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Sec. Rice Briefing En Route Andrews Air Force Base


Secretary Condoleezza Rice
En Route Andrews Air Force Base
August 2, 2007

Briefing En Route Andrews Air Force Base

SECRETARY RICE: (In progress) the discussions with our friends and allies in the Gulf and in the Gulf Cooperation Council plus Egypt and Jordan produced support for a number of high-priority political concerns, including on the support for a unified Iraq, on the Palestinian-Israeli issue and on concerns about Iran's activities and its nuclear activities. I also think that we were able to advance in the trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories both tracks, both the bilateral track where Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas are going to meet, I think on August 6th, and where I think they will deepen their bilateral dialogue, Prime Minister Olmert noting that he was ready to discuss fundamental issues. And when I talked with President Abbas, he was ready to have a substantive dialogue. I think it's extremely important that they do so because obviously there is great interest in the international meeting, but people want it to be a substantive and meaningful meeting. And that's how we feel about it, too.

I would note that Prime Minister Olmert, and I think the Israelis have said this publicly, took note of what Prince Saud said and said that he had the same attitude about how this meeting needed to be meaningful and substantive and indeed advance the two-state solution. So we made some progress, but there is a lot more work to do. And as I said, this is going to be the first, I think, of several trips to the region as we try to deliver on the initiatives that the President announced in his July 16th remarks.

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So now maybe a few questions. Or not. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: You talk about being interested in talking about fundamentals, but what exactly do you mean by that? Do you mean looking at the contours of a border? Do you mean that they're prepared to really start looking at the three sort of crux issues, or four depending on how you look at it? Maybe if you could just expand on exactly what you meant because there are very different interpretations from different quarters on that.

SECRETARY RICE: Sue, I said from the beginning of support for this dialogue that I thought this was a dialogue that had to take place between the two men and that they had to be able to do it with some degree of discretion so that they can talk about all the issues that are on the table for them. I don't think there's any desire to avoid any issues, but there are many issues, not just the three that are always cited. The President in his speech talked about a variety of things that have to be talked about, but of course eventually you do have to solve the issues, as he said, of refugees, borders, and Jerusalem.

So I don't want to try and presage what they're going to talk about. I was impressed with the seriousness of both men about trying to use their dialogue to really advance this two-state solution. And I think that's really all I intend to say about it.

QUESTION: Two questions. Madame Secretary, did you bring up Ayman Nour when you spoke with the Egyptians? If so, what did you ask? If not, why not?

And secondly, we've been through the - you know, these meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba. We've been through the creation of the Quartet and the roadmap. Neither have gotten anyplace. What should give us any hope that this will be any different, particularly given the political clock?

SECRETARY RICE: What political clock?

QUESTION: The United States'.

SECRETARY RICE: Oh. Well, I don't think of it as our political clock. I think about a dispute that has been a part of the political landscape for 30 years, and that hasn't yet been resolved, and that means it's difficult and it's complex, and it's not as if progress hasn't been made but it hasn't been resolved.

We're going to try. All that you can do is to take advantage of openings and press the process forward. I think there is an opening. I don't think there is any doubt that people see in the region, in Israeli, see the emergence of this Palestinian government, which is serious, which is professional, which is focused on delivering security and delivering for its people on the ground, that people see that as an opportunity. I think people see the mission of former Prime Minister Blair to assist the Palestinians in building this capacity for a state as a real opportunity, and I think that people see the President's initiative which would build on the bilateral channel that Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas have established to get international, but more importantly regional and Arab, support for what they're doing as a real opportunity. And we're going to try to bring all of those strands together and to, in bringing those strands together, give this process a possibility of moving forward.

And in terms of our clock, yes, you're right; we can only work on it for 17 months. But it's not as if the United States of America is not going to remain committed to finding a two-state solution. I hope that we'll make a lot of progress toward that two-state solution in the time that we've got, and the President has been very clear that it's an extremely high priority of his Administration to do so.

I might just say one other thing about this piece of it. You know, it's - I do think there comes a time when there's a kind of general recognition that, as a whole, a region has - that there is a narrative that's developed in the region as a whole. And if you look at Lebanon or you look at Iraq or you look at the Palestinian-Israeli situation, I think you see that there are moderates, there are reformers, there are indeed democrats, who are emerging in this region. They are undoubtedly challenged and fragile, but they are gaining support from a lot of responsible states that see that as the seeds of a different kind of Middle East. And the enemies of those developments are clearly extremists who don't want to see a Middle East in which there's tolerance and moderation and pluralism, but instead have a very narrow view of the way that the Middle East ought to develop.

And I think that that narrative is now stronger in this region than it's been at any other time and that that does give some impulse to the possibility to support some of these admittedly fragile democratic movements.

And yes, I did raise the issue of Ayman Nour, talked about it extensively with President Mubarak. And I said that I was disappointed that the court decision had come out as it was -- I know - as it did. I know that there is going to be an appeal and it's certainly the hope of the United States that that appeal will be looked upon favorably.

QUESTION: This is going to sound like it's not a serious question, but it actually is. What happened to the political horizon? We didn't hear that phrase. We didn't hear a sort of an articulation of that thought on this trip.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it's still there, but we're making steps toward it. So this time I think we - I emphasized more the initiatives and the plan and the way forward to give meaning to - to give more substance to the - how the Palestinians will come to see what their state will look like so that there is a horizon or a hope or a sense of where this is going for the Palestinian people who want a better life than Hamas is offering them in the Gaza. So it's not to put aside the notion of political horizon, but I think what we have been doing is filling out now the steps that are going to be taken over the next several months as we try to move the bilateral track or support the bilateral track as it deepens, as we use that deepening of the bilateral track to move toward the international conference as we look at the entire regional context in which all of this is taking place. So I think it's more of an articulation of how we're moving forward.

QUESTION: You would like to have Saudi Arabia and a lot of our moderate Arab friends at the international conference to give a boost to the Israeli-Palestinian track. But if you listen to the Saudi Foreign Minister, he seems like he would like to be there for a conference that's going to really tie things up. Is there sort of a train wreck coming in terms of the people's impression of what this is going to be?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, there's a lot of work to do, and I don't doubt that there are, at this point, differing views of what we ought to try and do. But the responsibility is to bring those together. Now, what I did hear was a common view, and that common view was nobody wants to show up for a photo op. The President of the United States doesn't want a photo op, our Arab allies don't want one and the Israelis don't want one. Everybody wants this to be a meaningful, substantive conference which by its very nature I think can stimulate before it happens the bilateral track to move toward it.

And so I don't think that there - obviously, people will have different views of what ought to transpire there, but I don't think there's a real difference about what we'd like to see this meeting be. There's a real sense that it ought to have substance and it ought to be meaningful and it ought to advance the two-state solution, and that's what we'll work on.

As I said, I really didn't issue any invitations and I - but I was really pretty encouraged by the interest in it, by the willingness to discuss it, by the open-mindedness of states that might attend.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

SECRETARY RICE: It's a meeting, but, you know, it's a vstretch.

QUESTION: What?

SECRETARY RICE: Vstretch. You know, vstretch is a meeting. Nyet konferenciya.

QUESTION: This is sort of a process question. You told us you didn't come here to issue invitations. Do you have a sense of when that might happen? And I covered the run-up to Madrid, and as I recall there were formal invitations, formal invites, with what the parameters were going to be and sort of the agenda. Do you plan to follow that model?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think we have to go back and think about the best approach now to inviting people to come to the conference. See, there I just did it again. To the meeting. (Laughter.) I maybe should speak in Russian at this point; I'd probably do better.

Look, I think obviously when you issue invitations that's an opportunity to solidify the view of what one expects at the meeting so that people know what the intentions are for the meeting. And so I think that's probably an opportunity, but we haven't given really very much thought to what - how it ought to look.

And as to when they're issued, I think we probably need to have a couple of more rounds of consultations before we do that.

QUESTION: I have two questions, Madame Secretary. One, you said in passing several times that you discussed Lebanon. Was there anything concretely decided on Lebanon? And also, can you give us your sense of UNIFIL and what's going on there?

And the other thing I was just curious about, if you could reflect on, when you spoke about democracy and states that support democrats, I know you cram a lot into these trips, but is there a reason, for example, in Saudi Arabia why you can't meet with a democrat there, a human rights person, or in Egypt for that matter, to show the United States' support?

SECRETARY RICE: (Inaudible) do as I will do. Look, it's just the press of time, you know. I have met with nongovernmental organizations. I'll continue to meet with nongovernmental organizations. We were this time off in Sharm el-Sheikh, not in Cairo. That's somewhat limiting. We were in Jeddah, not in Riyadh. That's limiting. But I will certainly continue to meet with them. And I meet with people when they come to - often when they come to the United States, I meet when I'm in the region and I'll continue to do it.

Look, I don't think - from our point of view, there is not a conflict between working together with states that you still have concerns about the course -- of their domestic course and the course of reform, and still working with them on issues of common interest to combat extremism.

In the short term, combating extremism means the kind of work that we're doing with law enforcement and intelligence and, to a certain extent, military operations with friends around the region.

In the medium term, it's strengthening the democratic seed states -- places like Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, hopefully a Palestinian state -- that become the kind of pillars of a democratic Middle East. And then there is also the work to be done of reform and pressing for reform and democratization in states that are not yet there, which is why we continue to talk in Egypt about these issues or in the strategic dialogue with Saudi Arabia about these issues.

We did talk about Lebanon. I think that the - it's interesting. You know, we are, what, about a year and three weeks from the Lebanese war and about a week or so from - yeah, from the end of the Lebanon war. And it's important to keep perspective because what has this government achieved in the meantime? Well, it's achieved tremendous international support as evidenced by the Paris donor conference, over $7 billion in pledges. The reconstruction is well underway. If at the time of the war you had said the Lebanese army would be deployed throughout the country for the first time in decades, and would be fighting in the camps against radicals and doing so successfully, at great cost but successfully, I think people would have said a year ago that's not possible.

The Siniora government is not only still in power, but it's functioning and actively pursuing Lebanese interests. Now, there's a lot of concern that there are still those who are trying to destabilize this government. The policies of intimidation by Syria are well known to everyone. The continuing use of political assassination by enemies of democratic forces -- they're deeply troubling. The continuing governmental crisis that needs to find a democratic resolution that supports the democratically elected government.

There are lots of problems. I don't mean to suggest that there aren't. But we were - several of us - on this airplane during the time of the Lebanon war, and if you look now at where Lebanon is - and I didn't mention an international presence now deployed in the country - you know, it's a story of some successes.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, going by the consultations you have had so far, are you confident that you will be able to get the key parties to the - to resolving the Palestinian question to the negotiating table?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the key parties to resolving the question are the Palestinians and the Israelis, and I think we need to keep focused on that bilateral track and deepening that dialogue and laying the groundwork so that they can move to negotiations and move to negotiations soon.

The other key though, is that there will have to be support from the Arab states for what they're doing, and I'm confident from what I've heard that the Arab states are very - very much want to see a resolution of this and that they understand that they've got responsibilities to help bring about that resolution. I've said before that I think in past times one of the things we've learned through the myriad efforts to resolve this problem is that without support of the Arab states in the region, the key Arab states, it's going to be difficult for the Palestinians and the Israelis to come to a reasonable agreement.

So that is a part of the story, but I -- in terms of the meeting, we'll keep working to make sure that the right people are there. But in terms of support for the process, I heard a lot of support for the process and a real recognition that this is the purview of the Israelis and the Palestinians, but the responsibility to support it is the regional states' as well as the international community.

ENDS

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