Remarks by the President in Photo Opportunity with Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy
The Oval Office
6:18 P.M. EDT
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you for coming. You just interrupted a
conversation about how we're working on a strategy to help the Iraqis
become a free nation.
First I want to thank my friend, Silvio Berlusconi, for being here
this evening. He's a man of good judgment, good advice, and he's a
good friend. And after we have dinner, we're going to go to the Sons
of Italy banquet tonight.
I also want to thank the Italian people for the great humanitarian
mission that they're undertaking in Iraq. I appreciate their
contribution to a free society in a part of the world that is desperate
for freedom.
The Prime Minister and I have spent time working on a strategy
that's based upon the following points: One, there will be a full
transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June the
30th. That will be accompanied by a United Nations Security Council
resolution. He had some very good ideas about what should be in that
resolution. I, of course, listened to his good ideas.
We also talked about the need to make sure there is a security
force to help the Iraqis move toward elections. It's tough work there
now, because killers want to stop progress. It will be tough work
after sovereignty is transferred, because there will still be people
there trying to derail the election process. And that's why one of the
discussion points we had was how to continue to broaden the coalition.
And finally, we talked about how to make sure that Iraq does have free
elections, as Mr. Brahimi has scheduled.
It's an easy conversation to have with Silvio, because we share
values. We believe in human rights, human dignity, rule of law and the
right for people to self-govern.
And so I'm proud my friend is here. I appreciate your leadership.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: Thank you.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you for your advice.
PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: (As translated.) As far as I'm
concerned, I'm very happy to be here, and I'm very happy to have had
this discussion with my friend, President Bush, discussion on this
plan, which is very detailed, in terms of the date, and is a very
convincing plan.
As the President already said, within two weeks, or even probably
before, by the end of this month, the Envoy of the Secretary General of
the United Nations will indicate the names of the members of the
interim government.
And something else that President Bush did not mention right now,
but we discussed, is the possibility, opportunity of convening a
meeting in New York, where your President should be invited and he
should meet the members of the Security Council of the United Nations
and the top representatives of the countries -- members of the
coalition. And this in order to provide this government with an
international legitimization which is not only useful for the
international community, but mostly for domestic purposes for this
government in Iraq.
And by the end of the July, there would be the possibility of
setting up an electoral commission which will be formed and made up
also of celebrities and personalities from United Nations which will
help preparing the elections to be held in January.
And we have discussed also other issues and over dinner will have
the possibility of discussing additional initiatives which I think
should be taken. Since I have the possibility and chance of talking to
the President of the Russian Federation, Putin, and to Tony Blair and
other leaders, I also submitted to President Bush the possibility of
organizing an international conference on Iraq, which could be held
before the elections in Iraq in January.
And I can say that we agreed on all of these future possibilities.
And we fully share the strategy which needs to be followed. The West
must defend itself against international terror. We are winning this
battle if we remain united. Should we leave, abandon Iraq before a
democracy takes hold, should we abandon it before this takes place,
then we would leave this country to chaos and to a lengthy -- to many,
many years of civil war, with thousands and thousands of casualties and
victims, and this country would probably be a authoritarian country, a
fundamentalist country, and certainly an exporter of terror.
I think we've started the work which cannot be left halfway. We
have to complete it, and until we are sure that we can guarantee the
unlucky Iraqi people democracy and freedom, founded in democracy and
freedom.