04 May 2003
Powell Calls for Cooperation from Syria in "New Situation" in Mideast
(Secretary interviewed on Sunday talk shows May 4) (1140) By Thomas Eichler Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, just returned from talks in Damascus and Beirut, said in Sunday talk show interviews May 4 that, given the new situation in the region, the United States will be looking for performance from Syria on a number of issues, and is interested in a comprehensive Middle East settlement that takes into account the interests of Syria and Lebanon, as well as those of Israel and the Palestinians. The United States will be looking, Powell said on NBC's Face the Nation, at Syrian actions to shut down operations in Syria of organizations that support terrorism, to end transshipment of weapons through Syria to such organizations or to Iraq, to end any development of weapons of mass destruction, and to avoid harboring individuals associated with the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. Failure in these areas "will tell us that he [Syrian President Bashar Assad] is not yet ready to move into a more promising future relationship with the United States," Powell said. "The United States hopes that in this new environment where we are looking for peace in the Middle East, not further incitements to violence, and when we're trying to empower and help the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, this is the time for Syria to review its policies and to end those policies that do not contribute to the peace process in that part of the world," Powell said. Asked about dealing with the issue of Israeli settlements in occupied areas under the newly announced roadmap peace process, Powell said the U.S. position is that "settlement activity must come to an end for us to find a solution to this problem. Once that activity comes to an end, as we proceed down the roadmap, then some very difficult discussions will have to take place between the two sides, and with the assistance of the United States and other interested parties, to determine what a Palestinian state will actually look like initially with provisional borders, and then final borders. "And as part of that process, agreements will have to be arrived at between the two sides as to settlements that are currently in existence -- which go away, which stay, how do you deal with those that might have to remain in place. There are some who will want to see all settlements go, all Israelis to be outside of the new Palestinian state. But this will be a subject of the most intense negotiations as we go forward, and we understand that it will be one of the most difficult issues to resolve, along with final status of the city of Jerusalem and the right of return." Discussing the Middle East Peace process on ABC's This Week, Powell said "One would have expected, and what we have seen, is that at the very beginning of the roadmap process there are those who want to thwart it. They want to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. And we're got to keep pressing forward. ... [Palestinian] Prime Minister Abu Mazen has made some strong opening statements with respect to his commitment to end terrorism, to end violence, in the occupied territories, and Muhammad Dahlan, the new Minister of State who will be in charge of security efforts I think is likewise committed." On CBS's Face the Nation, Powell noted that the United States already has indicated a willingness to provide monitors for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. "If we could get some traction and reach the point where a monitoring function was appropriate, the U.S. would be willing to put in monitors under that set of circumstances -- monitors, not peacekeepers, not armed peacekeepers, but monitors, who would serve ... as a balance between the two sides, serve to work out differences that might occur." On Iraq, Powell said weapons of mass destruction will be found. "I'm the one who presented the case," he said, referring to his appearance before the U.N. Security Council in February, "and proud to have done so." He said his presentation on Iraqi weapons was based on intense preparations "with the most senior experts of the intelligence community." He said that even if the search teams operating now in Iraq do not find weapons, "we can find out what happened to that material, I am confident. ... I am confident that we will find evidence that makes it clear he [Saddam Hussein] had weapons of mass destruction." Powell said that if the international community had dropped its pressure on Saddam Hussein, he would have continued to pursue his weapons objectives. "He never lost, in my judgment, and the judgment of the intelligence community, the intent to develop a nuclear weapon, and he kept in place the scientific brainpower and the infrastructure that would have allowed that to happen in due course." On other subjects: Powell said on NBC that the United States has "made it clear to Iran that they cannot expect a better relationship with the United States or to be included more fully in the international community as long as they continue to support terrorism and as long as they continue to move in a direction with their nuclear development programs that suggests they are still interested in developing a nuclear bomb." Also on NBC, Powell said the United States has "had some success in recent months in convincing all of North Korea's neighbors that the problem presented to the region and to the world by North Korea is not just a problem between North Korea and the United States, but with all of the nations in the region. And as a result, we got China to take a more active role in sponsoring a multilateral meeting that included China, the United States and North Korea. South Korea and Japan were not in the meeting, but their interests were certainly represented in that meeting by the United States. "And everybody has now made it clear to North Korea that they will not find any assistance coming to them from the region in terms of economic development, in terms of helping them with their serious economic problems and problems of poverty, unless they abandon their nuclear weapons programs." On Cuba, Powell said on NBC that every nation in the Western hemisphere has rejected Cuba's communist ideology, and all are finding their own way "down a democratic path with market reforms. ... They are having different levels of difficulty with respect to practicing democracy. Democracy isn't an easy system. But Cuba sits there isolated, getting poorer, getting broker, more irrelevant on the world stage, and sooner or later this regime will pass. It is an anachronism and history will catch up with it." (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
