Rice says Israeli settlement activity ought to stop – USDOS press release/Non-UN document (excerpts)

Israeli Settlement Activity Ought to Stop, Rice Says

Calls on both sides to focus on making short-term achievements successful

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called upon Israel to stop its expansion of settlements, saying the Bush administration is “particularly concerned” over “any kind of activity that would prejudge the outcome of a final status agreement” between Israel and the Palestinians.

In her April 4 remarks to the National Conference of Editorial Writers at the State Department, Secretary Rice said U.S. policy “is very clear: The expansion of settlements ought to stop; settlement activity ought to stop.”

Days ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s scheduled April 11 meeting with President Bush in Crawford, Texas, the Israeli government announced it is planning to expand its settlement of Maale Adumim near Jerusalem.

“They say that this is the beginning, this is planning, this is tendering, but we are very concerned that there not be any land taken here that could be viewed to be some kind of attempt to get ahead of a final status agreement,” Rice said.

Rice said there is “a pretty clear path” of what both sides need to achieve over the next four or five months.  The Palestinians, she said, need to reform their security forces and develop “transparent, accountable, noncorrupt financial and political institutions that can form the basic institutions that would then be the basis for statehood.”

Israel needs to successfully disengage its forces and settlements from Gaza and from the four West Bank settlements it has announced it would evacuate, she said.

“If we can achieve that over the next several months, then I believe you will see that we will have accelerated progress on the roadmap and then the next phases should be not only … somewhat clearer but somewhat easier because the two sides will have established relationships of confidence,” Rice said.

The secretary also warned that the tendency, especially on the Palestinian side, will be to try to start discussions on the final status.  However, she said “it is really important that this four or five months is successful, and so what we need to do is to concentrate the parties on that.”

“We will get to final status, I am quite confident, and the roadmap is a reliable guide to a two-state solution … that ends up in an independent Palestinian state,” Rice said.

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Following is the transcript of Secretary Rice’s remarks to the National Conference of Editorial Writers:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

April 5, 2005
2005/376

Remarks

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
To the National Conference of Editorial Writers

April 4, 2005
Loy Henderson Auditorium
Washington, D.C.

(2:15 p.m. EDT)

SECRETARY RICE:  …

…

QUESTION:  Yes.  John Bersia, Orlando Sentinel.  We were listening to Elizabeth Cheney earlier today talking about the historic pace of change in the Middle East, and there are some who have said things are moving so rapidly we probably could use a special envoy or even a super envoy to the Middle East.  Has any consideration recently been given to that?  I know Donald Trump presented himself as a candidate — (laughter) — on Larry King Live a few months ago, but he's kept talking about it, which suggests to me that he's serious.  Have you talked to him or is he somebody you might talk to?

SECRETARY RICE:  Well, I've not talked to him.  (Laughter.)  He's a very interesting man.  He's done a lot. 

Let me just speak to the issue of the special envoy.  There may well come a time when the best form is — or the best solution is to have a special envoy.  We have nothing against special envoys in principle.  It is just that one has to choose what a special — choose the right moment when a special envoy would have something important and useful to do.

We don't want to be guided by form over substance and I would note that the substance is — the substantive program before us is actually pretty clear over the next several months.  If you look at what has happened in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since, really, the beginnings of Ariel Sharon's decision and now having made its way through the Israeli Government that there should be a disengagement of Israel, Israeli forces, Israeli settlements, from the Gaza and from the four settlements in the West Bank, if you take that and then you look at what has happened in the Palestinian territories since the death of Yasser Arafat, it actually puts forward a pretty clear path of what they need to achieve over the next four or five months. 

They need to achieve on the Palestinian side the reform of security forces, the development of institutions of democracy, the development of transparent, accountable, noncorrupt financial and political institutions that can form the basic institutions that would then be the basis for statehood.  On the Israeli side, they need to have the successful disengagement of Israeli forces and settlements from the Gaza and those four settlements in the West Bank.

If we can achieve that over the next several months, then I believe you will see that we will have accelerated progress on the roadmap and then the next phases should be not only somewhat easier but — not only somewhat clearer but somewhat easier because the two sides will have established relationships of confidence.  The Palestinians will have established security forces that can actually be part of the solution, not part of the problem, in the Gaza, and hopefully also in the West Bank.

The tendency will be on both sides, particularly on the Palestinian side, to try to get ahead of this and to try to start to talk again about final status.  We will get to final status, I am quite confident, and the roadmap is a reliable guide to a two-state solution.  The roadmap is a reliable guide to a political horizon for the Palestinian people that ends up in an independent Palestinian state.  But it is really important that this four or five months is successful, and so what we need to do is to concentrate the parties on that.  I think for that we need — probably need coordinators.  We have a security coordinator.  We will look at what other additional personnel we may need.  But we're not yet at the point of negotiating final status issues, and if we jump to that before we have successfully concluded this next four or five months' work, I think we're actually going to end up failing. 

QUESTION:  Lynnell Burkett, San Antonio Express-News.  There is concern among the Palestinians about expansion of the settlements near Jerusalem.  And do you plan to pressure the Israeli Government not to expand settlements at this particular time?

SECRETARY RICE:  Well, our policy is very clear:  The expansion of settlements ought to stop; settlement activity ought to stop.  We've also been very clear that we are particularly concerned about any kind of activity that would prejudge the outcome of a final status agreement and that it is contrary to American policy for Israel to do so. 

Now, we will have discussions with the Israelis over the next several weeks about this.  I think we've been very clear.  We do need to put it all in context.  There is a new reality created by the disengagement plan and that is that that new reality is that this will be the first time that land has actually gone back to the Palestinians in any sizeable — really at all since the '67 war.  And so this is really quite a dramatic return and that's why I concentrate so heavily on doing what we need to do over this next several months.

But absolutely we are saying to the Israeli Government with absolute certainty that the settlement activity ought to stop.  They say that this is the beginning, this is planning, this is tendering, but we are very concerned that there not be any land taken here that could be viewed to be some kind of attempt to get ahead of a final status agreement.

QUESTION:  But you did say last week that the Israelis could not be expected to pull out from all the West Bank settlements; is that correct?

SECRETARY RICE:  No.  What I said was that the President said on April 14th in his assurances to Prime Minister Sharon that there is a certain reality that has been created since the armistice and then since the '67 line was created that most peace agreements, most peace proposals, have recognized that there are certain realities on the ground and among those realities are major Israeli population centers.  But the President has also said that anything of that sort has to be negotiated at the time of final status.  But people are going to have to take — at the time of final status are going to have to take account of the fact that there are these new realities on the ground. 

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QUESTION:  Okay.  Well, thank you very much.  I'm from South Asia.  The United States has the largest and most advanced Arab-Muslim community in the world.  And after the Cold War, most of the decisions relate to the Middle East.  How come that you don't have anybody who really have feet on the ground in the Muslim Middle East?  You have the neo-conservatives, who since 1992 have this agenda of attacking Iraq and preserving, I mean, Israel's nuclear monopoly, which you are talking about —

SECRETARY RICE:  What did I say — I'm sorry.  One second.  Israel — what did I say about Israel's nuclear — ?

QUESTION:  No, you said — no, your agenda that Iran should have — you talk about —

SECRETARY RICE:  Ah.  Okay.  Mm-hmm. 

QUESTION:  — Israel's nuclear weapons.  Iraq was attacked because it could have nuclear weapons.  So it is preserving Israel's nuclear monopoly.  John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, , who took us to the war — such an unpopular war — you felt obliged to put him in the United Nations up there.

My question is:  Does this Administration feel hostage to the neo-conservatives or the President just doesn't get it?

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY RICE:  Well, you know what the President gets?  The President gets that actually, thanks to the decisions that he has made over the last three and a half years, 50 million people no longer live under dictators in Afghanistan and in Iraq. 

The President gets that because he took a very tough line about what the responsibilities of the parties to the Middle East peace process had to do, the Israelis and the Palestinians actually have a chance for peace and Ariel Sharon, the father of the settlements, is getting ready to abandon settlements in the Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank. 

The President understands and gets that because he has spoken out for freedom and because with the French we passed a little known resolution in last summer called Resolution 1559, the people of Lebanon are now out in the streets demanding that the Syrians end their occupation and that Syria give to the Lebanese people the opportunity for freedom. 

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