: The Saudi proposal first appeared in Friedman's column.
MR. BOUCHER: We commented on the proposal, not the commentator. And it
appeared in Saudi media as well.
The issue of what US role there may be somewhere down the road -- I
mean, Tom has written about this before, we know. I'm not going to
have any new thoughts to offer at this point. The issue of observers
is different. The contribution that we might make as observers,
third-party monitoring of the implementation of these steps, is
designed to reinforce the security process, to reinforce the security
cooperation, to identify problems and causes and to help resolve them.
That's the kind of monitoring, third-party monitoring mechanism, we've
been talking about.
QUESTION: I'm trying to remember. The US has forces with the Sinai --
on the Sinai, right?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
QUESTION: As part of a UN peacekeeping effort. Is there any thought or
are there any efforts to withdraw from that particular duty?
MR. BOUCHER: You can check with the Defense Department. We've talked
about readjusting the size of our presence and things like that. We
have certain obligations under previous treaties and agreements in
this region, and we carry out those obligations. How we do that is
periodically the subject of review.
But I think it's quite speculative at this point, where the issue is
stopping the violence on the ground, getting the Palestinian Authority
to take control of the groups that are trying to undermine the
Palestinian Authority, and reaching a cease-fire so that Israelis and
Palestinians can have some normalcy back in their lives and can get
into a process that leads back to negotiations. It would be very
speculative for me to start talking about possible outcomes and future
treaties. It's not speculative for commentators to do; that's what
they get paid for.
QUESTION: Change of subject?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
QUESTION: I take it that now that the Vice President has left the
region, it's largely in your hands to make a recommendation at some
stage about whether he should meet Chairman Arafat.
MR. BOUCHER: Before the Vice President left the region, he said he
would be looking to General Zinni for that sort of discussion and
recommendation, and that remains the case now.
QUESTION: And General Zinni essentially reports through you, through
this building, right?
MR. BOUCHER: Correct. Well, not through me.
QUESTION: And given what you said about Chairman Arafat not yet making
the sustained effort you want, I guess it would be -- is it fair to
assume that at this stage you wouldn't -- he wouldn't recommend such a
meeting?
MR. BOUCHER: I'm not going to try to get into a day-by-day
probability. Well, I don't intend to. You can ask a question every
day; I'll give you the same answer every day. We're not going to tell
you what the chances are on a daily basis. We're not going to have a
thermometer or a clock that tells you the countdown to the Cheney
meeting with Arafat.
What's clear to all of us is what I've said already. General Zinni has
worked with the Vice President when the Vice President was there.
General Zinni will continue to update the Vice President in the days
ahead. A crucial factor is for Chairman Arafat to take aggressive
steps to stop the violence, and for the parties to continue to make
the security cooperation more and more effective.
When the conditions are such that a high-level meeting would be useful
and constructive in ending the violence and resuming a political
process, then General Zinni will say so. He's in the region to
accomplish that objective, and we'll continue to work with him to do
that.
QUESTION: Is there -- without saying a timeline or anything like that,
do you have any kind of benchmarks that you can say? I mean, you say
aggressive steps, but is it a certain list of arrests? Is it a certain
number of factories he has -- mortar factories?
MR. BOUCHER: I've just given you a series of things that we believe
need to be done: a clear commitment to the Tenet security work plan,
unambiguous orders to stop the violence, and strengthened efforts
across the board to stop the violence and the violent groups. There
are many elements to that, and obviously those are the kind of
elements that General Zinni discusses with the parties.
QUESTION: Well, can you flesh out what a "strengthened effort" means?
MR. BOUCHER: No, I don't think I can go through every possible step.
The point is that they need to make every possible step to stop the
violence, everything they can do. A 100 percent effort means
everything you can do should be done.
QUESTION: Can we move on?
QUESTION: No, I want to stay here for a minute. I wondered if you
folks thought it's fine that -- would like to see the Arab League
endorse the vision, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia's vision for
agreements between Israel and the Arabs.
MR. BOUCHER: We have talked about that vision as a positive statement,
that those ideas demonstrated that there was an interest in pursuing a
political path on the part of the Arabs. We have welcomed the support
that it has gotten from others. We noted the support it got at the
Arab League Foreign Ministers Meeting. So we think that the
endorsement of these ideas by other Arabs, including the Arab League,
to the extent they have, has been positive.
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
