08/13/2001: Daily Press Briefing Excerpts
QUESTION: Can you update us on Satterfield's meetings today in the Middle East? MR. REEKER: Middle East. QUESTION: Can we go back to China for a second? MR. REEKER: Okay. I will give you a second. As long as it's not a new subject on China. We have had a couple of things out here. QUESTION: Two questions. One is, can you release the biggest difference between the US bill and the Chinese bill? MR. REEKER: No, I don't have any details for you on that subject. QUESTION: Okay. The second then, there is a report that several high-ranking officials, Secretary Armitage and Condoleezza Rice, are going to go to China. Can you confirm those trips? MR. REEKER: I am not aware of a trip by Deputy Secretary Armitage, other than his trip departing for Australia this afternoon. And for Condoleezza Rice's schedule, you would have to contact the White House. But I am not aware of any trips to China. Betsy, going back to you, I'm sorry. QUESTION: Satterfield. MR. REEKER: Satterfield. The Middle East. Let me just start by saying we remain deeply concerned about the continuing violence and bloodshed in the region, and I think the deplorable incidents over the weekend underscore what we have been saying for some time, that both sides need to recognize that down the path of escalation and retaliation lies disaster, more suffering. So, once again, we urge both sides to take immediate steps and restore an atmosphere of restraint and calm. In terms of our senior officials here and in the region, and continuing contact with the parties, and your specific question about Deputy Assistant Secretary Satterfield, he met with Prime Minister Sharon last night and I understand he will see Chairman Arafat later today. I don't have a specific time for you on that. So we continue to encourage those leaders to reduce the violence and facilitate the implementation of the Mitchell Committee recommendations as quickly as possible. QUESTION: Is the US trying to sort of broker a meeting between senior Palestinian officials and Israeli officials? MR. REEKER: I am not aware of any specific meetings other than, of course, security meetings that we have continued to try to press forward on the facilitative role that we have played in those security meetings, which we think are vitally important. We want to see the security meetings continue because we think that is an essential way to reduce tension, foster trust and confidence, and improve the situation on the ground. You know, it is essential, as I have said -- as we have said so many times before -- that both sides be seen to be doing all they can to stop the violence and we encourage the parties to utilize the trilateral security meetings to coordinate their efforts and advance their common interest in restoring calm. And that is what the goal of that is, after all, so that we can move ahead. QUESTION: Just a couple questions about this. Can you give any update on the Americans who were arrested in demonstrations outside of the Orient House on Friday? And I guess over the weekend, they were re-arrested. Has the American consulate been in any kind of contact with them? MR. REEKER: I will have to check on that, unless Chuck can remind me. I don't have any update on that, so we will have to look into that after. Sorry about that. QUESTION: A couple of questions on this. First of all, what is Mr. Satterfield trying to do? MR. REEKER: Mr. Satterfield is trying to continue to work with both parties through his meetings with leaders, just as we do in our phone calls and meetings at various levels, just as we do from this podium, in telling the leaders that they've got to take every effort possible, maximum effort to bring down the violence, break the cycle of violence, have calm and focus on the Mitchell Committee recommendations, which are the path back to negotiations for peace. QUESTION: First of all, you made some remarks -- the State Department made some remarks on Friday about the takeover of Orient House. You didn't say whether you were asking the Israelis to withdraw from those institutions. Could you tell us now, is that what you would like to see? MR. REEKER: I think I will stand by exactly what Ambassador Boucher said on Friday. I don't really have anything new to add. Orient House has long symbolized the importance of political dialogue and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, and it is vital, as I said earlier -- again as we have said before -- that both parties remain committed to those objectives and avoid actions which threaten the fundamental belief in a negotiated settlement. So we are concerned about the actions against Orient House. We remain concerned there, and we urge the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority to move quickly to implement the Tenet work plan and the Mitchell agreement and move toward a resumption of negotiations. QUESTION: Do you support the idea of Foreign Minister Peres meeting Palestinians and setting up a kind of -- some preliminary negotiating process? MR. REEKER: We support the idea of moving into the Mitchell Committee report recommendations, so that they can get back into a process for resuming negotiations. We want both sides to take maximum efforts to do that. We also support, as I said, the security discussions which we tried to facilitate, the trilateral security discussions, because we think that is a very essential way in creating and enhancing atmosphere of trust that will give them confidence to then move into the next steps of that. So each side has to make their decisions, and we encourage as much working together as possible on this, because the goal is clear. It is the same goal that we have been stating for some time. QUESTION: Forgive me if I have missed something while I have been gone, but when I left -- MR. REEKER: In your extended absence. QUESTION: Exactly. When I left five weeks ago, the idea was to try and get -- the idea was to try and get seven days in a row of complete calm. Is that still the operative thing? MR. REEKER: We need to see calm. Obviously, we haven't seen -- QUESTION: But that agreement, or some formula that was worked out by the Secretary when he was out there in June, is that still on the table? MR. REEKER: What I would suggest is that you go back and look at the transcripts. We need to see some calm. We need to see an end to the violence. We need to see a maximum effort in reducing the violence. So, anyway, we are suggesting that Matt check what we have been saying in recent times. Both sides need to do that. We need to see calm. Once we have some calm, then we can explore the next steps in getting into Mitchell. That's the next important thing. QUESTION: I'm sorry. You said we need to see calm. Do you still need to see seven straight days of calm? MR. REEKER: We need to see calm, and then we can start assessing as we count days. We didn't have a day of calm yesterday. I haven't looked at how the calm is today. What we need to see is maximum effort by both sides in doing all they can to bring an end to the violence, because we have got to move forward, and in order to move forward we need to have calm on the ground. QUESTION: I'm not trying to be picky, but I know this -- MR. REEKER: Of course you are. (Laughter.) QUESTION: -- has been an issue in some meetings in the last couple weeks regarding this. But are you still sticking to what Matt said, the seven days in a row? Are you saying we need to see calm and then we can make an assessment? That's different -- MR. REEKER: I think if you go back to what the Secretary said in his travel there at the time and statements subsequent to that, and what Ambassador Boucher has said, we want to see calm. We want to see days of calm. We have seen individual days and then they have been disrupted by horrific events like those that we saw over this weekend, those that we saw last week. And so, obviously, more effort needs to be done in doing that. So before we start counting, we have to find a place to start counting, and we are not there yet. QUESTION: When Secretary Powell was in the region, he said that there was going to be seven days of calm and that both sides would agree, meaning Sharon would agree, who has been reluctant to (inaudible). Is that still the policy? Are we still on that? MR. REEKER: We would still like to see calm. We would like to see seven days of calm. We would like to see one day of calm and keep moving forward. So what I am saying is we can't count seven days now because we have never gotten into a counting of seven days. QUESTION: This is important, but are those seven days of calm still a precondition for confidence-building negotiations? MR. REEKER: I think if you go back to what has been said just as recently as Friday, what we need to see is some calm so that the two parties can then decide when they are ready to move into the next steps and start implementing Mitchell. I think the two parties need to continue the security talks and they can see how they feel as those move forward and see once the violence has been reduced on the ground. It is going to be up to the parties, Eli. And we will continue to do what we can to facilitate that, certainly with the security talks on the ground, and looking for a period of calm so that they can move into Mitchell. QUESTION: Friday and Saturday were calm. Can you tell us whether you actually started counting on Friday and Saturday? MR. REEKER: No, I can't, Jonathan. I am just not going to. QUESTION: If not, why not? I mean, they were calm. As far as I know, there were no injuries or -- MR. REEKER: Well, Jonathan, have you read your wire stories about the events of yesterday? The deplorable incidents over the weekend -- QUESTION: Friday and Saturday. MR. REEKER: So I am just not going to start to get into counting for you. You can make your own judgment, just as the two parties have to make their own judgment. What we haven't seen is an extended period of calm. So I think we have sort of beaten this to death. QUESTION: Are you saying the Secretary never endorsed the seven days? MR. REEKER: I am saying that the Secretary stands exactly by what he has always said. Why you are trying to focus on counting seven days now when we just had horrific incidents over the weekend -- what we need to see is a greater effort to ending the violence, and I think less time spent on dealing with minutiae at this point, where we need to see an effort on reducing violence and trying to have even a day of calm now, and moving forward. QUESTION: But to the best of your knowledge, the clock had never started? MR. REEKER: I don't think we have a clock that we are topping, Matt. QUESTION: The calendar has never started. MR. REEKER: We watch these things very -- QUESTION: Well, I don't know. That's the way it sounded back in June. That was what everyone was looking for. MR. REEKER: And we haven't seen it, have we? We haven't seen a maximum effort, and we haven't seen an end to the violence, we haven't seen a break to that. So that is what we continue to call for, and that is what we will continue to watch for, and that is what we will continue to try to support and facilitate, certainly through the security talks and our high-level discussions here and over in the region. |
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