Exerpts: October 28 Press Briefing

Question: There's some reports from the region that Yasser Arafat is going to make some new cabinet appointments and is going to dismiss his Interior Minister, Minister al-Yahya -- that the US has been working closely with -- for a less reform-minded, shall we say, cabinet. Do you have anything on this?

Mr. Boucher: I don't have any particular comment on the individuals who may or may not be appointed. I would say that we've continued to meet with a wide variety of Palestinians. We've continued to work with them on the issues of reform, which they have spoken about and cared about and advocated. When Assistant Secretary Burns was in the region, he met with a variety of people both in this cabinet now and outside the cabinet -- people from different walks of life who have been advocating reform in the Palestinian community.

And we have made very, very clear that we look for people who can be responsible, who can be untainted by terrorism, who can be responsible for progress and establishing progress in their community to create the kind of Palestinian state that the President talked about. So that remains our goal, is to look for people to work with who can be responsible and take responsibility for the kind of reform that needs to happen in order to create the Palestinian state.

Question: Well, without talking about any new appointments, can you talk about the Interior Minister? I mean, you yourself --

Mr. Boucher: No, I wouldn't --

Question: The Secretary --

Mr. Boucher: I wouldn't talk about an individual personality.

Question: Okay, but -- well, you already have. I mean, you've already praised this individual. And Secretary Powell has said that this is a man that the United States thinks is on the right track, has done -- is trying to take a lot of steps to improve this Palestinian security situation. So, I mean, you've already been on record saying that you think that this is an individual that has done -- is a reform-minded person. So what would you think of Yasser Arafat dismissing him?

Mr. Boucher: I'm not going to speculate at this point. If we have anything more to say at the time, I'm sure we will.

Question: Have you been happy with the progress of the working groups that were set up and that I believe --

Mr. Boucher: I think we think a lot of good work has been done. The task forces and the working groups under the task forces -- or the task force under the working group, I can't remember. But there has been a lot of good work done on a lot of very specific aspects of reform, a lot of very specific aspects of financial controls, of accountability.

As you know from the statement we issued when Prime Minister Sharon visited, that we've been looking for additional ways that we can help establish that sort of transparency and accountability so that tax revenues can be returned to the Palestinians with some confidence that they'll be spent properly. We continue to work on that.

We continue to work on a lot of the details -- humanitarian aspects of reform, as well as, on the overall roadmap. And what Assistant Secretary Burns has been doing in the region is consulting with the governments involved and the countries that are affected and players like the Palestinians to work out the elements of a roadmap on how to move forward on all these fronts so that we see all the parties carrying out their obligations.

Barry.

Question: Does the State Department see any positive pattern to what Arafat is doing? Or is he just moving chess pieces around?

Mr. Boucher: I don't want to try to speculate on what he might do, or what he is doing.

Question: No, no --

Mr. Boucher: What I've made clear is --

Question: Is he making an attempt to reform is the question.

Mr. Boucher: I don't think we've put a lot of stock in that -- that path, the Arafat path. I think the President made that quite clear on June 24th. What we're looking for is for people to emerge in responsible positions who will take responsibility and be able to carry through on reform, and make it happen in a manner that's untainted by the past.

Question: Well, this is kind of ripe because you all spoke positively bracketing the new Finance Minister -- I think you're more enthusiastic about him than the new Interior Minister, who, after all, got to talk to the head of the CIA. This showed some approval of what was going on, and now that's being torn apart. I don't understand.

Mr. Boucher: I don't have any comment at this moment. I realize a lot of this is under speculation. If we want to say something -- I think I just said, if we want to say something at the appropriate time; we will, but you know, two minutes after she asks is not the appropriate time yet.

Question: You actually did -- I think that you may have -- I don't know if you meant to say this or not, but when you say that you don't think we put a lot of stock in that path, the Arafat path, you're not talking about Arafat's reform efforts, are you? You're talking about Arafat himself?

Mr. Boucher: He's -- they --

Question: I'm sorry, because I thought that you guys liked the Finance Minister and the Interior Minister that he put in. Are you saying the Arafat path of reform --

Mr. Boucher: No, no, Matt. I didn't say that and I'm not saying that.

Question: Okay.

Mr. Boucher: I'm saying we're not counting on Chairman Arafat to decide on what reform and what reformers. We think there's a lot more effort in the Palestinian community to support reform, and we think there's a lot of other individuals involved in the Palestinian community to carry out reform.

And he was asking me what do we think of Arafat's credentials as a reformer, and I had to say that's not particularly what we're counting on for reform in the Palestinian community, more broadly speaking.

Question: But you did say, immediately after that, you are waiting for people to emerge.

Now, in the past, you’ve been happy to deal with people appointed by Arafat. Are you suggesting there's some other way that people might emerge after being appointed by Arafat?

Mr. Boucher: Both of you, in what I said to your colleague over here, I don't think I'd change the policy this way or that way. I didn't lean toward Arafat any more than we have or away from Arafat any more than we had.

The fact is that when people have emerged, through whatever process, whether it was through the parliament or through appointments or through whatever else, and shown that they're able to take responsibility and operate in a manner that's not like the past, we've been willing to work with them. That's what we've done. That's what we'll continue to do.

Question: Can I just sort of -- and the roadmap that Mr. Burns has been trying to fine-tune as he travels around the region, he's basically doing that by himself, right, without consultation with the Quartet. At some stage -- has he made any changes to it, and is he going back to the Quartet at some stage to get their endorsement of his changes?

Mr. Boucher: I think he started his trip with the Quartet meeting in Paris. If you remember, that was probably a week or ten days ago.

Whether -- I'm sure, along the way, he's kept in touch with the other Quartet representatives. Remember, there are several Quartet representatives who are already in Israel or Jerusalem, so - I'm sure he's kept in touch as he's gone along. I'm not aware of any further Quartet meetings at his level, but I'll check.

Question: But is this not leading up to some kind of -- some kind of Quartet final presentation?

Mr. Boucher: I'm not aware of any particular Quartet -- I'm not aware of any such meeting, but I'll check.

We have one more questions back there.

Question: It was reported in the Israeli press that the Secretary is on November 6th going to give a speech focusing on the democratization of the Arab world.

Do you confirm this report, or -- and what is the message that the Secretary is going to convey, or the content of that speech about the democratization of the Arab world?

Mr. Boucher: I haven't announced it yet, and I would want to say something before I would -- I would want to be able to confirm the event before I could talk about what it might be.

Okay. Do we have one or not?

Question: I think I'm going to be pilloried if I -- well, what I -- Sharon said today apparently that he could follow the roadmap that he received two weeks ago, except for settlements, a ban on settlement activity. Is this something that he can pick and choose from, or do you know --

Mr. Boucher: We were talking to all the parties about their views of the roadmap and the elements in the roadmap. I don't think I can get into position now of talking about one individual's comments or not.