Interview by Al-Jazeera

QUESTION:

MR. GROSSMAN: First of all, thank you very much for the chance to be with you. It’s my honor. We were very proud that the road map was put out yesterday; as you said, it took a long time, but I think that time was worth it. The reason I think the time was worth it because our President set out last June 24^th the vision of two states, an Israeli state and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace. He also called upon Palestinians to have more democracy and that’s exactly what we have seen, so we think it was very much worth the wait.

To answer your specific question, I must say I was very surprised to see that report in the Washington Post and in other places this morning, and why was that? Because when President Bush met with President Uribe, the President of Colombia, yesterday, he talked a lot about the road map. In fact he stopped the press conference that he was in and said, “wait, I’d like to talk with you about the road map: how important it is, how important my vision is, how important it is that we will support peace in the Middle East.” So perhaps this came after people’s deadlines or they had already made up their minds, but I must say if you look at the transcript of what the President said with the President of Colombia sitting right next to him, I don’t think there is any doubt that this is a road map of the United States of America, supported by the United States of America, and we intend to be there and promote it as a peaceful solution.

I don’t have any doubts or anxieties about this myself.

QUESTION:

MR. GROSSMAN: Well, I’m not a politician -- all I can say is that I heard our President on the 24^th of June, saw what our President laid out for Palestinian democracy, I saw the road map released yesterday, I heard what the President said as he sat with President Uribe, and I must say that it has been the long standing policy of the United States to try to bring about peace in the Middle East. But the great thing that we have in this administration is a clear statement of two states living side by side: an Israeli state and a Palestinian state. And I must say I think that’s very courageous and I would say to you, sir, -- and you may have your own opinion on this -- I don’t think President Bush has suffered at all. In fact I think he has been greatly enhanced both domestically and overseas by making such a courageous statement like he did on the 24^th of June by focusing on Palestinian democracy and then doing exactly what he said -- which was when the Palestinian Prime Minister was confirmed he would release the road map. President Bush is a man of his word.

QUESTION:

MR. GROSSMAN: The challenge I think has been laid out by President Bush and the Administration, and it’s a challenge to Israelis, it’s a challenge to Palestinians, it’s a challenge to all of the people in the region to take the vision of June 24^th and make it a reality. Take this road map, use it for what it is the beginning of a conversation. It’s not a dictation, it’s not a treaty, it doesn’t say that this is how every single detail has to be, but it is a way forward to bring the President’s June 24^th vision into reality. There are obligations to it on both sides: obligations for Palestinians, obligations for Israelis. No one said this was going to be easy, no one said it was going to be a straight shot. Don’t forget that the first “welcome” in some ways, from those who wish to defeat the peace process, to the beginning of the Palestinian Prime Minister’s tenure, was a terrorist explosion not very far behind the American Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Everybody has to focus now on what the job is, which is to leave these kinds of pasts behind and go forward with the road map -- and let’s see if we can’t create the President’s vision of two states living side by side in peace.

QUESTION:

MR. GROSSMAN: I really can’t speak to what the President is going to say here, seven or eight hours in advance of his statement. I apologize, I know this is not a very good answer for you, but we’ll just have to wait and see what the President has to say, sir.

QUESTION:

MR. GROSSMAN: I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer, but what we are trying to say here, especially in Afghanistan, is that the conflict in Afghanistan has gone through a number of phases. There was a phase of active military conflict and you and I have talked about this from time to time on your television channel here. There was also a period in which, although there was not perhaps that full and active a military engagement, there was still a job to do against the Taliban and against the remnants of Al-Qaida. We have always thought that it is very important to be clear with the people of Afghanistan, with your viewers, and with people in the United States that we would transit from the end of combat operations to stability operations. And there are some countries, for example, who are prepared to participate in stability operations but not in combat operations. There are other implications but I think what it shows is, is that we are achieving our objectives and in Afghanistan those objectives have been achieved quite remarkably.

Afghans have really, I hope your viewers would agree, more democracy then they have had certainly in their known history: schools are opening up, refugees are returning to Afghanistan, President Karzai is moving toward more and more control over the entire country. I think a lot of good things have happened there and if we can move now into a stability operation and less of a daily combat operation, I think that’s a very good thing and I hope you’d agree.

QUESTION:

MR. GROSSMAN: What’s going on is, as you might expect, the United States has a series of facilities and bases around the world, and we also use the facilities and bases of other countries. And as you can imagine, we’re constantly trying to make sure that we are in the right place at the right time, spending our taxpayers’ money in a sensible way. You will also have seen from the newspapers that there is a conversation going on about realigning our forces in Europe, and that’s exactly what you would expect. The Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore, NATO is changing its operations, and we just completed major combat operations in Iraq. So I think you would expect this would be an opportunity for us to do things in new ways, to do things in sensible ways.

I don’t think this should be surprising to anyone. Obviously I think the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff would have to speak to the specifics, but I don’t think it should surprise your viewers that not every day in every place does our military force have to remain exactly the same.

QUESTION:

MR. GROSSMAN: (Laughter). Absolutely. First of all, I appreciate your question. I certainly, as I did the last time, say that our President sets our policy towards Turkey but I’m glad to talk to you about it. I think that U.S.-Turkish relations are on the way back. The last time you and I talked about this, no question that there was some disappointment in what happened on the first of March in Turkey. But Turkey is a democracy and as I said to you the last time, I believe that the Turkish Government went to the Turkish Parliament on the first of March to win; they didn’t go to lose. The fact that they did not succeed is a mark of Turkish democracy.

We would we have liked it to come out another way, of course, but Turkey is a democracy, the Turkish Parliament spoke, and that’s were we are. But we’ve worked together now with Turkey to prosecute this very successful war in Iraq and I think Secretary Powell’s visit to Turkey a couple of weeks ago was a very important sign of the importance that the United States gives to Turkey. Turkey and the United States are allies, we are strategic partners. There was some disappointment but we have a lot of work to do together. You will notice that our Congress in the supplemental appropriation put in a billion dollars for Turkey, and we will need now to talk to Turkey about how to spend that.

In terms, sir, of your other question about the Kurds: I hear this analysis but with all due respect to those people who hold it, I must say that I find it hard to accept. The Kurds did have a different kind life for ten or eleven years, thanks to the United States and thanks to Turkey in Northern Iraq. But it was always having to be protected by someone else, it was always tenuous, Kurds were always worried. And now they have the possibility of being in a multi-ethnic, democratic Iraq, that’s got its territorial integrity, that I think is going to be very economically successful, that will be at piece with its neighbors. And so I think that Kurds, Turkomen, Shiites, Sunnis, and the Syrians and Chaldeans, everybody’s got a chance to benefit here from a unified Iraq. I know that this conversation’s around, it’s probably something that people like to debate, but I don’t really see the logic of it, with all due respect.

QUESTION:

MR. GROSSMAN: Thank you very much.