20 May 2002
U.S. Condemns Recent Terrorist Attacks in Israel
(Looks to Arafat to take further steps to prevent violence) (860)
State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States
condemns "in the strongest possible terms" the terrorist bombings in
Israel May 19 and May 20.
Speaking at the daily briefing in Washington May 20, Boucher noted
that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had condemned the bombings and
had issued instructions to his people to "confront terror attacks
before they occur," describing both as "positive developments."
However, the spokesman called upon Chairman Arafat to exercise more
leadership and to take further steps to prevent violence, along the
lines articulated by President Bush in his April 4 speech on the
Middle East.
Following is an excerpt from the May 20 State Department briefing
concerning the recent terror attacks in Israel:
(begin excerpt)
QUESTION: Middle East, inevitably. Rather than get -- if you like, and
you want to make the usual statements about being disappointed that
there were two terrorist attacks on Israel over the weekend, I thought
maybe you could update us on where setting up security talks stand.
Anybody -- Zinni -- I almost forgot his -- I mean, Zinni, he's still
in town; he hasn't gone anyplace. And is there a decision on whether
Tenet goes or does stuff here, et cetera? Where are we on this,
please?
MR. BOUCHER: Let me make clear, first of all, and not in any
denigrating manner, but we do condemn in the strongest possible terms
the terrorist bombing in Netanya that left three Israelis dead, and
another bombing today that killed no one other than the bomber. Our
deepest condolences go out to the families of the victims of Sunday's
attack.
As far as where we stand on security elements, that remains an
important part of the comprehensive strategy of trying to get security
cooperation going again, trying to get security steps by Chairman
Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. We do note that he has condemned
the bombing on Sunday and he has issued instructions to his people not
to be involved in any violence and to confront terror attacks before
they occur. Those have been positive developments, but we continue to
look to Chairman Arafat to exercise more leadership and to take
further steps to stop the violence from occurring.
In terms of travel by US officials or representatives, I don't have
anything new today on that.
QUESTION: I have a couple questions. First of all, do you know if we
have extended an invitation to Jabril Rajoub, Mohammed Dahlan, Amin
Al-Hindi and other Palestinian security leaders to meet here this
week? Can you comment on that at all?
MR. BOUCHER: No, I can't comment on that. I know there's been stories
out there, but if we have something to announce, we will announce it.
QUESTION: And also, what does it mean when Yasser Arafat issues
instructions not to be involved in the violence? Did he do that at
American request?
MR. BOUCHER: It's something that we have been looking to him to do. If
you remember the President's statement on April 4th and subsequent
statements by US officials, we have looked for him all along to
condemn terrorism, to make clear that his goal was peaceful
negotiation and not violence, and then to issue instructions to his
organizations, people under his control or authority or influence not
to be involved in violence. And he did that I think a week or so ago.
We talked about it at the time.
QUESTION: Richard, apparently someone wasn't listening because
apparently in the West Bank Israelis have uncovered up to ten tons of
explosives that they say were destined to blow up two of their
skyscrapers, up to 50 stories. And it's almost like, I guess, moving
the shell, so to speak, on a chess board. I don't know whether it's
Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Fatah, whatever, but is there any one tactic that
can end this all once and for all, where there won't be explosives
used or suicide bombings?
MR. BOUCHER: First of all, I think you are referring to a wire service
story this morning, and I can't give you any details on that. That
would be for the Israelis to confirm it or explain it as they might.
In terms of your question, is there any one simple solution, is there
any one simple tactic to this, I think the answer is clearly no. There
needs to be action by the Palestinian Authority. There needs to be
action by the Palestinian Authority to use its influence, to use its
control, to use its direction, depending on what it can do. There
needs to be action by other governments in the region. As the
President outlined in his April 4th speech, we look to the Arab
countries to take responsibility, to use their influence in this
situation and try to stop the violence. And of course, the Israeli
Government is going to take whatever steps it feels necessary to stop
the violence as well, since it is directed against Israeli citizens.
So the answer is there's any number of things that need to be done,
and everybody needs to do what they can.
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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