The Middle East Peace Process

2:15 P.M. EDT

MODERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to introduce to you [Senior State Department Official]. We're here today to talk about the Middle East peace process. This is a background briefing. Your attribution should be as a Senior State Department Official. Thank you.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Great, thank you. Good afternoon, everybody, a pleasure to be here with you today. What I thought I'd do is just make a couple of opening remarks, try to put the situation in a bit of context and then happy to try to answer whatever questions you may have.

As you are all aware, Secretary Rice will be departing for the region this weekend. She will attend the neighbors conference in Istanbul and from there, travel on to Jerusalem. This trip that she'll be taking to Jerusalem will be her sixth trip to the region this year and I thought it may be just useful to put this trip in a bit of context, given that this is her sixth trip to the region.

If you look at where the parties were at the beginning of the year, we've covered a lot of ground. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and President Mahmoud Abbas are engaged in a very intensive dialogue in an effort to produce a document that could serve as the foundation for serious negotiations towards the establishment of a Palestinian state. When they started that discussion earlier this year, they started talking about trying to define an established political horizon. We are now well into that.

When those discussions started, there was not very much trust. It was a very difficult situation. The situation followed, if you recall, if you step back, after over six years, a very difficult situation, Intifada, violence, much bloodshed. Now, we are in a situation in which we are looking forward to very active diplomacy. We are looking forward to the upcoming international meeting in Annapolis and then an international donors meeting in December in which the international community will continue the effort to support the efforts to create a Palestinian state.

If you look at what we're trying to do, we're really proceeding along three general tracks -- we, the United States, in trying to move forward. And one is focused, of course, on the diplomatic track that Secretary Rice is advancing and she will continue that process this weekend in Jerusalem and then in Ramallah. But in addition, we have been focused, as the President announced on July 16th when he announced the meeting, what are we trying to do? We're trying to support Israeli and Palestinian efforts to move forward towards the goal of building a Palestinian state.

And in order to do so, we have to build and reform the institutions of the Palestinian state and that's why the Quartet appointed former Prime Minister Tony Blair as the Quartet Special Envoy -- Special Representative, to work with primarily the Palestinians towards building those institutions and working with the international community to garner support towards the building of those institutions.

At the same time, we recognize -- we, the international community, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority, the centrality of security -- security for Israelis, security for Palestinians. And that's why General Keith Dayton has been on the ground working extensively with the parties to try to reform and rebuild an effective Palestinian Authority security services that will be in the position to provide security and the rule of law for Palestinians to prevent terror and to resume a normal life.

So this is a very active process. There are a number of components to it. I've tried to just sketch very briefly a bit of the context in which we are working. I know you have a lot of questions. I hope I'll be able to answer at least some of them. I know there's a lot of -- there would be some issues that I won't be able to fully satisfy you with, but I'll give it my best.

MODERATOR: Yes. Please identify yourself and your organization as you ask your question.

QUESTION: Yes, Joyce Karam with Al-Hayat newspaper. Thank you for speaking to us. What are you going to do to ensure that outside forces or even governments, maybe like Syria or Iran, won't do something to sabotage the diplomatic efforts that you're doing either on the day of the conference or before?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, we are obviously concerned about the behavior and the efforts of those who are opposed to this -- to Israeli-Palestinian peace. There are states such as Iran and Syria that have been actively supporting the enemies of peace. We are trying to exert whatever means at our disposal to make it clear that this is unacceptable; this is unacceptable behavior in the international community, that this is unacceptable to the parties in the region.

Indeed, if you look at the situation today, you see that most of the people of the Middle East want peace, want there to be Israeli-Arab, Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. There are those who are enemies of this process, but they are few, they are isolated, and they should know that they -- that their efforts are on the wrong side of the way in which the people of the Middle East wish to go.

QUESTION: Thank you. I'm Nathan Guttman with the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. What can you tell us in terms of timeline regarding the Annapolis meeting? Will it still take place in November? What still has to happen between the sides in order for the U.S. to be able to issue invitations to the summit?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, President Bush was very clear when he announced the meeting in July that we would hold this meeting this autumn -- this fall. I was just meeting with some Europeans. They don't like the word "fall," so they use the word "autumn."

But we said -- the President said we would do it this fall and that's our intention. We never announced a date yet. There's been some misunderstanding I've seen in the reporting or some misreporting that suggested that we have put out a date, but we have not. The point of the meeting is to support the Israeli-Palestinian effort that is underway. Secretary Rice will go out, as I suggested a minute ago, on her seventh trip to the region. And you know, I think when she returns from that trip, we'll be in a better position to assess when we can issue the invitations and announce the date.

QUESTION: Joe Macaron from Kuwait News Agency. There was some report that the meeting might be based on the roadmap and it seems so far (inaudible) over the last period. So we want to know, it is based on the roadmap or to maybe discuss final status agreement?

And my second question is, there were some reports that there might be some limited incursion in Gaza. Do you think this will affect the upcoming meeting in November? Thank you.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Okay. Thank you. Well, the roadmap is very much alive and a central element of their efforts underway. Indeed, that is one of the things that the parties are discussing. And one of the things that the Secretary will discuss is how the parties can implement their phase one commitments under the roadmap. The goal of this process is to realize the vision set out by President Bush of two states living side by side in peace and security and the roadmap is the path to get there.

And so I would -- so the roadmap has been and continues to be a central pillar of our policy and it is something that the international community has embraced. It's something that the parties have embraced and it's their intention to move forward. I've not seen the reports that you mentioned about an incursion into Gaza. All I would say is that we are obviously very concerned about the situation in Gaza. We are concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. We are concerned about the fact that there continues to be rocket fire that continues out of Gaza into Israel. So we're very much concerned about the situation in Gaza, but I don't have any information about such an incursion.

MODERATOR: At this time, we'd like to invite the New York Foreign Press Center to have their questioner come to the podium, please.

QUESTION: We have no questions at this time. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Okay. Here and then back there.

QUESTION: Sir, I'm Tarek Rashed from the Middle East News Agency of Egypt. Concerning the political horizon that the U.S. has been promoting for a certain time, we know that it's a micro-horizon between Palestinians and Israeli and a micro one between Israel and Arabs.

Today, the Palestinian president announced or urged all Arab countries not to offer any concessions or make any normalization with Israel until the process moves over -- or with regard to the major issues -- there's borders, refugees in Jerusalem after the full conference. And we find also the horizon between Israel and Palestinians is very tense, as we see the Israeli daily attacks on Gaza and confiscation of Palestinian (inaudible). How do you see this atmosphere as convenient in this particular time to start this process or move it forward? Or how optimistic are you about this prevailing atmosphere? Thank you.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Okay. Well, there are a number of questions in there, so I'll try to pick out the ones I want to answer, I guess. Obviously, if there weren't tension between Israelis and Palestinians, there wouldn't be the need for a peace process. We are encouraging both sides and both sides are taking steps to try to create an atmosphere, an environment that is conducive to forward progress. One of the reasons that we are stressing and trying to urge both sides to undertake their phase one commitments under the roadmap is to help create that environment that will then allow the discussions and the political dialogue that is taking place between Israel and the Palestinians to move forward.

Now obviously, as these sides are engaged right now in very intensive, very sensitive discussions, there is going to be a lot of -- there are going to be a lot of reports that are going to come out, there are going to be ups and downs in this process. We are aware of that and that's to be expected. And all I would say is that the goal here is, as you identified, Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation and peace and Israeli-Arab reconciliation and peace. And that's why this international meeting in Annapolis is important to support movement toward both of those goals.

MODERATOR: Fifth row, the gentleman and then next row and then (inaudible).

QUESTION: My name is Tammam Al-Barazi from Alwatan Alarabi magazine. Some Palestinian official visiting Washington these days said there should be like, three things according to the road -- to the roadmap, at least, since you mentioned the roadmap. First, freezing of the settlement and stopping building of the war into Palestinian land. And third, Israel should accept discussing the final status. Do you think these three things can be achieved, especially -- you know, you talked three times on the roadmap.

A second small question: what's the difference between a meeting and conference? In the Middle East, everybody said it's a conference. Here, you repeated now you're -- of a greater -- you call it international meeting. You just said that. So please, can you give me the difference?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I'm sorry, on the first point, you said that there were three elements: settlement freeze, discuss of final status and --

QUESTION: The war, stopping the war.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Ah. Well, again, look, the parties are going to try to -- as part of their ongoing dialogue, are going to make calls in the public domain regarding conditions that are going to be necessary for them to move forward and to try to build pressure on the other party. And so I don't really want to get into that other than to say that yes, we believe that both sides have responsibilities and commitments under the roadmap. They're pretty clearly laid out in the roadmap what those phase one commitments are.

Regarding a meeting versus a conference, I really don't want to get into kind of a semantic parsing of the difference. The point is not what we call it. The point is what it does. And what it does is move the process forward and, you know, I would differentiate this from, say, the Madrid conference which was in 1991, which brought the parties together to initiate a process. This is not -- this is different. This is meant to support something that is already underway. And so in that sense, maybe that's why it's different from a conference setup, but I would not get hung up on the use of the word meeting versus conference at this point.

MODERATOR: I'm sorry, but he's got other questioners waiting --

QUESTION: (Inaudible) one thing, that since you mentioned the roadmap -- the roadmap, and you repeated three times now, phase one, freezing the settlement. So what's your position on it? Now there is doubling of the settlement since the roadmap was announced. We want to know, do you -- can you, as Americans, stop freeze -- freeze the settlement according to the roadmap, which you've been preaching us many times?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Sure. President Bush has been very clear on this point repeatedly, in which he has stated that it's our -- I mean, which we believe that Israel should halt settlement expansion. And that's what's called for in the roadmap and as I said three times, we believe the phase one obligations in the roadmap should be fulfilled.

QUESTION: Thank you. Rudy Lentz, Deutsche Welle Television. The European ministers are right now preparing a new Middle East initiative for advance to the upcoming conference. So what do you know about it?

And the first question is, is it differing from the American position or is it a coordinated position? And the second question is, you talked about the -- let's say the basic formula which should be found by the Israelis together with the Palestinians before the conference could start. But if there is no basic formula, which also could happen, is there no peace conference then?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, I'm unaware of the EU ministers plan that you refer to, but that could have just revealed my own ignorance, so I would not take that as a definitive authoritative American denial of any knowledge, but I'm not aware of such a plan. So I would say at this point, it's not coordinated.

You know, I think we are very clear that our expectation is there will be a meeting as called for this autumn and we are hopeful that this document that the parties have been working on will be ready for such a meeting. This is a document that they initiated independent of our efforts to move forward. But what's important is that coming out of this meeting, that there is a path forward for them to pursue towards the realization of a Palestinian state. So we're hopeful, we're optimistic, and we're determined.

QUESTION: Adrienne Woltersdorf from the German daily Tageszeitung. I'm not sure if it's clear right now if Saudi Arabia will attend the meeting and if it's not clear, why isn't it clear yet? As a major player of the region, I think it should be a full, participating --

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, we have not issued invitations yet, so any sort of answer at this point would be purely speculative, but it is our hope, our desire, our aspiration that that there will be a significant Arab participation in the upcoming meeting. As President Bush said on July 16th, it's our hope, it's our expectation, that Israel, the Palestinian Authority and states -- Middle East states, Arab states -- will be there to participate and to help support this process.

The Secretary has noted that it would be natural to expect that the Follow-on Committee of the Arab League, which is called upon to follow through on the Arab Peace Initiative, will be invited, and it's our hope that those members will participate.

MODERATOR: All the way in the back there. We'll try and get everybody.

QUESTION: Suzanne Goldenberg from The Guardian newspaper. I'd just like to get an idea from you what sort of conditions need to be met before you can issue invitations to this conference in terms of agreement between the parties, in terms of getting an idea that Arab states will actually be willing to participate in the conference? You know, what sort of benchmarks are in a concrete way -- what things need to be met there?

Also, as you're aware that many of your former colleagues, diplomats, have spoken out and said that they think that this would be better as a series of meetings rather than a sort of make-or-break conference, and what is the Administration's view of that proposal?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I'm sorry, the first question was?

QUESTION: What specific -- are there any -- you're talking about the Secretary of State will make a decision on whether to send out invitations. So what specific things does she want to see in terms of agreement between the two parties and in terms of what they're going address and in terms of conditions, i.e., which countries would participate?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Right.

QUESTION: And just to throw one more in there, how important is it for Syria to participate, in your view?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, that will teach me to go back for clarification. Let me just step back for a second and put this in a bit of context. You know, Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas have been holding a series of discussions, very close-hold discussions, over the course of a number of months. Both sides recently appointed negotiating teams and have tasked them to start working on a joint document. This process has just begun recently underway, but it is incipient and ongoing.

So the Secretary, in this upcoming trip, will seek to support this effort to see how we can help advance this process in which they are seeking to draft a joint document that can lay the groundwork for negotiations. So I don't think there's a specific condition or benchmark that we're going to use. I think when we determine that the parties are ripe for going to the conference, that will be the appropriate time. But one has to recognize that they've just made an important transition from general discussions to now sitting down and actually putting pen to paper, and they have a goal in mind. They're hopeful and optimistic, we're hopeful and optimistic, and that will shape our approach.

MODERATOR: All the way in the back.

QUESTION: And Syria (inaudible)?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, as I noted earlier, all parties -- we expect that the -- a invitation will be issued to the outreach committee of the Arab Peace Initiative. And if you look at that committee, it encompasses a number of states, including Syria. Whether Syria will participate or not, you know, will be remained to be seen.

QUESTION: And what about structuring it as a series of meetings (inaudible)?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, you know, it's an interesting idea, and I think we are not dogmatic in terms of thinking the way forward. If, at the appropriate time, we would determine that such an approach would be useful, then I think we would entertain it. But right now, the important thing is what is going to support a bilateral process between Israelis and Palestinians, and if further meetings would do so, then that might be considered.

QUESTION: Thank you. My name is Talha Musa from Asharq Al Awsat. Just following, actually, have you any contacts now with the Syrians so that they can attend this conference, any kind of contacts now between Washington and Syria in this time? Thank you.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, we have an Embassy in Syria. We have a chargé there who has regular meetings with the Syrian Government and those -- that is our engagement with the Government of Syria. Other than that, I would not point to anything in particular.

MODERATOR: We have time for two more questions if they're short; one, if they're not. I promised our colleague here and then we'll see what time we have left after that.

QUESTION: Thank you, sir. Hoda Tawfik, Al Ahram newspaper, Egypt. If you can define what exactly will be the role of the Arab invited other than Egypt and Jordan in this conference or in this meeting, since the initiative was not accepted as we see and it is with the basis of the process? And exactly how do you envisage the role which should start, as the Palestinians say, after the initiative is accepted?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, thank you, that's a good question. Well, I think the role of the Arab states, as we see it, is to provide support to the Palestinian people, to the Palestinian Authority, both material and moral, political support. It's to show -- to demonstrate to the Israelis that peace and normalization is part of this process.

I would take issue, I think, with one element of your question, in that the Arab peace initiative is something that has been -- that's welcomed by the Administration and is one element, the basis on which we are moving forward. We -- American diplomacy is based on two -- UN Security Council Resolutions 242, 338, the roadmap, and the Arab Peace Initiative is one element as well.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) the other side?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Who's our other side?

QUESTION: The participating side, you have the Palestinians and the Israelis.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I don't believe that's correct.

QUESTION: Just one follow-up on Syria.

MODERATOR: No, sorry --

QUESTION: One more question, please.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Two, I think, actually. (Laughter.)

MODERATOR: Yeah, I'm sorry. One more.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Sure, and actually if I may throw out, if there's anyone -- I know that there's -- this was billed as a Middle East peace process discussion, but if anyone wants to ask anything about Lebanon, I'd be happy to -- (Laughter.) I'll just take one or two questions, I'm not going to --

MODERATOR: One question there, then two questions, (inaudible). Yes, please, the young lady there.

QUESTION: Roula Ayoubi, BBC Arabic. Do you have any comment on Israeli threatening military action in Gaza today? And do you see this sign as obstacle to peace process?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Okay. I'm not aware of such threats and I think I've made my comments clear about our view on the situation there in Gaza.

QUESTION: On Lebanon?

MODERATOR: Sorry, we have someone waiting in New York. Wendy, I don't have a mike. Would you please ask New York if there are questions about Lebanon?

MODERATOR: New York, please go ahead.

QUESTION: I'm Adla Massoud from the Daily Star in Lebanon. Syria has repeatedly warned France that unless Lebanon elects a consensus president under Damascus terms, bunker wars could place. What's your view?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I'm sorry, the feed was not very good. Could I ask you to repeat that?

QUESTION: Syria has repeatedly warned France that unless Lebanon elects a consensus president under Damascus terms, bunker war could take place. What's your view?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, our view has been very clear and consistent. Our view is that Lebanon's elections should proceed according to Lebanon's constitution and without fear or intimidation from outside forces. It's important that the international community support the democratically elected Government of Lebanon. And we hope that the upcoming election -- electoral process will be peaceful and will allow for all Lebanese to participate and determine their future and not for foreign forces to do so.

MODERATOR: One final question on Lebanon. Someone who hasn't had a question yet.

QUESTION: What about the feeling -- you know, insisting on interfering with Lebanon? I mean, that's what was not made clear by the question -- last question. His allies, Hezbollah and Berri, the head of the parliament, speaker of the parliament is refusing even to allow the cabinet -- the parliament to convene. What is your position on this point?

Secondly, Syria President Assad said -- said clearly that if the Golan Heights is not on the agenda or not on the (inaudible) meeting, they are not attending. You said you don't know the position of the Syrian. President Assad said it in an interview.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, as I said earlier on, I'm not going to respond to other press reports and conduct diplomacy that way.

Sir, I think we've had enough questions for me today. What I would say is that we have called and we continue to call on Syria as well as Iran to cease their destabilizing tactics in Lebanon. And we expect Syria to abide by international norms and to halt all interference in Lebanese affairs.

One thing I would note is there obviously is a great deal of international interest in the situation in Lebanon. Assistant Secretary Welch is headed out to the region to meet with the Secretary for the discussions with the Israelis and Palestinians. But on his way, he will be stopping in Paris tomorrow for discussions with Lebanese officials to talk about the situation in Lebanon and how we and the international community can help support Lebanon's freedom and independence as well as the range of other broad issues of concern in the Middle East.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. That concludes our background briefing today. Please recall that it is a Senior State Department Official that you're attributing. Thank you.

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