24 May 2003
Excerpt: Powell Says U.S. Not Planning on Making Changes to the Roadmap
(Secretary of state participates in G-8 media briefing May 23) (1400)
Secretary of State Colin Powell took part in a press conference at the
G-8 meetings in Paris May 23. Excerpts from that briefing follow:
(begin excerpt)
Questions and Answers at G-8 Press Conference
Secretary Colin L. Powell
Paris, France
May 23, 2003
QUESTION: Secretary Powell, are there any changes in the roadmap that
might elicit an acceptance by Prime Minister Sharon, any adjustments
at all that you think might be able to be made that could get Israel
to accept this? And how do you feel about the European position that
communications should still continue, dialogue with President Arafat?
And I'd like to ask you, Mr. de Villepin, you're planning to go to the
region on Sunday, you are planning to meet with Yasser Arafat. Does
that undercut the American attempts to try to build up the authority
of Mohamed Abbas and change direction by the Palestinians?
Thank you, both.
SECRETARY POWELL: With respect to the roadmap, we are not planning on
making any changes to the roadmap. I might mention that just a few
moments ago in Washington the United States issued a statement, and in
that statement we took note of the fact that Israel has made certain
comments with respect to the roadmap.
And we had asked the parties to let us know if they had comments
concerning the roadmap, and we have told the Israeli Government that
we would take their comments into consideration and address them fully
and seriously as we went forward in the implementation of the roadmap,
but this does not require us to change the roadmap. It is a good
document that leads to the President's vision of two states living in
peace side by side, the vision that I think all of us here hold.
We are expecting a response from the state of Israel to our statement
within the very near future.
With respect to Mr. Arafat, we have made our position well known since
last June that we would not be dealing with him. We felt it was
important for us to have a new interlocutor representing the
Palestinian people with whom we could deal in a reliable way, somebody
who was committed to peace.
We recognize the position that President Arafat holds within the eyes
of the Palestinian people and his elected position, but we don't
believe that he has lived up to the expectations of his people and he
has not brought them one step or one day closer to a Palestinian
state. It is for that reason that we have been encouraging the
Palestinian Authority to come up with a new Prime Minister, which they
have done, and so we'll be investing our time and energy with Prime
Minister Abbas. And my colleagues, of course, are free, sovereign
nations and make their own choices in such matters.
QUESTION: A question for Mr. de Villepin and Mr. Powell. Can you
comment on the state of Franco-American relations? How would you
characterize them now?
SECRETARY POWELL: The United States and France have been friends and
allies for many years, more than two centuries, and we remain friends
and allies. We have had a serious disagreement in recent months. We're
not going to paper it over and pretend it didn't occur. It did occur.
And we're going to work our way through that. But we will always be
pulled together by the strongest ties of common values, a belief in
the individual rights of men and women, democracy, the free enterprise
system, and all that our two nations and two peoples have been through
together for the last 225 years.
QUESTION: Again, a question for Secretary of State Powell and Mr. de
Villepin. I'd like to ask them what they expect to get concretely out
of the Evian summit which could really progress the Doha trade talks.
On the French suggestion for a moratorium on export subsidies on farm
goods to Africa, Mr. Powell, what is your view on that and whether
there's an agreement we can get in Evian?
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't think I have much more to add. President
Bush is looking forward very much to being at Evian and discussing
these issues with his colleagues -- security, the global war against
terrorism, that we are making progress in that war but there is much
more to be done, as we can see from recent events.
How do we energize the Doha process? And I am sure there will be a
full discussion, and I won't get into it now, of economic policy,
agricultural policy, genetically modified food and things of that
nature, but I'll leave that for the heads of state and government to
discuss next week.
QUESTION: Going back to the roadmap for a moment, do you have any
evidence that the Palestinian Authority is able, on its own, to stop
the terrorism incidents? If not, does the Quartet have any concrete
plan to help the Palestinian Authority?
Whoever.
SECRETARY POWELL: We have been in conversation with the Palestinian
Authority with Prime Minister Abbas, as well as his Minister for
Security Mr. Dahlan, and they have come up with a plan. To execute
that plan will require assistance to rebuild their security forces,
their security apparatus, the infrastructure of the security
organization. And the United States, working with other interested
friends in the region and from Quartet membership will assist the
Palestinian Authority in that regard.
I think it's also been made clear by Prime Minister Abbas' early
statements as Prime Minister that he will be speaking out clearly to
the Palestinian people about the need to end terror and violence as a
way forward. And so we are looking for, and believe we will receive
from Prime Minister Abbas, 100 percent intent and 100 percent effort
to bring terror and violence under control. And then we have to all
help him and Mr. Dahlan and others put in place the capacity to do
that, and also make sure that they are working closely with the
Israelis because there has to be a coordinated, cooperative effort
with the Israelis as well in order to be able to recreate Palestinian
security forces that both sides can have confidence in.
As Prime Minister Abbas has said publicly, and he said to me, the end
of terror and the end of violence is not just something we are doing
for the Israeli people; it's something we are doing for our own people
in order for us to be able to move forward, rebuild our economy,
rebuild our society, and move toward that goal that we all have, that
vision that we all share, of a Palestinian state living side by side
in peace with the state of Israel.
QUESTION: Mr. Powell, do you agree that perhaps we should have a
specific roadmap for Lebanon and Syria to involve the international
community towards global peace, as you have been requesting for a
number of years? Does Mr. Bush, perhaps, want to go to Riyadh during
his next trip in that region, and how do you see, how do you assess
the first measures taken by the authorities of Saudi Arabia after the
recent terrorist attacks?
SECRETARY POWELL: What the Arab League has expressed in their Beirut
statement last year is for a comprehensive solution in the Middle East
that would include not only Israel and Palestine, but also Syria and
Lebanon. A couple of years ago, some progress was being made on the
Syrian track especially, but that came to a halt when the Intifada
reached such a level of violence that no progress could be made on the
Palestinian track.
With progress on the Palestinian track, hopefully that will, in due
course, lead to progress on the Syrian track. But let's simply not
overlook a simple fact that it is the Palestinian-Israeli track that
is the major stumbling block, the major problem that we have to solve
now. But we have not lost the vision of a comprehensive settlement
that would include Syria and, ultimately, Lebanon.
With respect to that issue, you asked one more question concerning
Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is responding fully now to what happened
with the bombs a week or so ago, and we are satisfied with the
cooperation we are receiving from them.
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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