Continental Garden Reef Resort
11:30 A.M. (Local)
MR. HADLEY: I think you all have a copy now of the speech the President
is going to give this afternoon. Let me just say a word -- a few
comments about that, and then a little bit about the conversations the
President has had today and last evening.
I think you'll see from the speech that it is -- its tone is one of
optimism about what is possible in the Middle East; that the
transformation to freedom, democracy, open markets and prosperity that
occurred in Asia and Europe in the 20th century is possible in the
Middle East in the first half of the 21st century.
The speech makes clear that to do this there needs to be economic
reform, opening of economies, encouraging entrepreneurship. There needs
to be investing in people of the region, particularly through education,
and then of course the promotion of freedom -- economic freedom, but
also political freedom, as critical for enduring prosperity.
I think the speech is a challenge to -- also to the young people of the
region -- the enormous opportunity that is before them. Certainly there
are challenges, but there's a real opportunity for them to make a very
different looking Middle East. He indicates that America will support
them in that effort.
And finally, he articulates his vision for the region 60 years from now.
And as you will note, it is the same vision that he articulated at the
end of his speech at the Knesset.
The key element of that vision, of course -- a key element of that
vision is the creation of a Palestinian state. And in the speech the
President reaffirms, as he has so often, his strong commitment to the
establishment of a democratic Palestine, the two-state solution, and his
strong commitment to support the process that could result in the
establishment of agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians that
would outline the contours of a Palestinian state and the basis for a
permanent peace.
He will reaffirm the process he launched in Annapolis, which, as you
know, involves negotiations among the parties. It also involves building
the institutions of the Palestinian state, and also implementing the
road map obligations by Palestinians largely in the area of security, by
Israelis in the area of settlements and outposts, to show that progress
and peace are possible.
And the President used his meetings here in Sharm el Sheikh to advance
that process, and advance those three objectives. He heard last night
from President Abbas and his negotiating team about the status of their
negotiations with the Israelis. I think he remains optimistic that an
agreement can be reached before the end of the year, and he is certainly
committed to that, based on what he heard both here in Sharm el Sheikh
and what he heard in Israel. He remains committed and optimistic on the
negotiations.
He had an opportunity to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad to
talk about the institution building and road map implementation from the
standpoint of the Palestinian side. And what he heard was a commitment
to Palestinians taking greater responsibility for security of their own
people. As you know, there is an effort going on right now in Jenin
where the Palestinian Authority is taking greater responsibility in the
Jenin district. That is providing greater security to the people of
Jenin, and the Prime Minister spoke about how what needs to follow on
behind that greater security is tangible efforts to increase economic
activity.
The President, I think, was encouraged by what he heard. What Prime
Minister Fayyad is doing is very much worthy of support. And that's one
of the things -- one of the messages he took to the various Arab leaders
that he has met here in Sharm el Sheikh -- that the Palestinian
Authority's efforts are real, they are deserving of support, diplomatic
support, but they are also very much deserving of financial support. And
the countries of the region need to do what we are doing, which is to
make a dramatic increase in financial contributions to the Palestinian
Authority so it can pursue the initiatives that it has underway.
He is also urging the Arab leaders he has met with to provide political
support to President Abbas for the negotiating effort. It will be very
important that whatever President Abbas agrees to with the Israelis as a
result of those negotiations have the strong support of Arab leaders if
this process is going to succeed, as we all hope it succeeds, to lead to
a permanent Palestinian -- permanent peace between Palestinian and
Israelis and a reconciliation between Israel and the Arab nations.
In all of these discussions, and I think one of the dominant themes of
the trip, has been Iran. The President has talked about, and you've
heard him talk about, there is a struggle going on in this region
between the forces of change and progress and reform, and those that are
supporting terror and the killing of civilians as a tool to achieve
political power.
And one of the things I think that was clear on this trip, whether the
President was talking to Israelis, Palestinians or Arab leaders, there
is now a consensus understanding that that is what is going on in this
region, and that Iran is very much behind that struggle -- it is Iran
that stands behind what we see Hezbollah doing in Lebanon, what we see
Hamas doing in the Palestinian Territories, and what we see illegal Shia
militia doing in Iraq. And increasingly we see Iran's hand in the
struggle in Afghanistan.
It is a serious challenge to the bright prospect that the President, the
Israelis, the Palestinian leaders and the Arab leaders the President met
with here -- it is a great challenge to the vision that I think all of
them share. But it is a challenge that we can confront, and is a
challenge that we can succeed in overcoming.
Iraq is on the front line of that challenge. Iran, as you know, is very
much behind activity in southern Iraq, which is directed against the
Iraqi government. And the Iraqi government in recent weeks has shown a
real confidence and initiative in dealing with the illegal militias'
challenge, both in southern Iraq and in Sadr City, and they are having
success.
So one of the first places to deliver a bit of a setback to Iran is
actually for the Iraqi government to succeed in what it is doing to take
on illegal militia in the southern part of the country and in Sadr City.
And one of the things that the President did on this trip was to urge
very much for the Arab leaders to embrace this new government, to give
it diplomatic support, to make that support tangible in terms of
receiving and inviting visitors from the Iraqi government, returning
ambassadors, doing debt forgiveness, and the like. And that was a strong
part of his message here.
Lebanon, there also is an opportunity. As you know, there are
negotiations going on among the major Lebanese factions, being brokered
by Arab leaders and by the Arab League. This can lead to an end to the
political stalemate, but only if it does not reward Hezbollah, and if it
supports the elected government that was put in office by the people of
Lebanon. And part of that opportunity is the fact that the people of
Lebanon are realizing that in the events of the last 10 days, Hezbollah
was not, as they claimed, defending Lebanon against Israel; Hezbollah
was using its militia against the Lebanese government and against the
Lebanese people. And that is the context in which those discussions need
to occur.
And finally, in the Palestinian Territories, there is a struggle between
those Palestinian leaders who want peace, and those Palestinian leaders
-- Hamas -- that are in control of Gaza, and have shown themselves
clearly opponents of peace, and using their ability to attack Israel,
particularly by rockets and missiles, as a way of trying to derail the
peace negotiations that are going forward.
Again, this is an opportunity in the standing up of a Palestinian state
and giving a positive alternative to the vision of Hamas to deal a
setback to Iran, and bring stability and peace to the region. And again,
it is important for, as the final part of his message, that all the
regional states who share the concern about what's happening in the
region, are willing to make strategic investments in peace and a better
future for the Middle East by supporting the Lebanese government, by
supporting Salam Fayyad and President Abbas of the Palestinian
Authority, and by supporting Iraq in its struggle against illegal
militias in the southern part of its country.
Finally, and then I'll stop, the President also had an opportunity for a
first meeting with the new Prime Minister of Pakistan. As you could tell
from the footage of the briefing that the two leaders and the statements
the two leaders made after the meeting, it was a very positive meeting.
As he did in the press conference, the Prime Minister of Pakistan made
clear that in his view, Pakistan, the United States, and really all of
humanity is threatened by extremism and terror. He noted that he had
lost his own leader, Benazir Bhutto, to terror, and that fighting terror
was something that Pakistan did for its own future and for its own
reasons and purposes, and that he would fight to bring peace and
stability to Pakistan.
The President -- the Prime Minister also expressed appreciation to the
President and the American people for the support they gave to Pakistan
during the period, and that resulted in free and fair elections. He
thanked the President and the American people for supporting the
transition to democracy in Pakistan. And the President made very clear
that he supports this new democratic government in Pakistan, that his
objective is to have good, close and continued relations with Pakistan,
and that he was confident we would have good relations with this new
government, that good U.S.-Pakistan relations were a vital part of our
foreign policy.
And I'd be glad to answer any questions.
Terry.
Q The President's words of encouragement and optimism, and the
objectives that he said, they all sound like the same thing that -- same
message that we heard back in January. And I'm wondering what's new?
What had -- has the President seen signs of progress over the five
months? Has he been told that things are happening? What can you point
to?
MR. HADLEY: A couple things. One, in January there was a commitment to
negotiate, but no negotiations. What we have now is the negotiation is
ongoing, extremely intensive at several levels between Israelis and
Palestinians, and tangible progress in dealing with the hard issues that
are required before an agreement is reached. Is it done yet? No. Are we
making progress? The President's view is yes, we are making progress.
Second, the Palestinian Authority, in terms of building its own
institutions, taking responsibility for security, and then trying to
bring economic life and a better life for their people, we have seen six
months of progress in that school. What is happening in Jenin is one
element of that. There are a number of elements going on, but it is one
element. And it is in some sense an experiment that if it succeeds can
be a model that can spread throughout the West Bank.
So we see concrete progress in what Prime Minister Fayyad's government
is doing in terms of building the institutions of a Palestinian state,
and bringing better governments -- governance to their people.
And third, I think there is among Palestinians, Israelis, and Arab
leaders in the region, a much better appreciation for what is at stake
in the Middle East more broadly; that the challenge that Iran is
presenting through its various surrogates -- you know, Syria, Hezbollah,
Hamas, and the illegal militia in southern Iraq -- have greater
appreciation for that, and a greater understanding that we -- that
greater effort is going to be required if that threat is going to be
met. It has not resulted in the concrete expression of support for the
forces of change and reform and peace that we would have -- we would
hope, and that's one of the reasons the President came to urge that we
all need to do more, the Arab states here and the United States, and he
indicated his commitment to doing more, as well.
So I think it's significant progress here over the last five months in
the ways that I've described.
Q Mr. Hadley, did anything happen on this trip? Did anything, perhaps --
in the President's meetings or the Secretary's meetings? Did anything
get achieved -- something concrete? There's a lot of rhetoric, but I
don't --
MR. HADLEY: Well, I guess what I would say, and what we said when we
went into this trip and I was asked this question, we said very clearly
we are seeing progress, but we are not at the point where the President
is going to have a meeting with President Abbas and Prime Minister
Olmert to try to declare a vision. There was some talk about a meeting
with those three leaders -- maybe later then with other Arab leaders.
And we had said very clearly, progress is being made, but we are not at
a point so that would be appropriate, would advance the process.
And as we said, the purpose of this meeting was, one, to go to Israel
and join in celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary and make clear
America's commitment publicly to the Israeli people, to the future of
Israel. We think that was a very important thing to do, a very important
accomplishment. Secondly, the President wanted again to return to the
region and to show his continued support for the effort to negotiate a
Palestinian peace. A number of people were writing and saying that the
President had abandoned that commitment, that he was -- no longer
thought it could be achieved by the end of the year; that we had stepped
back from that effort. And one of the things the President wanted to do
on this trip in the region, to the people engaged in that effort, is to
say, it has my full support, and I still it can and should be done by
the end of this year. The President thought that was an important thing
to do, and coming here was the best place to do it.
And finally, he wanted to participate in this conference -- he will this
afternoon -- and sketch out again in the region, to the people of the
region, that there is a vision for a better future in the Middle East.
You have all been writing that there's a sense of pessimism in the
region and low expectations. And the President wanted to both come and
articulate what the challenge facing to the -- facing the region is, and
also to give some hope, and a vision of what the Middle East could be.
And finally, he wanted an opportunity, face to face with the key Arab
leaders in the region, to share with them and hear from their views of
the challenge the region is facing. He found, I think, a surprising
level of agreement, and he wanted then to urge them to do more to meet
that challenge at the same time he pledged to do more on behalf of the
United States.
So it's not the -- I think that's what we set out to achieve, it's what
I talked about in the briefing before the trip, and I think that's what
we have achieved.
Michael.
Q But Steve, haven't you in fact moved the goal posts?
MR. HADLEY: Michael.
Q I can go after Bill.
MR. HADLEY: Bill.
Q Haven't you, in fact, moved the goal posts from a peace agreement by
the end of the President's term in office to what we understand now to
be a desire for a paper which lays out the agreement of a Palestinian
territory?
MR. HADLEY: That is a peace agreement.
Q But not implemented.
MR. HADLEY: The President never said it would be implemented on his --
during his term -- quite the contrary. The President -- the President
and all the parties agreed that implementation of the peace agreement
and the standing up of the Palestinian state would be subject to the
road map; that the road map obligations would have to be formed before
the Palestinian state would come into existence.
That is something the President has said. That was something that was in
the understandings at the time of Annapolis. And what was also said at
that time by Israelis, Palestinians and Americans was, that would be a
process that would take years. So what we wanted to do, and what is the
President's -- still his objective is an agreement for a Palestinian
state that is the core of a peace agreement between Israelis and
Palestinians that would ultimately end the conflict.
Q Could I follow up?
MR. HADLEY: Sir.
Q You talked of tangible progress on hard issues -- what progress, which
issues?
MR. HADLEY: I didn't say hard issues. I'm not sure I used the word
"tangible progress." I was asked what concrete accomplishments we've had
and I tried to give the answer to those concrete accomplishments.
Q You talked about negotiations that have been ongoing in recent months
--
MR. HADLEY: Right.
Q -- and you said there has been tangible progress in dealing with the
hard issues.
MR. HADLEY: Correct.
Q Which hard issues?
MR. HADLEY: And I've also said that it is important for the success of
those negotiations that the details be kept confidential. That's what
the parties want -- that it is going to be harder to negotiate if where
the negotiations are is out in the media. The issues that the parties
have said they want to make progress on, and we believe they are making
progress on, are pretty well known to you -- issues of territory, issue
of refugees, issues of security, issues of Jerusalem.
Q Mr. Hadley?
MR. HADLEY: Sir.
Q On the nonproliferation efforts -- the President did discuss with the
Prime Minister Olmert a threat posed by Iran. Did he also talk about
other threats posed by other countries such as Syria or North Korea?
MR. HADLEY: There's always -- was conversations about Syria, because
Syria is in some sense a part of this threat. It's one of the
instruments through which Iran is posing this challenge to the region. I
don't believe that the North Korea issue came up at all.
Sir.
Q You keep talking about the commitment. What is the administration
prepared to do next? What's the next chapter, and what is the
administration prepared to do down the road to make the two sides live
up to their obligations -- the Israelis and Palestinians?
MR. HADLEY: Well, part of it is what the parties themselves are doing.
For example, when Secretary Rice was in the region here a week and a
half ago, she had a meeting with Prime Minister Fayyad and Israeli
Defense Minister Barak, and out of that meeting came an announcement
from the Israeli side of a number of checkpoints that would be --
checkpoints and roadblocks that would be adjusted. There were -- a
commitment to issue work permits for I think 5,000 Palestinians to work
in Israel.
So the parties themselves have a mechanism now by which they are
beginning to agree upon and make announcements of progress. The
experiment I talked about in Jenin has as an element a understanding
between Israelis and Palestinians by which as the Palestinians step
forward and can show that they can effectively provide security, the
Israelis will be able to change their role and step back a bit. That is,
of course, one of the core things in the road map, which is the
Palestinian Authority building the institutions and then using those
institutions to fight terror.
So there is a process now by which the parties themselves are beginning
to work out arrangements that implement the road map, but they're doing
it in an interesting way -- in some sense, sort of step by step or area
by area. And we of course are part of that process in a very active way.
General Keith Dayton, as you know, is very much involved in
strengthening the Palestinian security organizations, particularly the
PSO -- Palestinian Security Organization -- and the Presidential Guard.
There are other groups. For example, the Germans are being very active
with Palestinian police. You also know that General Fraser is here to
facilitate the conversations between Israelis and Palestinians on road
map implementation. General Jones is in the region trying to help the
Israelis and Palestinians think through the security concept that will
ensure that a new Palestinian state and Israel can both be secure in
this fairly tumultuous region.
And finally, Secretary Rice, as you know, has been to this region sort
of every couple to three weeks, and my expectation is that that will
continue as we try and encourage and support the parties as they find
their way forward here. But again, as the President has said so many
times, we can support the parties, but in the end of the day, the
parties are the ones that need to sit down and working this through. And
the good news of this is that that's what we're seeing the parties do,
both in terms of the negotiations for the agreement and also for
implementation of the road map.
Q Just a quick follow-up?
MR. HADLEY: Yes, sir.
Q Do you anticipate the President coming back here? There's been a lot
of speculation about a "last shot."
MR. HADLEY: I think the President will come back here when there is work
for him to do to advance the process. And the President made a judgment
that this was useful to advance the process. I tried to describe how we
think he thinks he has done so. I think the President is open, again, as
he's -- as he committed to do what needs to be done to try and get
success here.
Sir.
Q When the President went into Iraq in '03, one of the things you were
subsequently criticized for was the thinking that we'd go in, get out,
do democracy (inaudible) few months or a short period of time. Now he's
sort of talking six decades on painting the struggle into a much broader
time frame. What sort of trigger prompted this change, or this
transition, from seeing the struggle --
MR. HADLEY: I'm not sure I'd accept your characterization. I think the
President has been talking for a long time about the struggle against
extremism, which Iran is behind a lot of. It was going to take a long
time. He has talked about, in the way he does today, that what we were
able to do with the people of Europe and with the people of Japan at the
last half of the 20th century is something we can do with the Middle
East in the first half of the 21st century.
Recognition of -- as he had said many times, we've been engaged in
Europe and Japan for a long time in that process. Now, our role changed
over time. The Middle East is very different than Europe or Japan, so
the role is going to look differently. But this is a long-term
challenge, very much comparable to the challenge in terms of difficulty
and complexity and the time it's going to take, to the challenge the
President -- to the challenge the nation faced at the end of World War
II in Japan and Europe.
And with respect to Iraq specifically, we've been saying for a long time
now that Iraq will not be done on the President's watch, and our goal is
to give to the next administration an Iraq project that has a sound
strategy, that we're succeeding in that strategy, and that a next
administration will stay with the project until the Iraqi people are
able to bring success.
Michael.
Q Could I follow up on your comments on Iran? Can you point -- what
progress can you point to in the effort that you outlined to confront
Iran's effort to spread its influence in the region? In Lebanon and in
Palestine, to take the two examples, it seems from people in the region
that Iran is actually strengthening its position. So how can you really
point -- can you point at any success on the part of the U.S. strategy
to confront Iran?
MR. HADLEY: Yes, I think I can, though I would say that this is also
going to be a long and difficult problem, and that Iran has over the
last several years gotten much more active, and it needs to be
understood. The fact that the Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has decided to
take on the problem of illegal militia in the south is a major
development. It's been a problem for at least two years.
I've said many times that we're three security challenges in Iraq:
sectarian violence, al Qaeda, and the illegal militia. And the first two
have been -- we've been actively dealing with over the last couple of
years. This was the sort of third one that was still open. And Maliki
has taken the leadership to deal with that problem. That's a good thing,
because it shows the confidence of the government and their forces
capable to do it. They are, as you know, making progress in Basra
against the illegal militia. The government is now in control of the
port. So I think that is a place where Iran has chosen to support forces
against freedom and against progress, and that we have a strong ally
with our support that is confronting those forces backed by Iran, and is
succeeding.
Lebanon, obviously Hezbollah, made a move in the last 10 days, and at
one level it had tactical success that you have spoken about in their
ability to terrorize the Lebanese people and threaten the government,
and that looks like a tactical success. One of the things that's
interesting is that people in the region and people in Lebanon are now
suggesting that it perhaps was a strategic failure, because it stripped
away the rationale that Hezbollah has used to protect its militia from
being disbanded and brought under the authority of the government.
And that rationale was, the militia was needed to defend Lebanon against
Israel, and what we saw in the last 10 days, and what the Lebanese
people are beginning to say is, hey, this militia was used against us
and against our duly-elected government. And that is an opportunity for
the Lebanese forces of democracy and freedom, and for those in the
region that support it, to hold Hezbollah to account and hopefully to
clip its wings a little bit. We will have to see. This is a story very
much in progress.
And finally, in terms of Hamas -- yes, Hamas is in control of Gaza. Its
administration there I don't think is bringing hope, optimism, and
confidence to the people of Gaza. And what we hope, of course, is to,
through this negotiation and what the President has said many time, is
have a vision for a Palestinian state; that President Abbas can then go
to the people in the West Bank and to the people in Gaza and give them a
choice: Do you want to continue life under Hamas or do you want to come
and join the prospect for a peaceful Palestinian state?
Again, work in progress. And at this point in time, I think we are going
to try and to -- have to deal with the threat Hamas poses, try to
counter, as the Israelis are, their efforts to derail this peace
process, so that we can present to the people -- so that President Abbas
can present to the people of Gaza the stark choice I described.
Q Can I follow up quickly? Were there specific tactical things that you
discussed with your moderate Arab allies this week to do on Iran --
things either at the United Nations, on sanctions, on military options
-- any specific things that you -- the President discussed with our
allies--
MR. HADLEY: There were a lot of discussions of ideas about what to do,
and I'm not going to -- in a position really to go into them.
Sir, last question.
Q Could you bring --
MR. HADLEY: I'm sorry?
Q Could you elaborate on the context of the -- (inaudible) -- discussed
the issue of human rights and political prisoners with President
Mubarak? And what was the reaction of Mubarak?
MR. HADLEY: As you'll -- can see from the President's speech, he talks
very much about his concern about political prisoners, about pressure
against opposition, the need for free media, the need for NGOs and other
civil society groups to be able to flourish. He calls very clearly for
the release of those people who have been incarcerated and greater
freedom for all of those groups. The comment is very clear, and also the
need for democracy and freedom in the region. As we've also said, he did
raise the issue with President Mubarak, including the issue of Ayman
Nour, and he gave his best advice and counsel to the President of Egypt.
Thank you very much.
END 12:05 P.M. (Local)
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