24 April 2002
Powell Says U.S. Is Engaged in Middle East Peace Process
(Bush administration has sought resolution since taking office) (3650)
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell disputed claims that the Bush
administration has not been engaged in resolving the continuing
Israeli-Palestinian crisis, saying "we pressed hard to get both sides
to enter into that [peace] plan, and unfortunately we were not
successful, but it wasn't because we weren't trying."
Powell said the Bush administration has been actively promoting the
Mitchell Plan, which calls for the cessation of violence, a
cooling-off period, followed by confidence-building measures, and a
resumption of political negotiations.
"We tried again with the Tenet work plan, and the Tenet work plan
would have provided a way into Mitchell, but we couldn't get it
started again ... because of violence," Powell said April 24 in
testimony before the Senate Appropriations foreign operations
subcommittee. "We were not successful, and they were not successful --
the failure was theirs, not ours -- because we couldn't get the
violence down."
The Tenet work plan calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities
and a resumption of joint security cooperation between the Israelis
and Palestinians with a cooling-off period.
"We have been deeply engaged in the work of finding a way forward on
the basis of security, on the basis of a political solution, and on
the basis of economic and humanitarian relief," the secretary said.
Powell said it is President Bush's vision that the Israeli people and
the Palestinian people can find a way to live together. He said it is
Bush who stood before the United Nations and called for the creation
of a Palestinian state, "and he gave it a name; he called it
Palestine."
"I assure you we'll be engaged as a close and dear friend of Israel,
but also as a friend of the Palestinian people," Powell said.
(Note: In the text, billion equals 1,000 million.)
Following is the text of Powell's remarks:
(begin text)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman
As Delivered
April 24
OPENING REMARKS
Secretary Of State Colin L. Powell
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee On Foreign Operations, Export
Financing, And Related Programs
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's a great
pleasure to be back before the committee, and I thank you for your
expressions of support. I do have a prepared statement I would submit
for the record, and then just have a brief opening statement and then
be ready for your questions.
Before beginning my opening statement, let me just respond to the
comments you made earlier, Mr. Chairman. And I know these are comments
on everybody's mind, really, with respect to the situation in the
Middle East. We had a chance to talk about it yesterday morning, and
I'm sure in the course of our questioning there will be an opportunity
to say more about the situation in the Middle East.
But I have to take some exception to your comment that the United
States administration, President Bush's administration, blundered
badly and that we stayed away and were preoccupied by other matters. I
don't think that's an accurate portrayal.
Immediately upon taking office last year, we became engaged with
Senator George Mitchell, your colleague from past days, and encouraged
him to remain engaged with the work he was doing with the Mitchell
Committee. They did. We encouraged the Israelis to participate with
Senator Mitchell's group, and they did. And we came out with a very
fine report that gave us a blueprint of a way to move forward. And we
pressed hard to get both sides to enter into that blueprint plan, and
unfortunately we were not successful, but it wasn't because we weren't
trying.
And we were not successful, and they were not successful -- the
failure was theirs, not ours -- because we couldn't get the violence
down. We tried again with the Tenet work plan, and the Tenet work plan
would have provided a way into Mitchell, but we couldn't get it
started again, once again, because of violence.
And we sided with, frankly, the Israeli side here by saying that you
had to have security; you had to have some confidence that you were
not going to have your citizens blown up in suicide bombs or other
kinds of terrorist activities; and that Prime Minister Sharon had been
elected to office on the basis of his commitment to provide security
to the Israeli people. We understood that and we worked with both
sides trying to get the violence down.
President Bush was the first president of the United States to stand
before an international forum, as he did at the United Nations last
fall, and call for the creation of a Palestinian state. And he gave it
a name; he called it Palestine -- the first time a president has done
that.
And he did it because he wanted to say to the Palestinian people that
the United States has a vision for you; we will always be Israel's
closest friend, we have been there from the very beginning, and we
will always be there for Israel, but at the same time we recognize
that a way has to be found for these two peoples to live side by side
in peace behind secure and recognizable borders and develop relations
between themselves that do not come out of the barrel of a gun, but
come out of economic development, come out of educating young people,
come out of giving people hope and jobs.
And the president is committed to that vision. He repeated that vision
in his 4 April speech before sending me off to the Middle East. I also
captured that vision in my Louisville speech of last year. So we have
been deeply engaged in the work of finding a way forward on the basis
of security, on the basis of a political solution, and on the basis of
economic and humanitarian relief.
And now the president has reaffirmed his commitment to this process,
first by sending me into the middle of a difficult situation -- and we
can talk about that trip that I took and what might have been achieved
and what more you would like to have seen achieved that wasn't
achieved. But he is engaged. I am engaged. And the reason I was a few
moments late coming up this morning is I was with the president in the
Situation Room going over today's situation, as well as what we're
going to be doing in the future.
CHAIRMAN LEAHY: By Senate standards, you were the model of
punctuality, let me say.
SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, well, if you had a driver as good as mine, and
if you closed your eyes going through Washington traffic, you could be
anywhere on time, as I did this morning.
And so, Mr. Chairman, I assure you we'll be engaged as a close and
dear friend of Israel, but also as a friend of the Palestinian people,
because they need peace, they need security, they need to find a place
in the world, and we are committed to that proposition as well. And I
am sure we can expand on these few brief remarks when we get into
questions and answers.
But let me turn now to my shortened statement. Mr. Chairman, you may
recall that when I was up here last year I told you how important I
considered relations with Congress, that I felt that I had an
obligation as Secretary of State to be as open and forthcoming and as
accessible to every committee before which I appear, and the Congress
as a whole, as part of my responsibility to work closely to let you
know what I am doing in the name of the American people to make sure
that the State Department is well organized, well led, a place with
high morale, a place with a sense of purpose, a place where the people
are proud to be serving in this administration and serving the
American people in the accomplishment of their foreign policy.
You may also remember that I pointed out last year that I was not only
the foreign policy advisor to the president, but the chief executive
officer [CEO] of a very large organization. And wearing that CEO hat,
I want to tell you that we have made solid advances over the past year
-- advances in hiring, bringing people into the Department, increasing
the number of people who want to be a part of the State Department
team, bringing state-of-the-art information and technology to the
Department, streamlining our overseas buildings operations and making
our buildings more secure for our people to work in confidence and in
comfort.
Morale is high at the Department, and for this I think I owe a debt of
gratitude, and all of my employees owe a debt of gratitude, to the
Congress for what you have done to help us develop this momentum. We
are bringing the organization and conduct of America's foreign policy
into the 21st century, and I want to thank the members of the
committee for the support that you have provided.
Since that heart-rending day in September when the terrorists struck
in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, we have seen why the conduct
of foreign policy is so important. We have had remarkable success over
the past seven months in our war on terrorism, especially in
Afghanistan, and we have seen progress now in the Philippines and
Yemen and elsewhere as a result of our working with governments around
the world who are committed to the campaign against terrorism.
And behind the courageous men and women of our armed forces, behind
the stepped-up law enforcement efforts, and behind the increased
scrutiny of and against terrorist financial networks, there has been
the quiet, steady course of diplomacy by thousands of Americans around
the world working in our missions who take their job with utmost
seriousness and pursue it with diligence.
As a result of their efforts, we have reshaped a good part of South
Asia, a new U.S.-Pakistan relationship, a reinvigorated US-India
relationship, a new Interim Authority in Kabul, and the Taliban and
the terrorists gone -- dead, in jail, or on the run.
We are also forming important new relations with our friends in
Central Asia, and helping friends and allies fight the scourge of
terrorism, from the marble-floored banks of Europe to the forested
gorges of Georgia.
In his second visit to the Department last year, President Bush told
us that despite the great tragedy of September 11th, we could see
opportunities through our tears; and at his direction, the State
Department has been moving briskly ever since, making as much as
possible of those opportunities.
Over the past year, Mr. Chairman, I believe the broader tapestry of
our foreign policy has become clear: it is to encourage the spread of
democracy and market economies; to lift up countries that want to be
part of that expansion; and to bring more governments to the
understanding that the power of the individual is the power that
counts; and when evil appears to threaten this progress, America will
confront that evil, call it what it is, and defeat it, as we are doing
in the war on terrorism.
And as you well know, Mr. Chairman, we cannot do any of this -- we
cannot conduct an effective foreign policy or fight terrorism --
without the necessary resources. The President's FY 2003 Request for
Foreign Operations is a little over $16.1 billion. These dollars will
support the continuing war on terrorism and the work we are doing in
Colombia and the Andean region at large.
Moreover, these dollars will help support our efforts to combat
HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, our essential development
programs in Africa, the important work of the Peace Corps, scaling up
the work of the Peace Corps and the size of the Peace Corps. And they
will also make possible our plan to clear arrearages at the
multilateral development banks, including the Global Environment
Facility.
Mr. Chairman, to fight terrorism, as well as alleviate the conditions
that fuel this kind of activity, violent terrorism, we are requesting
an estimated $5 billion in addition to the initiatives outlined in our
Budget Request for the State Department and Related Agencies. This
funding includes $3.6 billion for economic and security assistance,
military equipment and training for the frontline states and for our
other partners in the war on terrorism. And as you noted, Senator
McConnell, Israel is not included in this, but I take your point that
this is something we should look at as we move forward.
These dollars also include $3.4 billion out of the 3.6 from foreign
operations accounts such as the Economic Support Fund, International
Military Education and Training, Foreign Military Financing, and the
Freedom Support Act; $88 million for programs in Russia and other
states of the former Soviet Union to reduce the availability to
terrorists of weapons of mass destruction -- our ongoing programs
engage former weapons scientists, now putting them in peaceful
research and to help this way to prevent the spread of the material's
expertise required to build such weapons; $69 million for
counter-terrorism engagement programs, training and equipment to help
other countries fight global terror, thereby strengthening in turn our
own national security; $50 million to support the International Atomic
Energy Agency in activities designed to counter nuclear terrorism and
implement strengthened safeguards; and $15 million to allow us to
respond quickly and effectively to unanticipated or unusually
difficult nonproliferation projects or opportunities; $4 million for
the Treasury Department's Office of Technical Assistance to provide
training and assistance and other expertise to foreign finance
officers to halt terrorist financing.
And Mr. Chairman, in the 2003 Fiscal Year Budget Request, there is
approximately $140 [million] available for Afghanistan, including
repatriation of refugees, food aid, demining, and transition
assistance. I know that President Bush, the Congress and the American
people recognize that rebuilding Afghanistan will require additional
resources, and that our support must be and will be a multiyear
effort.
Moreover, I know we will need a lot of help from the international
community. At the Virginia Military Institute last week, President
Bush made very clear what he wants to do for Afghanistan. The
President told his audience of eager cadets that one of their own,
George C. Marshall, helped ensure that a war-ravaged Europe and Japan
would successfully recover following World War II. Now today, Europe
and Japan are helping American in rebuilding Afghanistan.
The President said that by helping to build an Afghanistan that is
free from evil and is a better place in which to live, we are working
in the best traditions of George Marshall, and so we are. It will be a
long, hard road. We know it. But like General Marshall, we also know
that we must do it, and the international community knows that it must
help.
Mr. Chairman, we are requesting $731 million in 2003 for the multiyear
counter-drug initiative in Colombia and other Andean countries that
are the source of cocaine sold on America's streets. This assistance
to Andean governments will support drug eradication, interdiction,
economic development, and development of government institutions. In
addition, the Colombians will be able to stand up a second
counter-drug brigade. Assisting efforts to destroy local coca crops
and processing labs there increases the effectiveness of US law
enforcement here.
In addition to this counter-drug effort, Mr. Chairman, we are
requesting $98 million in FMF [Foreign Military Financing] to help the
Colombian Government protect the vital CLC [Cano-Limon-Covenas]oil
pipeline from the same foreign terrorist organizations that are
involved in illicit drugs, the FARC and the ELN. Their attacks on that
pipeline shut it down 240 days in 2001, costing Colombia revenue and
disrupting its economy and causing serious environmental damage. This
money will help train and equip the Colombian armed forces to protect
the pipeline. These funds begin to apply the president's decision to
shift from a strictly counter-drug effort to a more broadly based
effort targeted at helping Colombia fight the terrorists in its midst,
as well as the drugs.
In Fiscal Year 2003, we are also requesting $1.4 billion for USAID
global health programs. Of this amount, we are requesting $540 million
for bilateral HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment activities and
$100 million for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and
malaria. And as you know, another $100 million is in the HHS budget,
so there will be a total of [$]200 million on top of the [$]300
million that was provided over the last year or so for a total of $500
million.
All of this funding will increase the already significant contribution
to combating the AIDS pandemic and maintain our position as the single
largest bilateral donor. I should also add that the overall U.S.
Government request for international HIV/AIDS programs exceeds $1
billion, including the [$]200 million I just referenced for the global
fund.
I might digress and also mention, Mr. Chairman, that I have just
received a report from my staff that the trust fund that we created
for the HIV global trust fund activities -- the trust fund
organization is coming along very well, and we have now reached a
point where we are about to award contracts. I think this is quite an
achievement, under the leadership of the Secretary General of the
United Nations and others working with them, that we have gone from
inception to starting to release funds that will help with the problem
in a little less than a year's time.
Mr. Chairman, I know that you and all of the subcommittee members
heard the President's remarks in his State of the Union address with
respect to the USA Freedom Corps. You heard as well his objective to
renew the promise of the Peace Corps and to double the number of
volunteers in the Corps in the next five years. We have put $320
million for the Peace Corps in the 2003 budget request. This is an
increase of over $42 million from our Fiscal Year 2002 level. This
increase will allow us to begin scaling up to the level the President
has directed us to. And we intend that the Peace Corps will open
programs in eight countries, including the reestablishment of
currently suspended posts and place over 1,200 additional volunteers
worldwide. By the end of 2003, the Peace Corps will have more than
8,000 volunteers on the ground.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, the 2003 request includes an initiative to pay
one-third of the amount that the United States owes to multilateral
development banks for our scheduled annual commitments. With US
arrears currently totaling $533 million, the request would provide
$178 million to pay one-third of our total arrears during that fiscal
year. These banks lend to and invest in developing countries,
promoting economic growth and poverty reduction, and providing
environment benefits. We need to support them.
Mr. Chairman, in addition to what I have given you with respect to
Fiscal Year 2003, I want to provide you with the main priorities of
our supplemental request for 2002. But first let me tell you how
grateful we are down at the Department for the efforts of this
subcommittee and the House subcommittee to get us the $1.5 billion in
crucial emergency response fund for foreign operations that we needed
to address the immediate post-September 11th requirements.
But that was just a start. We are asking for $1.6 billion of
supplemental funding for Fiscal Year 2002. This amount includes $322
million for the Department itself. These dollars will address emerging
building and operating requirements that have arisen as a result of
the September 11th terrorist attacks, including reopening our Embassy
in Kabul, reestablishing an official presence in Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
and increasing security and personnel protection at home and abroad.
This will leave about $1.3 billion for foreign operations. These
funds, added to the request we have made for 2003 for the frontline
states, are primarily to deter and prevent acts of international
terrorism; provide vitally needed military equipment, training and
economic assistance to our friends and allies; to expand respect for
human rights and judicial reform in the frontline states; provide a
significant and immediate impact on displaced persons in the frontline
states; support civilian reintegration of former combatants and
establish law enforcement and criminal justice systems; and provide
economic and democracy assistance, including help with political
development, health care, irrigation and water management, media
development, community-building and infrastructure improvements, and
economic and civil society reform.
In sum, these supplemental dollars for foreign operations in 2002 will
be directed at draining the swamp in which terrorists thrive and at
ensuring the long-term success of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Mr. Chairman, as I told the committee last year, the conduct of the
nation's foreign policy suffered significantly from a lack of
resources over the past decade. I have set both my CEO hat and my
foreign policy hat to correct that situation, but I cannot do it
without your help and with the help of your colleagues in the Senate
and across the Capitol in the House.
I ask for your important support in full committee and in the Senate
as a whole, both for the $8.1 billion we are requesting for the
Department and its related agencies, and for the $16.1 billion we are
requesting for foreign operations. In addition, I ask for your support
with the supplemental request for 2002. With your help, and the help
of the whole Congress, we will continue the progress we have begun.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am now pleased to take your
questions.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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