14 May 2003
Powell Sees "a Time of Promise" in the Middle East
(Roundtable discussion with Arab journalists in Cairo) (5020)
Secretary of State Colin Powell, at a roundtable discussion with Arab
journalists in Cairo on May 12, said he sees the current period in the
Middle East as "a time of promise."
Powell spoke with journalists from the Egyptian newspapers Al Ahram
and Akbar Al Youm and from the Middle East News Agency.
In response to questions about the "roadmap" for Middle East peace
recently issued by the United States, the United Nations, the European
Union and Russia (known as "the Quartet"), Powell said that the United
States supports the roadmap, and that the United States is comfortable
working with newly confirmed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
Calling this period "a time of promise," Powell said both sides want
to see the other side do more. But, he said, "The real issue is do we
get started? Do we get some movement? Do we take some action?"
"What I pressed both sides to do, which is more important for me to do
than anything else I can think of, was to get started with security
reform, get started with some relief of the conditions under which the
Palestinian people live," Powell said.
Responding to questions about possible "delaying tactics" by Israel on
accepting the roadmap, Powell said President Bush would not be
distracted or delayed. "The President has committed to do
something.... And the President is going to do what he said he would
do."
The Israelis, Powell said, "have to take steps, and they will slowly
release their grip, and I am confident that grip will be released,
consistent with the ability of the Palestinian authorities to exercise
control over those areas from which suicide bombers come and from
which violence originates."
But he cautioned, "It isn't going to happen overnight."
Powell said he hopes Sharon and Abbas will have spoken to each other
before Sharon visits Washington next week.
On his talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Powell said he
briefed Mubarak on the situation in Iraq, and on his trip to Syria.
Powell said he conveyed a strong message to Syrian President Bashar
Assad that Syria needs to recognize the changed strategic situation in
the region, and to review its policies with respect to its ties to
Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, and other
organizations.
Powell also mentioned the recently announced Middle East Partnership
Initiative, which, he said, provides the means for the United States
to support political, educational, and economic development in the
Middle East.
The initiative will "help make young people especially, and not so
young people, better able to participate in the twenty-first century
globalizing world," Powell said.
Following is the transcript of Secretary of State Powell's roundtable
with journalists in Cairo on May 12, 2003:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
(Moscow, Russia)
May 14, 2003
INTERVIEW
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
With Egyptian newspapers Al Ahram, Akbar Al Youm,
and The Middle East News Agency
Cairo, Egypt
May 12, 2003
QUESTION: Can we ask you to give us a briefing about your visit to
Cairo and Jerusalem?
SECRETARY POWELL: Here in Cairo it is a pleasure to once again spend
time with a very distinguished leader of the Arab world, President
Mubarak; but beyond that, he's an old friend of mine. We have known
each other for twenty, twenty-five years now, and I have the greatest
respect and admiration for him, so it is a pleasure to meet him. We
always have good, solid, candid discussions.
Today, I briefed him on the situation in Iraq, where we are in our
efforts at stabilization and providing security for the people and the
beginning of our reconstruction efforts and the beginning of the
political process to put in place an Iraqi government that will be
democratic and that will represent all of the people.
I then told him about my trip to Syria last week and the strong
message I gave to President Bashar Assad. I hoped, in light of the
changed strategic circumstances in the region, the changed strategic
situation, Syria would review its policies with respect to providing a
place in Damascus for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the
Popular Front and other organizations to do activities which would be
destabilizing to Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Then, I briefed the President on my time in Israel and Jericho
yesterday with Prime Minister Sharon and with Prime Minister Abbas.
From my conversations yesterday, I came away with a sense that both
Prime Minister Sharon and Prime Minister Abbas want to take advantage
of the new situation that is before them. With the confirmation of
Prime Minister Abbas, we now have a Palestinian leader that the United
States is comfortable working with and talking to. I'm the first
senior official to have the chance to meet with Prime Minister Abbas
since his confirmation. And Prime Minister Sharon now has somebody
that he can talk to and is comfortable talking to.
I told President Mubarak that both sides seem to me to be taking
steps, preliminary, but steps nonetheless, down the path that is laid
out in the roadmap. On the Palestinian side, the appointment of a
Prime Minister, the formation of a cabinet. These are steps that were
expected, anticipated in the roadmap. Mr. Sharon has announced some
steps that he is taking and will be taking in the days ahead, and he
gave me some other steps privately that will be taken in the days
ahead, which shows to me anyway that he is willing to start moving in
this direction. Both of them know that President Bush is now prepared
to engage very, very intensely and more fully in this process. The
roadmap is a way of capturing President Bush's vision of last June
24th. I think it also reflects the vision that the Arab League laid
out at the Beirut Summit meeting last year.
We support the roadmap. It is something that we wrote with our Quartet
partners. The Palestinians have fully accepted it. The Israelis have
not accepted, nor rejected. They have issues with respect to it. They
have questions. They have comments they wish to provide us. They are a
free sovereign nation. If they wish to provide us comments, we will
look at them. We haven't changed the roadmap. We still think the
roadmap captures the President's vision. What is important, I think,
is for Prime Minister Abbas to meet with Prime Minister Sharon so that
they can start talking directly to one another. As I said to Prime
Minister Abbas yesterday, do you want to know why they didn't accept
the roadmap? You can have the chance to ask them. And we (inaudible)
when we used our good offices and both Prime Ministers have agreed to
be and will be meeting some time in the very near future, and they can
talk to directly to one another. We will be ready, willing and able to
participate in any way that we can, any level that we have to, whether
it's the level of my envoys, or me personally involved, or the
President.
And the President's involvement begins next week when he sees Prime
Minister Sharon-the first time he will have seen the Prime Minister
since our operation in Iraq and since there has been the appointment
of a Palestinian prime minister. And I hope it will be after Prime
Minister Sharon and Prime Minister Abbas have spoken. I hope that is
the case. It all depends on their schedules.
So, this is a time of promise. Both sides want to see the other side
do more. Security remains a key issue that has to be dealt with.
Whether one accepts or does not accept or remains silent at the moment
on the roadmap, or whether one fully accepts the roadmap, the issue of
right of return or the issue of Jerusalem and its final status, all
these are interesting questions. They are important questions. But,
the most important issue and the most pressing question is get
started, get started on security, get started with the political
transformation in the Palestinian Authority, and get started on the
Israeli side with starting to open up things, open up closures, open
up opportunities for people to move, and get on with their lives,
increase the flow of revenue to the Palestinian Authority from the
revenues that the Israelis are holding which belongs to the
Palestinian Authority. And we got a commitment from the Prime
Minister, increasing the rate of revenue return to assist in housing
and people.
And so, that is what I talked to President Mubarak about. We also
talked about our bilateral relations, which are good and strong. And I
especially thanked the President and his colleagues for their strong
efforts in assisting the Palestinians, finding a way forward to the
appointment and confirmation of a Prime Minister. In the last days,
the Egyptian Government played a very important role in making that
happen as you all know.
QUESTION: You couldn't convince Mr. Sharon to accept the roadmap?
SECRETARY POWELL: We understand that he has comments about the
roadmap, so I didn't feel that it was the time to try to force the
issue with respect to a particular word. He didn't say he accepted it,
didn't say he rejected it. He has comments on the roadmap some of
which he has provided to us, others he will provide surly when he sees
the President. So, everybody is focusing on this issue as if it is the
life and death issue. It is not the life and death issue. The death
issue is when he accepts or not accepts. The real issue is do we get
started? Do we get some movement? Do we start taking some action? And
I don't know how many times I have started down this road to be
frustrated and not see progress made, because we are perhaps focusing
on the wrong word, or the wrong issue, or the wrong concept. What I
pressed both sides to do, which is more important for me to do than
anything else I can think of, was to get started with security reform,
get started with some relief of the conditions under which the
Palestinian people live.
QUESTION: Is it just to exert or to exercise number of making this
pressure on the Palestinian asking them for concrete measures,
concerning security and so on and at the same time you are satisfied
with only gestures from the Israeli side. Putting in mind that the new
government is fragile, the situation in Palestine itself is very, very
sensitive, and I think that Abu-Mazen and his colleagues cannot afford
such pressure like that. Asking for a concrete measure from one side
and from the other side just a humanitarian gesture here or there,
opening the roads or giving some money. Is this approach ... is it
workable?
SECRETARY POWELL: Of course it is workable. I mean you just say a few
humanitarian gestures, but these are more than just a few humanitarian
gestures. If we can get the Israelis moving in this direction it is
what the Palestinians has been asking for. Let us get to our jobs, let
us get to our schools, let us start to live a more normal life, let us
open up the area so we are not being constantly stopped at these
checkpoints. Start to make life better for the Palestinian people. And
I don't think what I asked Prime Minister Abbas to do was American
pressure or unreasonable. After he was confirmed by the legislature
two weeks ago, in his very first speech -- not written by the United
States or any one else -- in his very first speech he stood up and
said we've got to stop violence, we've got to stop terror, we have to
tell the Palestinian people that this must end because it is not
getting us anywhere. It is important that he said that, I am pleased
that he said it, but when he said it he then put the burden on
himself, correctly, to begin working to put an end to terror and to
violence.
And in the appointment of Mohamed Dahlan as his Minister for Security,
which was very controversial, he put in place a person who knows how
to do this, has done it before and has experience and has assets
available to him. Not enough assets and we will try and help him with
more assets to put in place with someone who can do it. So I don't
think that saying to Mr. Abbas that we should push you in these
efforts and we encourage you is pressure; it is assistance to him and
support of his efforts. But let's put it this way: Unless this
happens, unless there is an end to terror and violence, until, unless
Hamas and PIJ realize that the Palestinian people no longer want to
see this kind of activity. Remember Hamas and PIJ and these other
types of organizations are not interested in peace, they are not
interested in finding a two state solution. They are interested in the
destruction of Israel and as long as that remain their primary
objective there will never be any progress toward achieving a state
for the Palestinian people and Prime Minister Abbas said that clearly
to his people and so I do not think I'm telling him anything that he
did not know before or asking to take a position that he has not
already taken.
QUESTION: There is a strong concern here in the Arab world right now
that by using delaying tactics, Sharon may succeed in postponing the
whole process or at least not making enough progress until the
presidential election which will take or will start very soon in
summer. What can be done? Not to....
SECRETARY POWELL: Well first, I do not accept the premise. In the
United States presidential elections never go away, they are always
there. And if President Bush was worried about his re-election and how
this might affect his re-election prospects, we are only 17 months
from the elections. He wouldn't have started, he wouldn't have sent me
here, he wouldn't have talked about it, he wouldn't put out the
roadmap, he wouldn't have written a speech last Friday, talking about
a Middle East free trade area, he wouldn't have said I am now going to
devote my attention to the Middle East. He would have just said sorry,
it is 17 months to the elections I don't want to take any chances now
so we will do this after I get re-elected. That would have been the
easiest thing for him to do if it was an election issue for him. And
if was anyone on the Arab side or the Israeli side who think that some
how President Bush will be distracted or delayed until we get closer
to the election and he can not do anything, they're wrong.
The President has committed to do something. He fully looked at the
calendar; he made a close examination of the calendar when he decided
to get involved. He knew if he started now, we'll still be at it when
we got closer to the election in 5 to 6 months or a year from now.
This is not a problem that will be solved overnight. So I suspect that
is a problem that we will be working on through the remainder of this
administration and after the President is certainly re-elected, we
will continue to work on it in his second term. Hopefully, we made a
lot more progress than we have made so far. The President looked at
the situation here or the situation in Israel and the occupied
territories. And now that Iraq has been dealt with in terms of Saddam
Hussein regime, he realized that he had made a commitment to the world
especially to the Arab world, President Mubarak, Crown Prince
Abdullah, King Abdullah, Prime Minister Sharon, the Palestinian
leaders and to the Palestinian people. And especially, since he calls
for transformed Palestinian leadership, he asked the Palestinian
people to look at where Yasser Arafat had taken them and said, "Is
that where we want to be or do you want to bring up new leadership?"
And they brought up new leadership in a form of Prime Minister Abbas
and his cabinet. And so the Palestinians did what we asked them to do.
And the President is going to do what he said he would do. No matter
when the election is.
QUESTION: In spite of the fact that it's been a long time since the
declaration of the roadmap, you could not convince the Israelis to
accept up until now. And in spite of the very close relations, the
very special relations, and everything, and you are paving the way on
a worldwide strategy, and so on: Afghanistan, Iraq and everywhere. And
the atmosphere, as you mentioned in the papers, a new strategic
situation exists now. So, why did you not prepare the Israelis to
accept and to move sincerely? You ask the Palestinians to stop
violence (which is) correct. Why don't you ask Israel to stop
occupation, to stop killing, to stop assassinations to stop bombarding
the houses just to create an atmosphere on which you can do and your
intentions and you said you are coming here for an explanation, to
consult, for a number of things. What is it?
SECRETARY POWELL: Every issue that you just talked about we have
discussed with the Israelis. And I think you will find that in the
days ahead a number of the steps that they have taken, which has yet
to be publicized, will be done and they are starting to move in the
directions that we want them to move in order to create a better
atmosphere. But the better atmosphere won't remain a better atmosphere
if the terror continues. If I were to be able to get the Israelis to
release every hold that they have over every village and city and
occupied territory, if I could get them to release every road block
and check point and that produced a wave of new violence. What would
the Israelis do the day after? They would put it all back in. So, it
does not stand alone. They have to take steps and they will slowly
release their grip, and I am confident that grip will be released,
consistent with the ability of the Palestinian authorities to exercise
control over those areas from which suicide bombers come and from
which violence originates. Violence that is driven, to a large extent,
by organizations that have no desire to live in peace with Israel. And
violence that also -- I am quite sure, and I don't doubt -- reflects
the frustration and the anger and the difficult circumstances under
which the Palestinian people live. These young people who commit
suicide in the context of these acts reflect the deep anger that
exists within the Palestinian community.
And what I hope we will be able to do now is to start to move forward
with steps taken by the Israeli side. And the President will call for
more steps, as we can demonstrate to the world and as the Palestinian
side can demonstrate to the Israeli side that something is being done
about terrorist organizations, that the new leadership under Prime
Minister Abbas is giving one hundred percent effort and shows one
hundred percent intent to bring terror under control. Then that
strengthens our hand to apply greater pressure and give more
encouragement to the Israelis so that they open up more and more and
more.
It isn't going to happen overnight. You have to understand that while
there is anger -- you do understand, forgive me -- while there is
anger and desire in the Palestinian community for a state of their own
and the end of this terrible situation, there is also anger and fear
within the Israeli community for the bombs that have taken so many
lives, too many lives have been lost on both sides. And so we have to
get started. And I don't know where to start but at the beginning. The
situation, the cards that we have been dealt now, the siege situation
in the West Bank towns that destroyed the Palestinian economy, that
made it difficult for Palestinians to live a normal life, that has
created a sixty percent unemployment rate. That is terrible. We have
to get that siege lifted. The siege is there because of the terror and
the terrorist actions that were coming out of these places. And so
what we have to do is get that terror ended. And, as terror ends and
we can get the Israelis to recognize that, then they lose any reason
they have to do the kinds of things that are of such concern to you.
QUESTION: Do you believe the date in the roadmap to establish a
Palestinian state by 2005 is feasible?
SECRETARY POWELL: It remains our goal. It becomes more difficult the
more time passes without movement down the road. But the President
still holds to that goal, but obviously it becomes more difficult
unless we get started. So I hope now we can get started.
QUESTION: Can we move it back?
SECRETARY POWELL: We don't want to move it, we want to hold that goal.
But you can watch the calendar as easily as I can, but let's not lose
sight of that goal right now.
QUESTION: Mr. Abbas in his speech asked for an authority to watch over
the implementation of the peace agreement. Do you have any ideas about
this?
SECRETARY POWELL: The United States has said for two years that we
would provide monitors to watch both sides, to serve as adjudicator as
problems come along.
QUESTION: Monitors? U.S. or UN?
SECRETARY POWELL: This has been on the record for two years. U.S.
monitors, not U.N., U.S. monitors. The President made a commitment at
the G-8 Summit two years ago in Genoa, that we would be willing to do
this. Not armed troops to come in as a force between the two sides,
but monitors to monitor agreements made between the two sides. When
disputes arise or where there are concerns or where there is tension
in a particular area, the monitors would be there to calm the
situation and try to resolve the issue.
QUESTION: The CIA and other United States government agencies have
served as monitors before, no?
SECRETARY POWELL: No, the CIA and other people there were trying to
help them form their security presence and there is one area, I forget
which city it was, where there were some-Hebron-it was a small
monitoring presence. But it wasn't really monitoring the agreement
between the two sides. We are talking about the roadmap. We start down
the roadmap, let's say that security is established in the north zone,
north part of Gaza and the Israelis pull out of everywhere around
there and it is now all Palestinian, this is a place where you might
have some monitors, who could be there to make sure that is the way it
remains and if any problems arise, the monitors would be there to
assist the two sides in resolving it, or at least be an independent
judge of what has taken place.
This isn't new, this is old. Both sides ... the Israelis have said
they are willing to accept U.S. monitors.
QUESTION: I have just a comment and a question. The comment is, I, as
we noticed, you are insisting on isolating Arafat. In my opinion this
is going to weaken Abbas' hand on the situation in Palestine and I
think it is not in the interest of the peace process to weaken Abbas
and to, in a way, to render the political basis of him rather weaker
that it is. The question is ... if you would like to comment on this.
But I have another question, which is, in my opinion, very important
about the new vision which President Bush recently declared about the
free trade zone which will be established within ten years between
America and Arab world and before that you have yourself, for three
months or something like that, also indicated through some kind of a
partnership where democracy and political reforms and education and
everything should be introduced. But what is it all about, how are you
going to do this and I haven't heard of any kind of consultation
between you and any of the Arab countries, how are you going to do all
these things? Are you going to impose it? Are you going to persuade
it....
SECRETARY POWELL: Are you going to finish the question? (Laughter) No,
I will sit here, and you can keep going!
On Arafat, we made a decision last year, when the President gave his
vision speech, that we couldn't achieve that vision by working with
Chairman Arafat because he had had many opportunities over the years
to achieve the vision and he failed.
My own experience with Mr. Arafat was unfortunate and difficult. When
I was here a year ago and he was surrounded in the Muqata, I said to
him, we will work to break the siege in Muqata, break the siege in
Bethlehem, but then you have to act. You have to act against terror;
you have to act against violence. I said to him, unless you change,
unless you really start leading your people in a better direction,
this may be the last time I am able to talk to you, because you are
not leading your people in the right direction.
We broke the siege of the Muqata. He came out and we saw no change
once he was out, he was acting in the same way. And so we made a
decision that we had to wait for new leadership and that is what we
did, we waited. And the Palestinian people have produced that new
leadership with Prime Minister Abbas.
Mr. Arafat is still receiving delegations. The Greek Foreign Minister,
who is in the Presidency of the European Union, will be seeing him in
a couple of days. Mr. Solana will be seeing him, Mr. Fischer saw him,
Mr. Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, not too long ago. So, it's
not as if he is unable to get his message out and I know that he is
the elected leader of the Palestinian people. I also know the regard
he is held in by the Palestinian people for the struggle that he has
represented all these years. But we believe that he has missed an
opportunity, that he has failed to move the Palestinian people one
step closer to a Palestinian state.
Now with respect to your second question, we have a number of
initiatives under way. The Middle East Partnership Initiative you made
reference to which is what I gave a speech on a few months ago, which
is a way to work with developing political initiatives and educational
initiatives and teacher training and a number of other efforts that we
have under way to work with Arab nations for social advancement and
for political development and for educational development and economic
development to help make young people especially, and not so young
people, better able to participate in the twenty-first century
globalizing world.
The President added to that on Friday when he gave a speech in South
Carolina, when he talked about a free trade area in the Middle East.
The President believes in free trade as a way of bettering the lives
of people. So we have a free trade agreement with Jordan, we want to
begin discussions on a free trade agreement with Egypt; we have free
trade agreements with nations around the world. We are going to have a
free trade area of Central America in the near future and then we want
to have the whole hemisphere, North and South America and Central
America in one great free trade agreement. Last week, in Washington,
we signed a free trade agreement with Singapore.
We believe free trade agreements are good for the world. And so why
not have one for this part of the world? Why not have a free trade
agreement that links all of the nations of this region with the United
States in open trading? And so the bottom line to your question is,
are we going to impose it? How can we impose it? We have been in
consultation with our Arab friends in the region. They know what we
think about democracy and what we think about education and what we
think about infrastructure. We briefed all the nations in the region
on what the elements of the Middle East Partnership Initiative are and
I am sure David, Ambassador Welch, can speak to it, but impose it? No,
how can we impose it? Democracy is not something we go around
imposing. Democracy is something that we present to the world, we
share with the world, and each nation makes it own judgment as to how
it wishes to proceed. Egypt is a sovereign nation that's had a
legislature for a hundred years and has had a representative form of
government for many years in different iterations. And so we offer
these tools to help Egypt and to help other nations in the world move
forward. Not in the spirit of "here you've got to do it our way," but
in the spirit of look, here are some things that we believe can help
you. Here is a menu, here is a buffet table, and how can we help you?
And if you don't want the help, don't take it.
Thank you very much.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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