30 May 2003
Powell Sees "New Dynamic" at Work in Mideast
(Secretary briefs on Air Force One en route to Poland) (5730)
There is a "new dynamic" in the Middle East resulting from the ouster
of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, new governments in Israel and the
Palestinian Authority, and President Bush's ability in recent weeks to
get Israelis and Palestinians to begin steps on the road map to peace,
says Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Powell briefed May 30 on Air Force One as he accompanied President
Bush at the start of a week-long trip to Europe and the Middle East.
Asked about his hopes for the planned meeting June 4 in Aqaba, Jordan,
of Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime
Minister Mahmoud Abbas, Powell said what's important is that for the
first time the Israeli and Palestinian leaders and the U.S. president
will be sitting in a room together, "with all three parties sharing a
common vision of moving to a situation where a Palestinian state is
created to live side by side in peace with Israel."
On the June 3 meeting of Bush and Arab leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh,
Egypt, Powell said "the goal will be to make sure that we have all of
our Arab friends solidly in line with their vision of last year and
the president's vision, so that they will provide assistance to Abu
Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] to strengthen his position as prime minister."
He said "we hope that they will understand that it may require more
practical support in the way of assisting the Palestinian Authority
and recreating and restructuring their security establishment, as well
as economic assistance for the Palestinian people as the process
starts to move."
Powell said Bush has been "deeply interested" in the Middle East
situation from the beginning of his administration, but the various
efforts at advancing the peace process "all failed because of terror
and violence. We couldn't find a way to go forward."
He said "we realized that we couldn't go forward unless we had
leadership in the Palestinian side that would give 100 percent effort
and 100 percent intent, and speak to the Palestinian people about the
need to end terror and violence. And we didn't get that with Mr.
Arafat. We tried, I tried."
Now, he said the Palestinians have a new leader who is "a serious
interlocutor for peace."
Asked about recent charges that the intelligence process prior to the
Iraq war was politicized so that it would generate material to justify
military action, Powell said that everything he presented to the U.N.
Security Council on the February 5 was based on "good sourcing" and
"was not politicized, it was solid information that was being
presented to us for our consideration for that briefing, not by
political appointees, but by the analysts who were responsible for
it."
He said he worked with the analysts themselves until midnight three
straight nights, "challenging them, because I knew that it was the
credibility of the United States that was going to be on the line on
the 5th of February. ... And what we put up on the 5th of February was
the best analytic product that we could have put up. And it was
mutli-sourced, and multi-sourced by the people who knew."
Following is a transcript of the Powell briefing:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
May 30, 2003
PRESS GAGGLE BY SECRETARY COLIN POWELL
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Krakow, Poland
9:45 A.M. EDT
MR. FLEISCHER: All right, we have a special guest star for you this
morning. So I'll turn it over to Secretary Powell, on the record, for
the gaggle.
SECRETARY POWELL: Okay, I'll take your questions. I think Condi, in
her briefing the other day, gave you a pretty good sense of what the
trip is all about, the schedule, as well as our goals for each of the
stops. So I'll just go right to your questions.
Q: Is the President going to bring specific demands to the summit in
Jordan, for both sides to do certain things?
SECRETARY POWELL: I think in Sharm el Sheikh the goal will be to make
sure that we have all of our Arab friends solidly in line with their
vision of last year and the President's vision, so that they will
provide assistance to Abu Mazen to strengthen his position as Prime
Minister, their political support, their support for the road map,
their support for the President's vision, and we hope that they will
understand that it may require more practical support in the way of
assisting the Palestinian Authority and recreating and restructuring
their security establishment, as well as economic assistance for the
Palestinian people as the process starts to move.
So it will be a way for the President to share points of view with the
leaders who will be with him at Sharm el Sheikh and to show a
consistent position as he then gets ready to go over to Aqaba for the
summit that we hope will all come together. Right now it looks very
good.
Just to shift a moment, the meeting yesterday with Prime Minister
Abbas and Prime Minister Sharon seems to have been productive. Both
sides came away feeling that it was a useful meeting. Prime Minister
Sharon again indicated that there were steps he wanted to take to
assist the Palestinian Authority, and Prime Minister Abbas once again
reaffirmed his intention to give the full weight of his office to
ending terror and violence.
So I think that was a good meeting. Make sure the Arabs at Sharm el
Sheikh reinforce that, and it sets us up nicely to go into Aqaba to
meet with Prime Minister Sharon, King Abdullah and Prime Minister
Abbas.
Q: Do you think Arafat has backed off a little bit since a couple days
ago?
SECRETARY POWELL: I think -- I've noticed a little backing off. A
couple of days ago Mr. Arafat seemed to be trying to make it more
difficult for Prime Minister Abbas to meet with Prime Minister Sharon.
But the meeting did take place, which suggests to me that Prime
Minister Abbas does have authority to act, he is not beholden to Mr.
Arafat's instructions. And I think this is encouraging.
Q: What's your best case scenario coming out of the Jordan summit,
that each side makes a declaration that the other side has a right to
exist? What exactly?
SECRETARY POWELL: I can't go that far yet, even though I've seen some
speculation about whether they would both say such a thing. What's
important is that for the first time you're going to have the Israeli
Prime Minister sitting in a room with the Palestinian Authority's new
Prime Minister and the President of the United States, with all three
parties sharing a common vision of moving to a situation where a
Palestinian state is created to live side by side in peace with
Israel.
All three sides committed to a process called the road map to get
there. The road map isn't as important as what happens within the
concept of the road map: both sides taking steps, cracking down on
terror, ending violence, making life easier for the Palestinian people
by starting to pull back from some of the closures that are there,
removing some of the forces from around the cities.
And if we can come away from Aqaba with both sides once again
demonstrating -- all three parties, really, demonstrating their
commitment to the road map and the Israelis and the Palestinians
committing themselves with the President of the United States and in
the presence of the President of the United States to taking the steps
that they have been talking about, I think that will be a successful
outcome.
I used as little metaphor the other day. Let's not look for the
56-yard pass right away, or a 54-yard field goal. We've got to get
this started. We've now got it started. We've got responsible leaders
who want to move forward. And it will be a step at a time and it will
take a long time. The issues are difficult, the tensions are great.
The lack of trust is there, and we have got to rebuild trust and get
the two parties started.
The United States is committed to playing an important role in this
process. And the President has said repeatedly that he is determined
to play an important role, personally, in this process. And this is
really his first opportunity to do so in the presence of the two
leaders.
Q: In his meetings with the other Arab leaders, will he be looking for
expressions of support and solidarity with Abbas, support for his rule
and that same kind of pressure being brought to bare going forward? Is
that part of his message to them, that they have to really --
SECRETARY POWELL: I'm sure statements will come out of the meting, and
we're discussing that with the Arab leaders and their ministers now.
But what I hope will come out of that meeting and I expect will come
out of that meeting will be a strong endorsement for Prime Minister
Abbas and his new role as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian
Authority and a strong statement of support for him and his efforts,
and why, if we want to achieve this vision that we have, it is
necessary to give him that kind of support.
We have a new dynamic in the region with the end of the Saddam Hussein
regime, with a new government in Israel, with a new government in the
Palestinian Authority and a Prime Minister who is a serious
interlocutor for peace, and with the President's ability -- his
ability in the last several weeks to get both sides to agree to begin
steps into the road map. We have a new dynamic and we want to make
sure that the Arabs fully support that. We know they will, but this
will be a way to demonstrate that support in a very public way with
the President.
Q: How much of a problem is Arafat? How much of a problem will he be
going forward?
SECRETARY POWELL: Europe?
Q: Arafat.
SECRETARY POWELL: Arafat. Mr. Arafat is still an elected official. He
still has standing among the Palestinian people, that's not deniable.
But we think he's been a failed leader for the Palestinian people, and
his many years of leadership have not brought -- many years of
leadership have not brought the Palestinian people one step or one day
closer to a Palestinian state.
And so we're not denying who he is or what he is, but since last June
24th we have not seen him as a responsible partner for peace. Now with
a new Prime Minister who we see as a responsible partner for peace and
who the Israelis are now speaking to -- two meetings already, Sharon
and Abbas -- Arafat is there, but I hope people will recognize that
the future lies with the new leadership, not with the old leadership.
Q: What changed Ariel Sharon's mind? What happens in that --
SECRETARY POWELL: Can we go off the record for a minute? It was
obviously my visit. (Laughter.)
Q: No, it was just -- it was extraordinary.
SECRETARY POWELL: Ariel Sharon has said all along that he wanted to
move forward. In every meeting he had with the President and every
meeting I've had with him, he has always made the point that he wanted
to move forward. He wanted peace. But he would not put the security of
Israel at risk. And he could not work with Arafat. He did not see
Arafat as a partner for peace.
The President made it clear to Prime Minister Sharon that he was
committed to finding a way to move forward toward peace, but that the
President came to the conclusion, which he put out in his 24 June
speech, that we couldn't work any longer with Arafat. You remember
last April I went to the -- Ramallah, the Muqatta'a, and told Arafat,
you've got to change or else we can't work with you any longer; made
it clear to him. He didn't change, we moved on.
And then toward the end of last year we had Israeli elections. Prime
Minister Sharon now had a new government in place. We put pressure on
the Palestinian people and Authority and encouraged them to come up
with new leadership, and they did. And so I think Prime Minister
Sharon, seeing all of this, realized that there was a new situation.
And with the end of the Hussein regime, one of the real threats to the
security of Israel was eliminated. And the President now made his
commitment, that it's time to get involved, it's time to accept the
road map, it's time to go on.
I also think Prime Minister Sharon realizes that the plight of the
Palestinian people and their economy should be a concern to all of us.
And the Israeli economy was also hurting. The Israeli people want
peace, but they'll also say to you that they want security. And so to
get both security and peace, you have to have two elements -- crack
down in violence, but there also has to be a political process both
sides can see that will lead to peace.
And I think Prime Minister Sharon came to the conclusion that the
elements are in place that allow him, as he says, to begin those steps
that are consistent with the road map --
Q: But as recently as May 20th he wasn't coming to the White House,
you know, and there was talk he didn't really want --
SECRETARY POWELL: The reason he didn't come --
Q: Well, but also -- maybe he wasn't ready to deal.
SECRETARY POWELL: No, no.
Q: And then in Israel over that weekend --
SECRETARY POWELL: No, no, no. I visited the weekend before. And we had
very intense discussions, Prime Minister Sharon and myself and my
assistants and his assistants. And that same day I spent hours with
Prime Minister Abbas. I came back to Washington with a solid
understanding of both points of view, discussed them the President and
we were all ready to have a discussion with Prime Minister Sharon on
May 20th. He was coming. And I'm confident the only reason he did not
come was because he had about three bombings in about two days time,
and he didn't feel comfortable that he could leave the country.
And so the alternative was to readjust our thinking and planning. And
he sent a delegation over later the week he was supposed to be here.
And we had conversations with them. I think it was the Thursday the
22nd, or there abouts. And by then we had already begun to think about
doing something in the region, incident to the G8.
So the fact that he didn't come on May 20th did not reflect, you know,
I don't want to be a part of this. I think it reflected the reality of
violence and terror on the ground.
Q: Talking to some of the folks who were involved -- talking to some
of the folks who were involved in these talks in the previous
administration, they said part of the reason why they feel like it
didn't work is because they didn't seize the moment after these high
profile summits, and really be in place -- establish an address in the
region, be there 24/7 to make sure that what was talked about actually
happened. Is that what you're planning to do?
SECRETARY POWELL: Yes. We are going to create a coordination group.
It's being structured now -- all Americans -- that we will put in
place in the region in the very near future. We'll see how the talks
go next week. And this group will go in for the purpose of giving 24/7
presence to help the two sides talk to one another, coordinate with
one another, to assist in recreating and rebuilding the security
structures of the Palestinian Authority and to lend our good offices
to the process so that they are not just dealing with each other, but
they now have somebody who will serve as a monitor, as a mediator, to
help them move forward into the first phase of the road map. We're
looking for somebody to head that up.
Don't think of it in terms of a major envoy, with constant
negotiations. We're not into negotiations yet. We are in the early
stages, where we've got to get them to talk to one another at
different levels. And so it will be a -- there will be somebody in
charge of it, but don't think of a George Mitchell or a special envoy
who is going to be sitting around, Camp David style. That is quite a
ways off.
Q: You said it was going to be all Americans? I'm sorry.
SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, initially all Americans.
Q: Talk a little bit about just the importance of this first meeting
involving the President. Presumably, if things go well, there will be
more, but you only get one first meeting.
SECRETARY POWELL: The President, from the very beginning of his
administration, has been deeply interested in the Middle East and
desirous of finding a way forward. We've found ourselves frustrated
every time an initiative was put forward, whether it was the Mitchell
Plan or the Tenet Plan or the Zinni idea. All of those ideas, they all
failed because of terror and violence. We couldn't find a way to go
forward.
We realized that we couldn't go forward unless we had leadership in
the Palestinian side that would give 100 percent effort and 100
percent intent, and speak to the Palestinian people about the need to
end terror and violence. And we didn't get that with Mr. Arafat. We
tried, I tried.
Finally we put forward a vision. The President took his thoughts, put
forward a vision the 24th of June last year. It also reflected what
we've been hearing from the Arab nations in their Beirut summit, of
their vision of living in peace with Israel and a Palestinian state
together, side by side, and their willingness to eventually restore a
sense of normalcy between Israel -- not restore, but create a sense of
normalcy between Israel and the Arab states. So those pieces came
together. But what was missing was a serious interlocutor on the
Palestinian side. We went through he summer, went through the fall.
Iraq came along, we had to deal with Iraq. Meanwhile, the Israelis had
their election. And then the Palestinians realized, we were serious,
the Israelis are serious, they had to come up with new leadership.
They initially came up with a new finance minister, Fayyad, who we
gained confidence in. He's done a good job. And then finally the
Palestinian legislature decided they needed to act. They amended the
basic law, amended their procedures in the constitution to provide for
a prime minister. Mr. Arafat was pressured to appoint somebody. He
appointed Abu Mazen.
There was a big fight, democratic fight, between the legislature and
Arafat and others. And Abu Mazen was selected by the representatives
of the Palestinian people, who were voting for new leadership, and
therefore, a new way forward.
And so that all came into place over the last couple of months. And
the President did what he said he would do when he met with Arab
leaders all last year, with new leadership and with this road map, I'm
ready to engage fully, especially now that Iraq was behind us. So
that's what he has been doing for the last couple weeks. And in Aqaba
he has the chance to demonstrate his commitment by sitting down with
Sharon, with Abbas, hearing them present their points of view,
engaging with them, and then hopefully coming out with a common
understanding of how we're going to move forward.
And then he is going to invest the resources of the administration,
the Secretary of State, the National Security Advisor -- Condi and I
both are going to be deeply and personally involved in this -- and by
putting a coordination group on the ground. And so this first meeting
is important in that regard, to show to the world the President is
making good on what he said last June and what he's been saying for
the last couple of months.
Q: I just wanted to ask, going into the G8 if you are at all
disappointed by the seeming luke-warm support of some of these
countries to help out in the reconstruction of Iraq? And has the sort
of slow progress, perhaps, of finding weapons of mass destruction sort
of impeded that effort to get them on board?
SECRETARY POWELL: Let me go to the first part of your question, on
luke warm. I don't know that I would call it luke warm. I mean, we're
having an initial donors conference on the 24th of June in New York,
preliminary donors conference, and then a major donors conference a
month or so later where we expect significant contributions to be
made.
The Pentagon is going through all of the offers that have come forward
to put military forces and police forces and other kind of forces in
to help with security and stability. A number of countries that I
visited recently -- France, Germany, Russia -- are all interested in
doing more with respect to reconstruction. And they're anxious, of
course, to see if contracts are out there for them. You know, nothing
wrong with that, because there is going to be money available now that
is oil is flowing, so that Iraq can start rebuilding itself.
So I wouldn't characterize it luke warm, I think we're getting quite a
solid response from the international community. I think it's telling
that when we passed resolution 1483, the lifting sanctions resolution,
it only took us a -- less than 10 days to do that, and we got a
unanimous vote, if I can count Syria, that kind of came in after the
vote and said, yes, we vote yes, too. I think that was a pretty good
expression of support to lift the sanctions and get on with the
rebuilding.
On the second part of your question on weapons of mass destruction,
more teams are going over. We will exploit all of the information we
have. More interviews will be conducted with people who are now
available. Documents are being looked at in greater detail. The
biological weapons facilities, the mobile ones that the DIA and CIA
put a paper out on the other day, I think make it clear that there is
such a capability that's existed over the years.
And the international community always felt that Saddam Hussein was
guilty of having these weapons, which was the basis upon which they
passed 1441 in the first place. And I'm quite confident that the
evidence will be forthcoming, so there can be no doubt in anyone's
mind.
Q: You said that President Putin is changing -- he was sort of rude to
Tony Blair. When you went over, he was a little more conciliatory. Do
you think he's coming closer to the United States on some of these
differences with -- you know, post-war reconstruction and so forth?
SECRETARY POWELL: We had a major disagreement with France, with
Germany, with Russia, with other countries over the Iraq war. I think
where they all are now, where we are, is let's talk about the future;
let's talk about that which pulls us together, and not that which
pulled us apart for a while.
And I think President Putin recognizes that. I had very good
discussions with him. He and the President, since I was there, have
exchanged letters. And I know that the President is looking forward to
seeing President Putin and staring to talk about the future, and not
just, you know, grind our teeth over the disappointments of the past.
I know that's the way the President feels, and based on my meetings
with President Putin and with Chancellor Schroeder and with my
meetings of other officials in France, Foreign Minister de Villepin
and others, I think our friends and allies see it the same way.
It's not to say that we didn't have a bad run with some of our closest
friends and allies and partners. But you move on. Politics and
diplomacy is about moving on. And there are many things we want to
move on to: reconstruction of Iraq, global war on terrorism, the world
economy and strengthening the bilateral relations that we have with
Russia, with Germany and with France.
As the President said in a couple interviews he gave yesterday,
looking forward to seeing Jacques Chirac. France is not an enemy, it's
ally. It's been a friend for 200 plus years, 225 years. Does it mean
we agree with them on every issue and we don't fight from time to
time? Sure we do. But we get over it. We move on, because that which
pulls us together, much stronger than anything that might have
stretched the rubber band in recent past.
Q: Getting back to weapons of mass destruction for a minute. You were
obviously on the ground in the region as a military commander. You
know as much about Hussein and his capabilities as anybody in the
government, probably. Are you surprised that 72 days into this
operation there have not yet been any of the large catches of weapons
found that were predicted before hand?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, we found the vans. And we found a lot of
documents. And the initial read from the documents suggests that these
programs were there. Now, reflect again on what the charges were in
1441 and what the international community has been saying for years.
There were gaps in knowledge. And the Iraqis would not step forward
and bridge those gaps.
We had clear evidence that so many liters of a particular item had
been produced, botulinen, or anthrax, so many rounds of chemical
artillery had been produced. And they refused to explain the gaps
between what we know is produced and what inspectors could identify.
And so that, in itself, was the violation, or one of the violations
that formed the basis of resolution 1441. We knew they were doing
things -- not just gaps in knowledge, we knew they were doing things.
The presentation I made on the 5th of February, where I put up the
cartoons of those biological vans, we didn't just make up them up one
night. Those were eyewitness accounts of people who had worked in the
program and knew it was going on, multiple accounts. And when I put
them up, showed the four cartoons, people kind of, well, who knows.
Guess what? You should have seen the smile on my face when one day the
intelligence community came in and gave me a photo, and said, look.
And it was almost identical to the cartoon that I had put up in New
York on the 5th of February.
We have examined those vans repeatedly for the last several weeks, and
we are confident that's what they are. Now, there will be other
theories that come from time to time -- oh, it was a hydrogen making
thing for balloons. No. You now have a white paper from the
intelligence community reflecting the views of the Director of Central
Intelligence and the Director of DIA that that's what it's for, with
appropriate balancing caveats in there, to say, we haven't found any
contamination within it because they either haven't been used or
they've been cleaned. But there's no question in the mind of the
intelligence community as to what it was designed for.
And so that is a clear case of solid evidence. And then gaps in
intelligence which we're trying to fill as a result of the
exploitations taking place.
Q: You have no concerns that have risen the last couple weeks that any
of this intelligence was politicized, as some people are charging, and
that you are totally confident in the intelligence?
SECRETARY POWELL: I have been through many crises in my career in
government. And there are always people who come after the fact, to
say, this wasn't what was presented to you, or this was politicized or
this wasn't. Let people look into it, let people examine it.
I know that Director Tenet is looking at everything that he has been
doing in the recent past. You've been reading reports about that. I'm
sure Congress will be looking into this. I'm sure the President's
oversight and others, PFIAB and others, will be examining all of this
in due course, as part of their routine work. And you can make your
own judgment.
My judgment was based on when the President asked me to present the
case to the world. And I went out to the CIA, and I spent four days
and four nights going over everything that they had as holdings, and
not just me and George Tenet, a room full of analysts, the raw
documents, the papers.
And everything I presented on the 5th of February, I can tell you,
there was good sourcing for, was not politicized, it was solid
information that was being presented to us for our consideration for
that briefing, not by political appointees, but by the analysts who
were responsible for it.
And I was there until midnight three straight nights, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, with the analysts themselves, challenging them,
because I knew that it was the credibility of the United States that
was going to be on the line on the 5th of February. The credibility of
the President of the United States and my credibility, but George's.
And what we put up on the 5th of February was the best analytic
product that we could have put up. And it was mutli-sourced, and
multi-sourced by the people who knew.
Q: Could you set up the speech tomorrow? What's the President going to
say in the speech tomorrow in Poland?
SECRETARY POWELL: What the President's going to say in his speech
tomorrow in Poland? I don't think I want to give away the President's
speech before he gives it.
Q: Why is it such a secret?
Q: Dan told us earlier, but we weren't really paying attention.
SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, I've got it.
Q: We get a better story from you, so we're waiting.
SECRETARY POWELL: You know, I think it would be much more exciting --
Q: A bait.
Q: A highlight. You can't do much damage with us.
SECRETARY POWELL: My minders are here, I'm in trouble.
Q: But Ari's leaving, right?
SECRETARY POWELL: I can do a little bit, can't I?
MR. FLEISCHER: I want the question answered.
SECRETARY POWELL: The President is going to be very happy to be back
in Poland. His last major -- first major speech in Europe was in
Poland. He's going to talk, once again, about a Europe whole, free and
at peace. He's going to talk about partnerships within alliances and
partnerships with countries. He's going to talk about terrorism, the
threat it poses to all of us.
He will talk about other things, however; the great challenges that
the international community faces, with respect to growth, with
respect to trans-national problems. I think there's an HIV/AIDS
reference in it, if I'm not mistaken. And he'll be talking about some
of the things that don't get the kind of attention that should get
attention, and that is what we are doing for the undeveloped world, or
the developing world is a better term these days.
And so he'll try to lay down a more expanded agenda than just global
war on terrorism, however important that is. But he'll talk about the
other issues that are important to the world and the nation and why
the United States intends to play a leadership role in dealing with
these challenges, just as we're play a leadership role on the global
war on terror and dealing with regimes such as Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Q: Will he reach out to the "Old Europe"?
SECRETARY POWELL: What?
Q: Will he reach out to the "Old Europe"?
SECRETARY POWELL: He will speak of Europe.
MR. FLEISCHER: The President will talk about how much Europe and the
United States can accomplish by working well together on behalf of all
the world. He will also talk about the importance of confronting evil,
and he'll cite his just completed trip to the concentration camps.
SECRETARY POWELL: Okay? No Iran?
Q: I was going to ask you. (Laughter.)
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you for asking. (Laughter.) There's no change
in our policy on Iran. Anything else you want to know change in policy
on?
Q: How about the U.S. Dollar? How do you feel about the U.S. Dollar?
SECRETARY POWELL: (Zipping lips motion.) (Laughter.)
Q: North Korea.
SECRETARY POWELL: There's no change in our policy on North Korea.
Multilateral discussions. The President is very pleased that he has
been able to pull together all of our partners in the region who are
concerned about nuclear activities in North Korea so that we are all
on the same policy sheet of music. We have to have a de-nuclearized
North Korea. And we will work together toward that end. And we hope
North Korea will understand it is in their interest to move in this
direction through multilateral discussions.
Q: On Iran, just quickly on that.
SECRETARY POWELL: On Iraq?
Q: On Iran. The much talked about meeting that was supposed to happen
this week, the NSC meeting --
SECRETARY POWELL: No meeting happened this week.
Q: Why? It did not happen because it got out, it did not happen
because you felt that Iran was making moves that --
SECRETARY POWELL: We didn't need one. We didn't need one. There was no
change in our policy. Nor were we contemplating a change in our
policy. Therefore we didn't have a meeting.
Q: Was there ever a meeting planned?
SECRETARY POWELL: There are always meetings planned.
(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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