07 May 2003
Boucher: U.S. Looks Forward to Working with Abu Mazen
(Says Palestinian prime minister has been empowered to make decisions) (1230)
State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States
looks forward to working with Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen to
promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We've been looking for a long time, since the president's speech, to
meet with Palestinian leaders, to try to take steps with Palestinian
leaders that would benefit ordinary Palestinians and try to help them
achieve their goals of having a state that can live in peace side by
side with Israel," Boucher said at the daily State Department briefing
in Washington May 7.
Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to meet Abu Mazen in the West
Bank during his coming trip to the Middle East. Last year, the U.S.
government said it would no longer deal with Yasser Arafat as the
Palestinian leader and called for the Palestinian legislature to
designate a prime minister and a cabinet to represent the Palestinians
in peace efforts with Israel.
"Abu Mazen has been empowered by his legislature to carry out the
functions of prime minister, and we look forward to working with him
in that regard," Boucher said.
Following is an excerpt from Boucher's May 7 briefing containing his
comments about Abu Mazen:
(begin excerpt)
QUESTION: Back to the Palestinian Authority. Abu Mazen has come under
some criticism for being too close to the United States. And my
question is: Do you -- are you at all concerned that the upcoming
meeting between him and Secretary Powell may sap his legitimacy or
credibility with the Palestinian people to make the kind of the
changes you want him to make?
MR. BOUCHER: I have never heard anybody be accused of losing
legitimacy because he met with partners to achieve peace for his
people. I think it's important to understand that we have been looking
for a long time, since the President's speech, to meet with
Palestinian leaders to try to take steps with Palestinians leaders
that would benefit ordinary Palestinians and try to help them achieve
their goals of having a state that can live in peace side by side with
Israel.
We have the opportunity now to sit down and do that with a
representative of the Palestinian side who has been approved by the
Palestinian legislature, has the endorsement thereby of Palestinians,
more generally, because of that process, and is in a position, we
hope, to exercise the kind of leadership that can achieve the goals of
the Palestinian people.
So I think being able to sit down with people who can help you, in
order to achieve the goals that your people want, is usually
considered a positive action and not a negative one.
QUESTION: Let me just ask it another way. As I am sure you know,
Yasser Arafat is still a political player on the ground in the West
Bank and in Gaza, and he has specifically criticized Abu Mazen for
being too close to the Americans. And there is a lot of evidence to
suggest that the United States is not particularly popular right now
with the Palestinian people. Is there any concern at all that the U.S.
public meetings with the new leader could undercut his credibility?
MR. BOUCHER: I think public meetings with leadership is the only way
to achieve anything.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. BOUCHER: Consider the alternative. If one accepted your
proposition, then it would be better not to meet with anybody and talk
about peace and talk about how the Palestinians can --
QUESTION: No, but like what you do with the Iranians, and like, you
know, back door
envoys, and do it in private and don't admit to it.
MR. BOUCHER: I think everybody knows the history of the Middle East is
a little bit different than the history of our relationships with
Iran, especially since 1979.
QUESTION: Sure.
MR. BOUCHER: For those of us who have been in the Foreign Service
since then, we remember. But the point, I think, is that Abu Mazen has
been empowered by his legislature to carry out the functions of Prime
Minister, and we look forward to working with him in that regard.
Are we going to agree on everything? Probably not. We don't agree on
everything with anybody, with any other government or prime minister.
So, but we intend to work with him, see if we can achieve the goals
that he wants and that the Israelis want and that we all want, and
that's for Israelis and Palestinians both to be able to live normal
lives in peace in this region. The only way to achieve that is to work
together with us, to work together with the Israelis, to work together
with the Palestinians, to try to achieve those goals.
QUESTION: New subject?
QUESTION: Actually, can we stay on this subject?
MR. BOUCHER: Andrea.
QUESTION: Richard, is the U.S. satisfied that Abu Mazen, Mahmoud Abas,
is a free agent and is not somebody who is sort of speaking on behalf
of Yasser Arafat, that Yasser Arafat is not still exercising control?
MR. BOUCHER: I am not going to try to do political analysis. I can
tell you the --
QUESTION: But I think it's important.
MR. BOUCHER: I can tell you the --
QUESTION: It's important.
MR. BOUCHER: Well, then you can do the political analysis. I --
QUESTION: No, no, no. I mean, I'm just --
MR. BOUCHER: Let me tell you what the objective facts are.
QUESTION: Yeah.
MR. BOUCHER: The objective facts are that he has been empowered by the
Palestinian legislature, he has been given a set of responsibilities,
he's had a cabinet approved, he's had the framework of his functions
have been approved by the Palestinian legislature to do certain
things.
We've said all along that was a very welcome process that indicated
that, in principle, he had the authority to exercise these important
functions. We've also said it's important that he does exercise those
functions, that he does find ways to effectively control security,
that he does find ways to institute, continue to institute,
transparent finances, that he does find ways to exercise his authority
over all these areas. So that's something, I guess, you'd have to say
that remains to be proven.
But certainly the authority that he has should be sufficient to put
him in the position of leadership where he can make these decisions
and take his community forward towards peace.
QUESTION: And the U.S. -- one of the overriding concerns of this
government here in Washington was that there be new leadership in the
territories and that Mahmoud Abas would represent someone other than
Yasser Arafat because this administration had decided it didn't want
to deal with him. That's why I was asking the question.
MR. BOUCHER: And all I can say is he's got the authority to do so and
we'll work with him in order to achieve those goals.
QUESTION: So is it -- does the U.S. believe that Yasser Arafat, as far
as a decision maker has been concerned, that he has been sidelined?
MR. BOUCHER: Even if I were a political analyst, which I'm not, I
would think that a week or so after he's been sworn in is maybe a
little too early to reach a definitive judgment on his tenure as prime
minister.
(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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