For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 23, 2003
Remarks by a Senior Administration Official in Briefing to the Travel Pool
United States Mission New York, New York
12:54 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: After the speech, we went over --
we had two meetings. The President had a meeting with President Jose
Maria Aznar of Spain. They talked about the full range of issues, as
you might imagine -- talked about reconstruction in Iraq and
Afghanistan; fairly long discussion on the Middle East, and the
President made clear that he thought it very important that the
Palestinians find some way to create leadership that's actually going
to be strong enough to fight terror. The Spanish offered to try to
help with that. They have good contacts with the Palestinians and so
-- I would say the Middle East was the sort of dominant part of that
discussion, although they touched, obviously, on other issues, as
well.
He then met with President Chirac. They talked at length about
proliferation -- the conversation started with proliferation, with
President Chirac talking about the importance of what the President had
said in his speech on proliferation, offering French help. In fact,
the French have been very active in the proliferation security
initiative and in the work with Russia. So there was quite a bit of
talk about that.
They talked about Iran and the need to make certain that the IAEA
holds Iran to its obligations.
They did talk about Iraq. They talked about the differences they
have. The President made a very clear and strong point that the United
States, which has a hundred and almost forty thousand troops on the
ground and is asking the American people to spend $20 billion on
reconstruction of Iraq, is determined that when there is a sovereignty
transfer, that it's going to be done in an orderly fashion. And so
they talked about the difference there, but they pledged to try to work
together. The French President said that he wouldn't stand in the way,
but he would like -- obviously, France would like to try to help.
They talked about Afghanistan; a little bit about Syria, the need
to try to get the Syrians to be more responsive, particularly on
Hezbollah and blockages to Middle East peace.
So that was the core of it.
Q -- say that President Chirac pledged he wouldn't stand in the
way. Did you take that as a --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: He said that in the newspaper, if
you remember. I mean, he said that publicly, that they will try not to
stand in the way --
Q Does that mean no veto?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I can't interpret; he just said he
would try not to stand in the way.
Q Was there any narrowing of differences in that session?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think we're going to have to
keep working on it. The President was very clear in stating again that
the premature transfer of sovereignty, which has been the French
proposal, is just not in the cards. We just are -- it would be the
wrong thing for the Iraqis. It would be the wrong thing for the --
difficult thing for the Coalition Provisional Authority is trying to do
there. And I know that the French don't agree, but I think they
listened to the rationale for why this would be very difficult.
Q Ahmed Chalabi is now asking for a faster transition, as
well. Any response to that? What -- how do you deal with that?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The Iraqi Governing Council, as
important a step as it is for Iraq, is not an elected representative
body. And the President and Ambassador Bremer and the entire
administration is committed to a process that is orderly; a process
that affirms for the Iraqi people that this is a different day, not
with appointed leaders or leaders who come to power through other
means, but a democratic process. And a democratic process starts with
a constitution which establishes institutions that do things like
protect minority rights. You need an institutional framework in which
then hold elections and then transfer of sovereignty makes sense.
But I can guarantee you that the American people, the President of
the United States, most of the allies who are on the ground with us are
not prepared to transfer sovereignty to 25 unelected people. It's just
not going to happen.
Q But Bush in his speech today said that that was a
representative body, though, for the first time in their history.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I said, a very important first
step. And they're representative in the sense that the 25 looks like
Iraq, to use a phrase that we sometimes use in America. But this is a
country that has not had a national dialogue in almost -- in, well,
more than 30 years, but certainly not under Saddam Hussein; that has
undergone tremendous trauma under this terrible regime; that needs now
to establish institutions that can mitigate against differences among
ethnic groups, that can establish the rightful place of women in this
society, that can do all of the things that constitutions do.
You just think about how important the constitution is to the
United States, and how it's allowed the evolution of democracy over
time. You cannot short-circuit that process. And I can also be very
clear that the President is not going to ask the Congress to transfer
$20 billion of American taxpayer's money to an unelected body of
people.
What we are -- the resolution that we're working on with the U.N.
has to maintain two very clear principles. One is that there will be
an orderly transfer to sovereignty, and we're ready to do that. The
Iraqi people need a political horizon, they need to know that there is
a process to get to sovereignty. Jerry Bremer has laid out that
process in his seven-point plan. And that is -- that has to be
preserved in any resolution.
The second point is that, just like we have unity of command on the
military side, we're going to have to maintain unity of direction on
the reconstruction side. There is an important role for the U.N. to
play, but the Coalition Provisional Authority has to get the job done.
And so, the U.N. resolution will also acknowledge what really are facts
on the ground.
Q Regarding the doctrine of preemption, both President Chirac
and Kofi Annan targeted that doctrine in their speeches and said that
it would lead to a unilateral and lawless use of force, and Chirac said
it would lead to anarchy. How do you bridge those big gaps?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I'll tell you something.
First of all, I think we can have a discussion about whether war
against Iraq was preemptive or not, given that we've been in a
low-level war with Iraq for 12 years -- with them shooting at our
aircraft, with 17 different resolutions, with the last one passed just
in November. I think it's a little hard to just say that somehow this
was unilateral action.
Be that as it may, what the President has said is that you cannot
allow threats to gather, and somebody has to act. You can't sweep
problems under the rug. What was very interesting to me in Kofi
Annan's speech was that, while he said he was worried about unilateral
action or about preemption, he said, however, you cannot just criticize
unilateralism, you have other find a way to address the problems that
those who may act unilaterally are actually bringing about.
I think it was, in fact, an admission that the -- that if the U.N.
cannot act, if you cannot reform the U.N., if the Security Council
cannot act, then you leave no choice but for people to protect
themselves. And I think what the President said when he was there last
year was, if the Security Council can't act, then the United States
will. And I heard a lot about how the Security Council and the U.N.
have got to reform themselves so that they can act.
So I think, once again, the President has led in causing an
extremely important debate about whether the Security Council and the
U.N. can make themselves capable of dealing with the threats of the
21st century.
And that's the debate that they're having out there. And that's
why so many heads of state have showed up here, because this is really,
I think, since the end of the Cold War, the first time that the United
Nations is confronting the question of whether the United Nations will
really be able to act with the threats of today. And that's a very
important debate to have.
* * *
Q There was some anticipation that Iran would be mentioned
specifically in the speech today, and that --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, the President wasn't talking
about specific cases, but he's talking about Iran in all of the
meetings that he's having.
Q Do the Chalabi comments complicate your task, and what are
you telling them?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think that the Governing Council
-- first of all, there's 25 people on the Governing Council. But the
people just have to recognize that the United States, the Coalition
Provisional Authority, and the coalition are determined that this is
going to be an orderly transfer of power. And that's what's best for
Iraq. That's what's -- what the United States committed to, and that
is the only way that this is going to work.
Q Thank you.
END 1:04 P.M. EDT
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