11 May 2003
Powell Says Now Is Time to Work on Peace in Middle East
(Joint press briefing May 11 with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon)
(1950)
The fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and the election of a new
prime minister for the Palestinian Authority have created an
opportunity to move forward on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, according to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Quoting President Bush's recent remarks in South Carolina, Powell said
that now is the time "to replace old hatreds with new hopes."
"We find ourselves at an historic moment, but to seize this
opportunity we need to move forward ... with practical steps on the
ground," Powell said during a joint press conference in Jerusalem May
11 with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Powell said the United States welcomes the steps already taken by
Palestinian officials toward reform and peace, but stressed that "we
must also see rapid, decisive action by the Palestinians to disarm and
to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure."
"Without such action, our best efforts will fail," he said.
Powell added that progress toward peace will also depend on "concrete
measures by Israel to support further Palestinian reform efforts."
Sharon said that Israel is "ready to make painful concessions" for the
sake of "genuine, durable, real peace," but stressed it will not make
any compromises that could affect the security of Israelis.
Following is a transcript of the event, as released by the Department
of State:
(begin transcript)
U.S. Department of State
Joint Press Briefing
by Secretary Powell
and Prime Minister Sharon
Following their Meeting
Secretary Colin L. Powell
Prime Minister's Residence, Jerusalem
May 11, 2003
PRIME MINISTER SHARON: I want to welcome my friend, Secretary of State
Colin Powell, to Jerusalem. You are most welcome. We held extensive
discussions on the situation in the region following the coalition
victory in Iraq and on the window of opportunity that has been created
to advance the political process. I repeated to the Secretary our
sincere wish to move forward in implementing the vision of President
Bush from the 24th of June, and our readiness to invest substantial
efforts in order to make progress and to not miss this opportunity. We
will soon be meeting with our Palestinian colleagues, and with the
help of the Americans, we will be able to achieve a settlement that
will lead to peace. A genuine war against terror by the Palestinians,
involving real efforts to prevent terror, is the key to progress in
the political process. Quiet and security for the Israeli people will
lead to Israeli measures that will create a new and better reality for
the Palestinian population.
I want to thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your sincere efforts, to
advance the political process in the region and I want to express my
appreciation to the President of the United States, Mr. George Bush,
for his leadership and willingness to invest time and effort in
promoting his vision and leading the region toward a better future.
Thank you and again, you are most welcome here and you know that you
are among friends.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister, for your
warm welcome and thank you for the hospitality that you have again
extended to me and to the members of my delegation. I was pleased to
have the opportunity to meet with the Prime Minister and a number of
his ministers today. We have had a full discussion, especially focused
on the profound changes that have taken place in the region and the
important moment of opportunity that we now have before us as a result
of Operation Iraqi freedom and the success we achieved in overthrowing
that threat to the State of Israel and that threat to the world in the
person of Saddam Hussein and, in light of political developments
within the Palestinian Authority that puts in place now a new Prime
Minister, Prime Minister Abbas, who I am looking forward to seeing
later this afternoon.
President Bush on Friday, in a speech in South Carolina, added a new
element to the strategic changes and to our vision when he outlined a
broad, regional strategy designed to help all the peoples of the
region, as the President put it, "to replace old hatreds with new
hopes." We find ourselves at an historic moment, but to seize this
opportunity we need to move forward. We need to move forward with
practical steps on the ground. President Bush has stated his personal
commitment to implementing his vision, to implementing it through our
road map to peace.
We welcome the positive steps, political steps already taken by
Palestinian officials towards reform and towards peace but, we must
also see rapid, decisive action by the Palestinians to disarm and to
dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. Without such action, our best
efforts will fail. I will speak with Prime Minister Abbas and his team
later today about how to achieve this. Progress will also depend on
concrete measures by Israel to support further Palestinian reform
efforts. Prime Minister Sharon and I spoke today about a number of
specific actions Israel can take immediately to improve the situation
in the West Bank and Gaza and help build an environment for
peacemaking.
Our conversations, as always, were frank, productive and useful. I am
pleased that the Prime Minister has confirmed Israel's intention to
take positive steps in the days ahead. We look forward to continuing
these conversations in Washington when the Prime Minister visits with
the President later this month.
Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister, for your friendship.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary Powell, welcome to Israel.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you.
QUESTION: With your permission, I would like to ask you, I've noticed
that the Administration is using all the time the term "new
Palestinian leadership." Today there is a general strike in the
territories as a protest for you not meeting with Arafat. Arafat is
still considered among the Palestinians as the number one leader of
the Palestinians -- not Abu Mazen. Adding to that the fact that Yasser
Arafat still controls most of the security systems in the Palestinian
Authority, and he controls most of the money, and more than that, the
Europeans are still recognizing Arafat as the number one leader and
they are meeting with him, and we see visits of foreign ministers of
Europe coming to the Muqata to meet with Yasser Arafat. So where
exactly does the United States see the new leadership and how are you
going to deal with this thing that I mentioned?
SECRETARY POWELL: We see new leadership in the fact that there is now
a Prime Minister where there wasn't one before, and we see a new
dimension to this in light of the fact that he was approved in this
position by the legislature of the Palestinian people. Now obviously
it will take time as he gathers authority and as he moves in the
proper direction. We recognize that Mr. Arafat is still there, but the
United States will not be dealing with him. We believe that Mr. Abu
Mazen and some of the people that he has assembled within his cabinet
to work on matters of security, to work on matters of finance, do give
us new leadership to work with, and we will do everything we can to
enhance his authority and ability to get the job done -- and the
ability of the members of his cabinet to get the job done. With
respect to what other nations might do and what various European and
other foreign ministers might do, I am in close touch and contact with
them. They can make their own decisions, but we have made it clear to
them that we believe this is the time to invest in the new leadership.
And I hope that with the passage of time, my European and other
colleagues will see the wisdom of acting in that way.
QUESTION: Mr. Prime Minister, do all the details in the roadmap have
to be ironed out before you are ready to move ahead with it? Does Mr.
Abbas simply have to say he will put Hamas out of business, or does he
have to do it before you move ahead?
PRIME MINISTER SHARON: I think that we are used here for declarations,
promises, talks. What is needed now are actions that should be taken
against the terrorist organizations like the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad,
the Popular Front, the Democratic Front and all the others, and those
security organizations that are involved in terror and use terror and
cooperate with other terrorist organizations. So I think that the time
of promises and declarations is behind us. What we expect are steps
that should be taken -- real steps.
QUESTION: Secretary Powell, are you satisfied with the humanitarian
gesture that the Prime Minister presented to you? Is it enough? Do you
think that Israel should do more? And in that aspect, does the United
States expect or demand from Israel a total removal of the illegal
outposts in the territories?
SECRETARY POWELL: The steps that the Prime Minister mentioned to me
this morning I think are very promising, and very helpful and show
Israel's commitment to begin this process, and not lose this moment of
opportunity. So, yes I am pleased with what I heard from the Prime
Minister earlier. With respect to settlement activity and outposts, we
did discuss these issues and we will be discussing them in greater
detail in the days ahead. And we look forward to a fuller discussion
of how we move forward on the issue of settlements and outposts when
the Prime Minister visits in the near future.
QUESTION: I also wanted to ask the Prime Minister on the question of
settlements. You spoke a few weeks ago about being willing to make
painful concessions for peace. Do you envision withdrawing from a
number of settlements in order to create a state with provisional
borders? Or is this something that would have to remain unsettled
until final status talks? And do you reject the roadmap, is it really
no longer something that you want to follow, or are you following your
own path now?
PRIME MINISTER SHARON: It's about the Jewish towns, Jewish
communities, and outposts. I said very clearly, and I have repeated it
many times that for genuine, durable, real peace, Israel will be ready
to make painful concessions. I emphasize as well, that when it comes
to security, the security of the citizens of Israel, and the security
of the State of Israel, Israel will not be able to make any
concessions and there are not any compromises when it comes to
security, not now and not in the future. The Jews are having one tiny,
small country. No country with many tenants, but a tiny small country
and that is the only place in the world where the Jews are having the
right and the capability to defend themselves by themselves. That is
our duty and we are going to preserve it.
Now as about details, I think that because they have a very serious
approach toward the coming negotiations, and I hope to meet these
Palestinian leaders soon -- you know we met already in the past --
even here in this building. I think it is going to be a mistake if we
declare now what are the concessions that we are willing to make. Once
we do that, that will become immediately the start line of the
negotiations. So, I will need the patience and I would say experience
to conduct our negotiations and I believe that along those lines I
will be conducting the negotiations.
Thank you.
(end transcript)
(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
|
|
|
