For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 14, 2003
Interview of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice by AL Jazeera Television
Arab Television Studio
Washington, D.C.
(Questions Asked in Arabic and Translated for Dr. Rice Off-Camera, Written
Translations Provided By Al Jazeera)
12:10 P.M. EST
Q First, let me ask what's new in the President's
announcement today? Some were surprised to find the President
talking about the Palestinians and Israelis after we thought that you
had forgotten them and had focused on Iraq. Why this timing?
DR. RICE: The President has always said that he remains focused
on the Middle East peace process and on the moment when it would be
possible to make progress in the Middle East peace process. On
June 24th, the President laid out a comprehensive vision for a
two-state solution in the Middle East in which Palestinians and
Israelis could live together in peace and in prosperity.
We then developed with the Quartet -- the United Nations, Russia,
and the EU -- a road map that would take the President's June 24th
vision and put in place steps toward the conclusion of that
goal. We really do believe, and the President believes, that now
with new Israeli government just recently elected and formed, and with
the Palestinian Authority's very admirable decision to create a prime
ministership with real authority, that there is a new opportunity to
push the peace process forward. And so this is really on the
timing of the peace process and nothing else. And the President said
today that when the Palestinians have selected and confirmed a prime
minister, that we will be ready to give to the parties the road map and
they can begin the work of beginning to get this done.
(Videotape of President Bush's Remarks.)
Q There are two things I'd like to discuss with you in regards
to the President's announcement. First, confirmation. Dr. Saeb
Erekat, Palestinian Minister of Local Government, told Al
Jazeera that the confirmation is basically complete. Most
Palestinian entities have confirmed: the Palestinian Central
Committee, et cetera. What do you mean by confirmation?
DR. RICE: Simply waiting for the naming of the prime minister.
By confirmation, the President only meant that, as we understand it,
there has been a nomination of a prime minister. There's still
discussions going on. And when that person is in place and
ready, the United States will be prepared and ready to release the
road map to the Palestinians and to the Israelis. We expect there
to be comment, by the way, back from the parties.
After all, this needs to become their document -- not just
the document of the Quartet. Because it's the road map, the pact for
peace for the parties. And so that's what the President was saying,
when there is a person to work with, we will be ready.
Q Of course, the person is here. He is Mahmoud Abbas, who
was also welcomed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who
congratulated him on his new post. What's worrisome is the talk of
subjecting the road map to renewed negotiations. The Quartet has come
up with a road map, and now it should be implemented, not renegotiated
and renegotiated, et cetera.
DR. RICE: This is not a matter of renegotiation of the road
map. It's simply a matter that the parties themselves ought
to have an opportunity to comment. We believe that if this is going
to work, it has to be a solution that the parties can live with.
After all, they are the ones with everything at stake here. But we
believe that it's a very good road map. And it is a faithful
recollection of the President's June 24th speech. It is the way
forward. But there's certainly nothing wrong with asking the
parties to work on the road map, to work together on the road map.
It may well be that some of these things can be done more quickly
than the road map even envisions. And so we think comment from the
parties is a very good thing.
Q Is this also supposed to happen as a war begins with
Iraq? Some would say it is just to clear the air, that it's a carrot
to the Arab world, but a very humble one compared to the Madrid
Peace Conference of 1991, and that it is not a big achievement. How do
you view it?
DR. RICE: We believe that the chances for a Middle East peace
have been improving significantly with changes in Israel and
especially with what we see as very positive signs of reform in the
Palestinian Authority. To have a prime minister who has real
authority to run the day-to-day affairs of the government, to have
someone who is a respected leader among the Palestinian people is
a very big plus for peace. And with the new Israeli government, what
we're saying is, it's time to make a new start -- for the parties to
make a new start.
Now, it's just fortunate that all of this work had been done no
the road map so there is a way to get started. But it does not mean
that there might not be other things that could be done, as well.
And we will be looking for those. We are encouraging the Israelis,
for instance, to do something about the fate of the Palestinian
people. I think that no one can be unmoved by the daily
problems of the Palestinian people. The President has said in past
statements that the Palestinian people should not have to live with the
daily humiliations that they go through.
We work very hard with the relief organizations and are prepared
to work harder with relief organizations to do something
about the humanitarian situation. So there is much that can be
done there. The Palestinians, for their part, need to do more to
improve the security environment. And, frankly, all of the states of
the region need to fight terrorism, to say those few who would keep the
hopes of the many wrapped up and unable to be fulfilled, to say to
those rejectionists that it is not going to be acceptable. Peace is
going to be at hand.
So it's not just the road map. There are responsibilities that
all of the parties have. We've said to the Israelis, as this
progresses, we expect them to freeze settlements and to recognize that
a Palestinian state has to be viable in its composition. So
there's a lot for all of the parties to do. The road map is
just a set of specific steps, an articulation of how to move
forward. But it's not the only tool that we have. The timing is
very clearly tied to this new chance for peace -- given the
appointment of the Palestinian prime minister; and we look
forward to his acceptance; and we're ready to go -- and to a new
Israeli government.
Q And would you accept to host him in the White House?
DR. RICE: I think there would be nothing better, at some point
in time when it is appropriate, for a Palestinian prime minister to
visit the White House. But the timing will be important and we will be
in touch with them about this.
But the key here is, on June 24th, the President gave a speech
in which he asked all parties to be responsible. He asked the
Israelis to be more responsible in the way that they created
conditions for a Palestinian state to emerge. He asked the
Palestinian leaders to have at the core the desires and wishes of
their people, and to create a reformed government that was democratic
and transparent and open. A lot has been going on in the time since
June 24th. And it's time to try and deliver on that.
Q We want to move to the main issue of Iraq, but we don't want
to miss the opportunity to bring up one thing. In every
statement from President Bush and top U.S. officials, whether
yourself or Secretary Powell, and in a way that creates
discomfort among the Arab viewer or listener, whenever Israeli
civilians are killed, there is a clear and harsh condemnation. This
is a duty. but very simple and vague terms are used when Israel
kills Palestinian civilians in a cold blood and in broad
daylight, like the term, "[the U.S. is] worried." Fearing
the ramifications of that upon the peace process, why
aren't clear condemnations issued whenever innocents are killed on
either side?
DR. RICE: The President has said that any innocent life that
is taken in this terrible conflict that has gone on very, very long
-- any innocent life -- is a tragedy. And what we've said is that
terrorism, which takes innocent life in large numbers, bombings
where you take children, really, and ask them to become suicide
bombers against other children, that cannot be tolerated. But I want
to be very clear, the loss of innocent life -- whether Palestinian or
Israeli or Arab or American -- is too much. And we are very, very sad
at what goes on in the Middle East every day. It is why the
President has spoken so forcefully for the need for peace, why he
has spoken so forcefully for a need to the end to terrorism, and
why he has spoken so forcefully for the need for a two-state solution
so that innocent life is not longer taken for anyone.
Q What do you hope to achieve in the Azores summit, the U.S.,
UK and Spain? And will the next road to Baghdad be through the
Azores, instead of New York?
DR. RICE: The President and everyone else is working very, very
hard with the U.N. Security Council and with others to see if we
cant' find a way forward -- diplomatically forward in the U.N.
Security Council to see if we cannot get to the place where
the Security Council takes its responsibility seriously to uphold its
Resolution 1441.
The problem is that Saddam Hussein has not disarmed. He has had
12 years to disarm. He lost a war of aggression against his
neighbors, against Kuwait. He has used weapons of mass destruction on
his own people and on his neighbors. He has continually violated
U.N. resolution after U.N. resolution after U.N. resolution. He
represses his own people. This is a regime that no one should
shed tears for. This is a regime that needed to be told in the
clearest possible terms, either disarm or we will disarm you. And
that's what Resolution 1441 said, it said one final opportunity to
disarm.
Now, we are in the endgame for U.N. diplomacy. And the President
and President Aznar of Spain and Prime Minister Blair of Great
Britain and Prime Minister Barroso of Portugal will get
together. Prime Minister Barroso is hosting them in Portugal, in
the Azores, which is, of course, Portuguese territory. And they
will discuss the way forward. They will look to see if there's
anything more than can be done to bring the U.N. to take the
decision that it needs to take. But we are reaching the final
stages. This cannot go on for very much longer.
Q So there might be a need to go back to the U.N. because
you still don't have the necessary nine votes, and the French veto
threat still stands?
DR. RICE: Well, right now we're continuing to work on it. We
really do believe that if the Security Council can bring itself to do
this, that would be the very best. You know the Security Council
could not act in Kosovo when there was really the all-out murder
of innocent people -- mostly Muslims -- in Kosovo. The U.N. could not
act.
The U.N. Security Council could not act when in Rwanda there was
a genocide that cost almost a million lives. There was a very
poignant statement by the President of Rwanda recently when he said,
sometimes the Security Council is not right when it does not act.
President Bush believes that, too. And so he is -- with
his co-sponsors for this resolution -- making a last push to see
if we can convince people to take on their responsibilities. But a
moment of truth is coming. It is coming soon and that's what the
leaders are going to meet to discuss in the Azores.
Q Are we talking about days or weeks?
DR. RICE: Well, we're certainly not talking about weeks because
this has gone on long enough. We're talking about 12 years of
defiance, not a few months. And even with a very strong, Resolution
1441, on the table, and military force building up around him, Saddam
Hussein continues to play games with the international community.
He continues to refuse real interviews with the scientists. He
continues to hide his weapons to try to deceive the inspectors. We
really have to deal with, is the creditability of the United Nations
Security Council at stake? Indeed, this a leader, a regime that is at
fault for threatening his neighbors and bringing a lot of instability
into the region.
We talked earlier about the Middle East peace process, as
the President said a few weeks ago, we really do believe that once
the region is rid of this terrible regime in Iraq, if we have to use
military force, that that will open new opportunities for peace in the
Middle East and new opportunities for Arab countries to give
greater liberty and greater awareness to their own people.
Everybody wants rights. And we really do believe that the people
of the Middle East are no different. They also yearn for freedom.
The Iraqi people yearn for freedom. They yearn for liberty. And if
we have to use force, we will do everything that we can to attend to
the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people. We will do
everything that we can to put the Iraqi people back on their feet.
And we will do everything that we can to give them the opportunity
that we know they will seize for a more democratic future.
Q Dr. Rice, I know your time is limited, and perhaps we just
have a minute left, so I will move to the last question. But
please take as much time as you need to answer. The perception of a
post-war Iraq in the Arab world is one of foreign occupation
forces returning to an Arab country, and to a city that used
to be the capital of the Islamic caliphate. There is a fear of
tearing Iraq apart between Kurds in the north and Shiites in the
south, and a fear of intervention to change Arab regimes by force. How
do you perceive a post-war Iraq?
DR. RICE: Well, Iraq is a special case because Iraq has been
a serial abuser of U.N. Security Council resolutions. It's an outlaw
regime that the Security Council has sanctioned many times. But let
me be very clear, if we have to use military force in Iraq, it is
our intention to help the Iraqi people to liberate themselves, to be
there, as the President said, as long as we're needed but not one
minute longer, and to very early on, put in place with Iraqis --
from outside the country and inside the country -- an Iraq authority
that can administer and run the country.
We are thinking of something that we're calling an Iraqi
interim authority, kind of like the Afghan Interim Authority,
that would be a grouping of Iraqis who could exercise administrative
and other authority on behalf of the Iraqi people as quickly as
possible. Because we want the governance of Iraq in the hands of
Iraqis -- not in hands of Americans or other coalition partners.
There will be a period of time in which there are tasks to be done,
humanitarian assistance, guaranteeing the territorial integrity of
Iraq, being concerned about sectarian violence, being concerned
that the resources of the Iraqi people are returned to the use of the
Iraqi people. Those are things that, yes, the coalition will have to
do. But we are determined that almost from the very beginning, Iraqis
will have their own future at hand. And they will be involved in
their own future.
Just as we did in Afghanistan, the United States and the
coalition will stay as long as we're needed. But we have no desire to
stay very long at all.
Q Just to clarify, there will be a Karzai in Iraq and not
an American military governor? There will be no American military
governor?
DR. RICE: What we really hope to do is, very early on, to
establish an Iraqi interim authority. That interim authority would be
transitional, obviously until an actual government could be created.
But we would hope that it would bring together some of the people who
have been outside the country, some of the leadership of the
Kurdish territories, leaders of other groups, ethnic groups, and
people in Iraq. We know that there are local and other leaders who
have a lot of legitimate authority in Iraq. And we would hope that
this interim Iraqi authority would bring together Iraqis to start to
take control of their own future.
Q Dr. Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, thank you
very much.
DR. RICE: Thank you.
END 12:33 P.M. EST
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