G8 Leaders Support Proposed U.N. Mission to Middle East
16 July 2006
Bush, Rice stress need to address underlying causes of situation
St. Petersburg, Russia -- President Bush joined other world leaders July 16 to support U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's decision to send a team to the Middle East to try to defuse ongoing violence in the region and to seek the release of captured Israeli soldiers.
The president met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac on the sidelines of the Group of 8 (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, where the escalating Mideast conflict took center stage.
In his meeting with Blair, Bush said the United States remains in contact with the Israeli government and said again that all sovereign nations "have the right to defend themselves against terrorist attacks." He also urged restraint, saying Israel should "be mindful of the consequences," particularly the danger of harming innocent civilians and damaging the "fragile democracy" in Lebanon.
The leaders of the G8 countries -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom -- issued a joint statement later in the day in which they expressed support for the U.N. mission to the region. The statement also calls on Israel to exercise "utmost restraint" as it takes steps to defend itself, extends support to the government of Lebanon in "asserting sovereign authority over all its territory" in fulfillment of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 and encourages dialogue between Israeli and Lebanese officials. (See statement.)
Bush said the current crisis is "a moment of clarification" as to why peace is still elusive in the Middle East.
The president described the Hizballah group and its ties with Syria and Iran as "a root cause of instability in the Middle East," and said the international community must "address the root causes, otherwise there may be apparent calm and then all of a sudden there will be more conflict."
In his subsequent remarks with French President Chirac, Bush said U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 "is a clear statement of principle and concern about Lebanese democracy," and called for its full implementation, including the disarming of Hizballah.
Chirac called for all parties in the conflict to show moderation "so that we can establish the conditions of a long-lasting, lasting cease-fire," and said he and Bush "share the same views of the issues at stake here," including "the tremendous sadness, [and] the hardship of the civilian population in this region."
The French leader also said the full implementation of Resolution 1559 "is at the heart of this."
"That is what must be done forthwith," Chirac said.
SECRETARY RICE SAYS AN END TO VIOLENCE IS NOT ENOUGH
Following President Bush's remarks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a July 16 press conference that all three leaders "see the situation similarly" and are working together and discussing a way forward.
Rice said U.N. Resolution 1559, President Bush’s road map for Middle East peace and the work done to facilitate Israel's disengagement from Gaza have provided "an international framework that would give us a political way forward," in such a way that "when the violence ends, it ends," and political outcomes, such as a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can then be implemented.
Rice also defended Israel's right to defend itself from terrorism and to take preventive action against terrorist attacks, but also said that she hopes the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be "mindful of, and restrained in, its operations so that the innocent civilians do not suffer," and the government of Lebanon "is not undermined by those actions."
She said that a simple end to violence and a return to the status quo ante is not enough, arguing that if Hizballah or Hamas continue to have the capability to launch rockets into Israel, there is "no change in the underlying political support for Resolution 1559" or for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' work for moderation, or Syria and Iran retain the ability to "turn on the key again anytime," little will have been achieved.
"[I]ndeed, and we will be right back here, perhaps in a worse circumstance because the terrorists will assume that nobody is willing to take on what has been a very clear assault now on the progress that is being made by moderate forces in the Middle East," Rice said.
In appearances on ABC's This Week, CBS's Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday the same day, Rice said that "extremist forces have shown their hand."
Extremists are "determined not to let progress be made toward a two-state solution. They're determined not to have the Lebanese people have sovereignty and democracy. And we are equally determined to isolate the extremist elements and to disable them," she said on CBS's Face the Nation.
For more information on U.S. policies, see The Middle East: A Vision for the Future.
Transcripts of Bush's remarks with Blair and Chirac are available on the White House Web site.
Transcripts of Rice's press briefing and her interviews on ABC's This Week, CBS's Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday are available on the State Department Web site.
(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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