28 May 2003
Bush Believes Visit to Mideast Can Give Impetus to Peace Process
(National Security Advisor Rice briefs on upcoming trip) (1260)
By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent
Washington -- White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
says President Bush believes the time is right to try to help the
Israelis and the Palestinians move toward peace, and that is why he
decided to go to the Middle East directly following his May 30-June 2
visits to Poland and Russia and attendance at the annual G-8 meeting
of leading industrial nations in Evian-les-Bains, France.
From June 2-5, Bush will visit Egypt, Jordan and Qatar.
"The president has always said that when he thought he could give a
little impetus to what is going to be a very long and difficult
process, that he would do so," Rice explained, as she briefed
reporters at the White House May 28 on the president's upcoming trip.
Bush, she said, "believes that this is a new opportunity for peace at
the end of the war in Iraq; and particularly, with changes in the
Palestinian leadership, that there is a new opportunity, with the
Israeli government's acceptance of the steps in the roadmap and some
of the statements that [Israel's] Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon has
made about the future that he sees with the Palestinian people."
President Bush "just believes that this is a good time to sit down,
face to face, eye to eye, with the leaders who have responsibility for
trying to bring about that peace" in the Middle East, she said.
"I want to be very clear; this is going to be a long process, and it
is going to have ups and downs, as it has always had. But on this
entire Middle East portion, what the president will do is to talk to
the assembled leaders about their responsibilities and about our
responsibilities to try and push forward the peace," Rice said.
"[T]he core of the president's message," she said, is "that it's fine
for the Palestinians to talk about what Israel ought to do, and Israel
to talk about what the Palestinians ought to do, but it's best if
everybody takes on their responsibilities for peace and pursues them
aggressively.
"That's a message that is getting through in the Middle East, and it's
a message that our European colleagues are telling us that they're
very glad he's going to have this opportunity to take."
Rice said that, "conditions permitting," Bush would meet separately
with Sharon and with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and
also jointly with the two of them.
Bush "has always said that he wants to meet when he believes that he
can advance the agenda. He fully believes that he is now in a position
to advance the agenda, or we would not have planned the trip," she
said.
"We're watching the circumstances. We're watching to see if the
parties are moving forward. It is, after all, the case that the
parties have to be dedicated and devoted in moving forward. But we
believe that we're at a place where this meeting is likely to be very
helpful. And so the president is simply saying that he will assess,
but he fully believes that he's going to be able to go forward," she
said.
Earlier, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters that
the French government had been notified that President Bush would be
leaving the G-8 meeting before its conclusion to go to the Middle
East.
"The French were notified yesterday about the duration which the
president will be there. Obviously, he has a lot of priorities on this
trip, and the Middle East is clearly one of them," Fleischer said.
"But he'll be there for all the main events. ... He'll have plenty of
opportunities to focus on the events at Evian, which he very much
wants to participate in and focus on because, after all, the purpose
of Evian and the G-8 is to talk about how to improve, by working
together, the economies of the world," the press secretary said.
"At a time when the United States economy is growing faster than most
of the European economies, there's a lot we can talk about,
particularly also helping the developing world by the United States
and Europe working together."
Following is President Bush's itinerary as outlined by Rice:
President and Mrs. Bush, will arrive in Krakow, Poland, the night of
Friday, May 30. The following morning they will travel to Auschwitz
and Birkenhau to honor the memory of the innocents lost in the
Holocaust.
Bush will then have a bilateral meeting with Poland's President
Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Leszek Miller and then
deliver an address to the people of Poland before departing later that
afternoon for St. Petersburg, Russia.
That evening President and Mrs. Bush will join Russia's President
Vladimir Putin and Mrs. Putin and their guests in celebrating the
300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg.
On Sunday, June 1, President Bush and President Putin will meet to
discuss issues of bilateral and regional interest, including Iran.
Later that morning Bush will depart St. Petersburg for Geneva en route
to Evian, France, for the meeting of G-8 leaders.
Bush will lunch with the meeting host, French President Jacques
Chirac, and with the other G-8 leaders. At the lunch Chirac will also
host many other heads of state as well as the leaders of several
multilateral organizations. All of these leaders will then participate
in a meeting later that afternoon.
The evening of June 1, Bush will meet with Chinese President Hu
Jintao. Bush will then dine with his fellow G-8 leaders, and the heads
of the member nations of the New Partnership for African Development.
Monday, June 2, the G-8 leaders will hold a working session, and then
Bush and Chirac will meet together. After that there will be a working
lunch of the G-8 leaders.
Later that afternoon on June 2 Bush will depart the G-8 for Sharm
el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the invitation of Egypt's President Hosni
Mubarak.
The morning of June 3 Bush will hold a bilateral meeting with Mubarak.
Mubarak will then host a meeting of Bush, Crown Prince Abdallah of
Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, and the
Palestinian prime minister.
That will be followed by a working lunch of that group of leaders.
The following morning, June 3rd, the president will have a bilateral
meeting with Mubarak. Mubarak will then host a meeting with Bush,
Crown Prince Abdullah, King Abdullah, King Hamad, and the Palestinian
prime minister. That will be followed by a working lunch of that group
of leaders.
Bush will depart the next morning, Wednesday, June 4th, for Aqaba,
Jordan, at the invitation of King Abdullah, with whom he will meet
upon his arrival.
Later that morning, "conditions permitting," Bush will meet with Prime
Minister Sharon, followed by a meeting with Prime Minister Abbas.
That afternoon, "conditions permitting," the president will have a
trilateral meeting with Sharon and Abbas.
The president will then depart en route to Doha, Qatar, where the next
morning, Thursday, June 5th, he will breakfast with Ambassador Paul
Bremer and General Tommy Franks, followed by a meeting with his host,
Amir Hamad.
The president will then travel to regional Central Command
headquarters to visit with coalition forces.
That evening, President and Mrs. Bush will depart for Washington,
arriving home on the night of June 5th.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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