08/09/2001: Daily Press Briefing Excerpts

EXCERPTS FROM PRESS BRIEFING RELATING TO ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS

Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
August 9, 2001 

Complete Transcript of August 9, 200l Briefing

 (On The Record Unless Otherwise Noted)

QUESTION: Can you say whether Arafat condemned the bombing in Jerusalem today before or after the Secretary's call? Was it because of his call that Arafat condemned it?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know the exact timing. I'm assuming that it was after, because the Secretary's making the call fairly early this morning, our time, which would have been fairly soon after the bombing. What the Secretary in his phone call did was what the White House put in their statement. What we have said, I think pretty consistently today, is that we have called on Chairman Arafat to condemn the terrorist attack, to arrest and bring to justice those responsible and to prevent future terrorist attacks. Those are the basic elements of the phone call from the Secretary to Chairman Arafat today.

QUESTION: I don't mean to split hairs, but we always do on such subjects. Do you happen to know if either the Chairman or the Secretary refer to the form this condemnation might or should take?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know.

QUESTION: Like a public statement in Arabic? Is it something that is to be conveyed, or is it sort of like, you know, I'm going to condemn it. How much currency will this condemnation get, is the point, or do you know -- did the US ask for a particular type of approach?

MR. BOUCHER: We've made clear all along that condemnations need to be clear and that actions need to be clear as well. It's important and the Secretary has said we are pleased to see the condemnation made clear. The Secretary also asked for the actions -- for the actions to arrest people and to prevent further action. So these elements are things that we are working on and that we will continue to press for. The condemnation that I've seen from him is pretty clear, and very public. I don't know what language it was made in, but we've seen it on the wires, which usually indicates it is visible.

QUESTION: I know it has only been an hour or so, but has the Secretary spoken to Prime Minister Sharon yet, and --

MR. BOUCHER: He got out of the meetings with the Mexicans about 25 minutes ago, so --

QUESTION: No, it was an hour ago.

MR. BOUCHER: A little more. Anyway, not that I'm aware of. Not when I walked out here.

QUESTION: And when he calls for restraint from both sides, is he saying that the Israelis should not do one of their standard retaliation attacks?

MR. BOUCHER: He made quite clear that we are looking for both sides to exercise restraint and not to allow the violence to spiral out of control again. And therefore, we would urge the parties -- both parties -- to take steps, and we have made quite clear that on the Palestinian side, we are looking to see some specific steps, in terms of arrests and prevention.

QUESTION: Okay, but you haven't really answered that. The Israelis have --

MR. BOUCHER: That is about as much as I can answer. I am not going to speculate on hypothetical reactions to speculation on what the Israelis might do.

QUESTION: Have you asked the Israelis not to retaliate?

MR. BOUCHER: We are in touch with both sides in the region. As you know, the Secretary has not yet spoken to Prime Minister Sharon. But we have made the point that the Secretary made in public, that now is a dangerous time, and people need to exercise restraint. We shouldn't take actions that make the situation spiral out of control.

QUESTION: After the last mass casualty attack -- the disco bombing -- it was increased international pressure on Arafat that led to him calling on the cease-fire. Is the Secretary going to ask the EU and other international players to increase their calls on Arafat to stop the violence?

MR. BOUCHER: As you heard from the Secretary outside, he has spoken today to the Belgian Foreign Minister, who is now in the presidency of the European Union. He has talked to the European High Representative Solana. He has talked to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and I am sure will be keeping in touch with other international players. Because there is a strong international view on this. There is a strong international view that the violence needs to cease, and that we need to implement the Mitchell recommendations in all their aspects. And we think that people around the world agree with that, and would make that clear.

QUESTION: You hear a lot of calls now, a lot of them from former officials, calling for accountability, that there needs to be – that the United States needs to hold both parties more accountable. Is there any way that you can -- or are you developing any new ways to hold the parties accountable for their actions without necessarily having to call from the podium? I mean, what other ways can you hold them accountable?

MR. BOUCHER: I would ask the people that are proposing these ideas to explain them rather than have me try to explain something that other people are proposing. I am not going to sit here and speculate on how to elaborate somebody else's idea that hasn't been elaborated, I guess.

QUESTION: On the Secretary's conversations with Annan, Michel, and Solana, did he initiate those phone calls, or did they call him?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm pretty sure he initiated them all. Generally, he came this morning with a list of people he wanted to talk to.

QUESTION: There is a report today quoting (inaudible) Abu Sharif as saying that -- I'm not sure on what authority -- saying that the United States is preparing some kind of draft plan on the monitors to be ready by Monday. Is there -- is this pure speculation? Is there anything in this at all?

MR. BOUCHER: I would call that speculative. As I have told you before, we have been discussing the issue of monitoring accepted by the parties in the implementation of the Mitchell Report, and we will continue to discuss that with the parties, how that might work, what the ideas are. But I think particularly on a day like today, when there has been this horrible attack, and we feel great sympathy for the victims, it is important to keep our eyes focused on what needs to be done, and that is for the parties to take the steps, for Chairman Arafat to take the steps that are necessary to stop the violence. And that is what we are looking for.

QUESTION: In addition to his condemnation, Arafat also suggested that the Israelis and the Palestinians might make a joint public statement of an intention to observe a cease-fire. Is that something you think is helpful, or is it down to actions rather than words at this stage? And has the Secretary any plans to call any Arab leaders on the situation?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know who the Secretary will end up talking to. I am not aware of any specific people that are queued up for phone calls at this point. But I wouldn't be -- I don't want to say he won't, because he very well might.

As far as the issue of the cease-fire, note the President's statement. It says quite clearly, "I urge the parties to return immediately to the cease-fire commitments they previously made and to renew effective security cooperation."

QUESTION: The Secretary said that, if at some point the violence were to go down, there are new ways that the United States could be involved in security. Can you expand on that?

MR. BOUCHER: No, not at this point.

QUESTION: In that statement, the Secretary also -- and we've heard it many, many times before -- spoke of his concern over provocation. Again, splitting a hair, possibly. But he did speak to Arafat. Is this attack today being represented, by chance, by Arafat as provoked by something Israel has done? Or is the Secretary speaking in general terms?

MR. BOUCHER: I think the Secretary is speaking in general terms. I will leave it to Arafat to characterize what he thinks of the events and why they happened. What we see is that there was a horrible criminal attack that killed any number of people and that it should -- that the parties and particularly Chairman Arafat needs to take steps to prevent these kind of attacks, to arrest those responsible. But that also in this dangerous situation, the inflammatory situation created by this attack, that it is important to exercise restraint as well.

QUESTION: I was just wondering and I think you answered whether the Chairman had said this attack was provoked by Israel.

MR. BOUCHER: I am not going to try to explain what he said. He can explain that himself if he wishes to.

QUESTION: You've been repeating the same sort of calls for restraint in the last several weeks now. What happens if they don't listen to you? Is there a Plan B?

MR. BOUCHER: There is only one way. There is no Plan B. The way is to stop the violence, and to get into the implementation of the Mitchell Report. That gives the parties and, above all, the people what they want, which is a chance for a normal life and a chance for a return to peace talks. This road of violence and bombings and retaliation really only leads to more violence and more disaster.

QUESTION: The plan is a little bit grand. There have been suggestions, refinements. The police refer to one Dennis Ross yesterday suggested, insist on public accountability - assist publicly on accountability. Martin Indyk had some suggestions in an article yesterday. It doesn't attack or change very much what the Administration is doing, but it fine tunes it a little bit, like maybe blending the period of calm you are seeking with the six week cooling off period, thereby getting to the confidence building measures maybe a little faster. Is the Administration entertaining any of these experienced people's recommendations, which really, as I say, don't strike at the heart of what you're doing, but sort of suggest maybe it could take a little adjustment.

MR. BOUCHER: If you take the basic goals, which have been clear from the beginning, even before the Mitchell Plan, end the violence, return to normal life including economic life, and get back to negotiations. You've seen those elaborated in the Mitchell Report. You've seen the ending the violence part especially elaborated in the discussions with Mr. Tenet. And certainly our discussion since then has been, how do you get the parties to really do this, to stop the violence? What kind of steps do they need to take, what role can we play in helping them do this, so that they do stop the violence and get into the implementation of the Mitchell Report.

We have talked to the parties about that implementation, as well. So, yes, we are always looking at ideas for how to get them to do that. But fundamentally, it's not us waving a magic wand or monitors waving a magic wand that are going to stop the violence. It is leaders leading, security officials taking the actions that are necessary to maintain security, and the parties cooperating with each other rather than perpetuating a cycle of violence.

QUESTION: Really you're saying that attacks like this one justify the policy of targeted killings, that it's a preventative measure from attacks like this occurring. What do you say to that?

MR. BOUCHER: I think we've discussed that amply before. The way to stop these attacks is for the parties to take their responsibilities seriously, and for the parties to cooperate on security matters.

QUESTION: Are Miller and Satterfield -- and/or -- going out to the Middle East next week?

MR. BOUCHER: Satterfield is already in Beirut, and he will be going on to Damascus, and then down to Israel and for meetings with the Israelis and the Palestinians. Let me check on Miller; I think he is joining him out there, but I'm not sure.

QUESTION: This morning, I think before the bombing, Foreign Minister Peres said that the Israeli insistence that the violence must stop before any sort of implementation of Mitchell can begin holds the whole process hostage to anybody with a gun.

Does the US Government have any comment on that, or do you agree with that? I mean, we hear calls from you and people in this Administration to stop the violence, but some say come down as well. There's a nuance there.

MR. BOUCHER: I suppose there are nuances that can be explored if the violence comes down. The Mitchell Committee Report called for the cessation of violence. It called for a maximum effort. It called for a 100 percent effort by the parties. When we were in Ramallah, Chairman Arafat said he would make a maximum effort to bring the violence down.

So we are looking for the effort, we are looking for a lower level of violence, bringing the violence down. And at that point, I guess we can start discussing the, how quiet is it.

QUESTION: Richard, if he hasn't made any of these arrests that are suggested, can we conclude that he is not making the effort you expected, and that would be kind of a statement of accountability?

MR. BOUCHER: I mean, hasn't made the arrest since -- in the few hours since the bombing -- I am not sure I would draw conclusions from that.

QUESTION: The US has been calling for arrests --

MR. BOUCHER: I would say that the fact that we are still calling for more action indicates that we don't think there has been enough action.

QUESTION: You called for arrests for a long time, and it's not just about this bombing?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes.

QUESTION: He hasn't done it.

MR. BOUCHER: We are continuing to say we think that more action is necessary.

QUESTION: Can we do Mexico?

QUESTION: Do you have any comment about the broadening of Arafat's cabinet to include Hamas and PFLP people?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't -- I am not aware he has actually done that.

QUESTION: No, he is calling for it. And he --

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not going to comment at this point.

QUESTION: He is actually negotiating with Sheikh Yassin.

MR. BOUCHER: I am not going to comment at this point, I don't think.