London Meeting on Supporting the Palestinian Authority – Brief press statements by Secretary-General and Secretary of State Rice – Transcript

London, United Kingdom, 1 March 2005 – Secretary-General and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following a meeting

SG: Secretary of State Condi Rice and myself have had a very good discussion. We covered lots of territory, from UN reform to Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon, and we touched on North Korea, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan and Nepal.

I think the meeting on the Palestinian issue has also gone extremely well. I'm very pleased that the Prime Minister convened this meeting, which gave everybody an opportunity to sit with the new Palestinian leadership to discuss their needs, how they can be assisted with their reform, economic and social development as well as security. And I think when we look back, the Palestinians have handled the transition extremely well and competently, not only going through the elections, but putting together a government that is going to move the process forward. And we hope this meeting will add to the momentum that has been gathering. And of course this afternoon the Quartet will also meet to see how the Quartet can help the process and move the issue forward.

Secretary of State: Thank you very much. The Secretary-General and I did have a very good talk. We obviously talked about what is going on here at the Conference and we will have a Quartet meeting later on today to continue to talk about how the international community can support the process that is underway in this moment of hope.

We talked about a wide variety of issues – the events in Lebanon, the need to make certain that Resolution 1559 is adhered to. We had an opportunity to discuss Sudan and the importance of the Sudanese Government taking seriously the concerns and demands of the international community to bring relief to that long suffering population.

We also talked a good bit about UN reform, about the fact that the United States, as a founding member of the United Nations, wants this to be a strong organisation, an organisation that is fit and ready for the challenges of the 21st century, and we very much appreciate the Secretary-General's commitment to United Nations reform in all of its aspects and all its manifestations and we will look forward to working with you, Mr Secretary-General, to make that a reality.

Thank you very much.