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Skriven 2005-10-20 23:33:18 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (051020) for Thu, 2005 Oct 20
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President Welcomes Palestinian President Abbas to the White House
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 20, 2005

President Welcomes Palestinian President Abbas to the White House
The Rose Garden

President's Remarks
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˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: The Road Map to Peace

10:57 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all, thanks. It's my honor to welcome the
democratically elected leader of the Palestinian Authority to the White
House for the second time this year. We just had some good talks. Mr.
President, thanks. A good, open, exchange of ideas.

President Abbas is a man devoted to peace and to his people's aspirations
for a state of their own. And today the Palestinian people are closer to
realizing those aspirations. It's a really interesting period of history, I
think. I was just commenting to the President when we were in the Oval
Office how much things have changed in the Holy Land. After all, he got
elected in January; there were successful Palestinian municipal elections,
and then we witnessed the completion of Israel's disengagement from Gaza
and parts of the West Bank. It's been an eventful year.

And I say it's an eventful year because the ultimate objective is there --
for there to be two states, living side-by-side in peace; two democracies
living side-by-side in peace. And I believe that's where we're headed.
Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of West Bank was a bold decision,
with historic significance. President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority
contributed to the success of the withdrawal in significant ways. Mr.
President, thank you.

Through the active coordination and ground-level cooperation between
Israeli and Palestinian security forces, the disengagement has been
completed successfully and calmly. Israeli withdrawal creates new
opportunities, creates responsibilities for the Palestinian people.

The way forward must begin by confronting the threat that armed gangs pose
to a genuinely democratic Palestine. And those armed gangs must confront
the threat that armed gangs pose to lasting peace between the Israelis and
the Palestinians.

Now, Mr. President, you ran on a platform of peace. That's why the people
voted for you. I strongly support your rejection of terror and your
commitment to what you have called one authority, one law, and one gun. The
United States, in cooperation with the international community, has helped
you achieve this through the efforts of our senior U.S. security
coordinator, General Kip Ward. I appreciate your service, General Ward.
Thank you for being here, and thank you for all your hard work to help the
Palestinian security forces at a critical time. Job well done.

In the coming days, I'll be naming our new coordinator to build on the
progress General Ward has made. This person will take on an enhanced
mission to help President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority carry out
their responsibility to end terror attacks, dismantle terrorist
infrastructure, maintain law and order, and, one day, provide security for
their own state.

The way forward must include rebuilding the Palestinian economy. This goal
has the support of the Quartet: the United States, the United Nations, the
European Union, and Russia. Quartet Special Envoy Jim Wolfensohn is
coordinating a broad effort to generate economic and financial support from
the international community for the Palestinian Authority, and he's doing a
good job. I'm going to continue to consult with our Quartet partners to ask
Jim to extend his mission until next spring.

It's important that we make quick progress on the issues that Jim has
identified as most critical for the Palestinian economy, including opening
the Rafah crossing, connecting the West Bank in Gaza, improving the ability
of Palestinians to travel in the West Bank, and beginning work on the Gaza
seaport. These are all practical steps that will help the Palestinian
economy grow and flourish. I believe that Arab states have a particular
responsibility to help the Palestinians build a strong and prosperous
economy, and I urge them to create an environment in the region that
strengthens the possibility of peace.

The way forward must continue to include democratic elections. The upcoming
elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council offer an opportunity to
open the door to the next generation of Palestinian leaders. They'll be
responsible for building a peaceful and hopeful future for their country.

In the short-term, the Palestinian Authority must earn the confidence of
its peoples, by holding elections and having a functioning government that
delivers economic opportunity. The Palestinian Authority must also earn the
confidence of its neighbors by rejecting and fighting terrorism.

As I have stated in the past, achieving peace demands action from all
parties. Israel must continue to work with Palestinian leaders to help
improve the daily lives of Palestinians. At the same time, Israel should
not undertake any activity that contravenes its road map obligations, or
prejudices the final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West
Bank, and Jerusalem. This means that Israel must remove unauthorized posts
and stop settlement expansion. It also means that the barrier now being
built to protect Israelis from terrorist attacks must be a security
barrier, rather than a political barrier. Israeli leaders must take into
account the impact this security barrier has on Palestinians not engaged in
terrorist activities.

This is a time of great possibility in the Middle East. And the people of
the region are counting on their leaders to seize the opportunities for
peace and progress. This work isn't going to be easy, but the path forward
is clear. I want to thank President Abbas for his hard work. I appreciate
your service, Mr. President. I assured him that the United States will use
our influence to help realize a shared vision of two democratic states,
Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security.

Welcome.

PRESIDENT ABBAS: (As translated.) Thank you. Mr. President, I would like to
thank you for your warm welcome, and I would like to express my
satisfaction with the talks that I conducted with you and your senior
aides.

You have emphasized, Mr. President, from this place, about five months ago,
the basic counters for the U.S. position regarding the various aspects of
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This position, which you have reiterated
today, contributes fundamentally to advance the chances of reviving and
resuming the peace process in the region.

In the last few months, the dismantling of settlements and the withdrawal
of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip was concluded. The Palestinian
Authority have worked very hard with all its energy, in order to make sure
that this will happen without any incident, in order to have this as a
window of an opportunity that will help us to move faster toward achieving
additional steps on the way toward realizing just peace, based on your
vision and on international resolutions.

This window, Mr. President, must remain open. And this opportunity must be
strengthened through resolving all the outstanding issues -- as you have
mentioned, the Gaza crossing point and the establishment of a permanent
link between Gaza and the West Bank. At the same time, we must immediately
start implementing what the road map and the Sharm el-Sheikh agreements
regarding the cessation of settlement activities and construction of the
wall in the West Bank, particularly in Jerusalem, in addition to withdrawal
of the Israeli forces to positions prior to September 28, 2000.

With the removal of the roadblocks, which, unfortunately, turned the lives
of Palestinians into hardship, suffering, humiliation, and also a very
important sensitive issue, which is the release of prisoners of freedom
from Israeli jails. The implementation of these requirements, Mr.
President, represents urging the talks on permanent status issues regarding
Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders, in order to reach, at the end,
peace, which would allow for the establishment of an independent,
democratic Palestinian state, on all the territories occupied in 1967. That
state that would live in a good, neighborly relationship in peace with the
state of Israel.

Mr. President, there is approximately 100 days between us and the elections
for our legislative council, where the Palestinian people would go to the
ballot box to elect for the first time since their -- for the first time in
10 years their representatives. This, for us, represents a very important
landmark. On one hand, it comes a whole year since I assumed office, and
also these elections would represent a renewal process, rebuilding process
of our political process.

Also, these elections would consolidate and reinforce the slogan I ran on
during my presidential election, which emphasized clearly the one
authority, the one law, the one legal, legitimate law and political
pluralism. The new legislative council would be mandated by the people to
legislate and issue these slogans and make them a reality.

Once again, we repeat our pride of our democratic experience that has been
undertaken by the Palestinian people, and we repeat and we say that
democracy can lose a lot of its momentum in the absence of freedom and with
the continuation of occupation.

Mr. President, our discussions today have allowed us to inform you of what
the Palestinian National Authority is doing and what we are doing in terms
of various policies in various spheres. We have worked and we will continue
to work to continue to ensure the calm and maintain it. We are also
intensifying our work in the field of security. We have taken active steps
in imposing the rule of law and public order and banned armed
demonstrations.

Our measures are continuing to reinforce the judiciary branch, as well as
the administrative reform. We have said and we did during the last week
start launching a series of economic projects in the infrastructure and in
health and education and agriculture in both Gaza and the West Bank.

And here I would like to salute the United States for its contribution, and
also the help that came from a variety of Arab countries and countries
around the world. And we hope that all these projects will be activated by
the donors' countries in order to increase the number of projects that our
people are in need of.

Our discussion of the overall situation in the region has afforded us the
opportunity to point out what we reaffirmed repeatedly through the past few
weeks on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization: We are determined
not to interfere in domestic Lebanese affairs. We reiterate that the
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are subject to the authority and the laws
of Lebanon as temporary guests awaiting the resolution of the refugee
problem in the accordance with the international resolutions.

Mr. President, we reaffirm again here today our commitment to peace and
negotiated settlement. We expect that our people's quest in this direction
will be supported. The time has come to put an end to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The time has come that the Palestinian people
will attain their freedom and independence. The time has come to move
quickly towards the resumption of permanent status negotiations.

Peace requires a departure from the policies of occupation and the adoption
of the principle of freedom. Peace requires departure from the policies of
settlements construction, the collective punishment, unilateral acts that
undermine your vision toward two states and replace that with progress
towards negotiations. Peace and security cannot be guaranteed by the
construction of walls, by the erection of checkpoints, and the confiscation
of land, but rather by the recognition of rights.

Peace cannot be attained by the enforcement of discriminatory road policies
and by the policies of imposition and creation of facts on the ground, but
rather through belief in the principles of partnership, parity and mutual
respect.

We are presenting, based on wide public support, our positions that call
upon the Israeli side to join us in a real partnership for making peace. We
are calling for a Palestinian-Israeli partnership for the sake of creating
a better future, and for the entire region that can end decades from wars,
occupation, and open the doors wide open. We were promised peace,
independence and freedom, and we hope that all of this will be achieved.

Mr. President, once again, I thank you, and reaffirm to you, as we did in
our last visit, we are leaving Washington more sure and more confident of
the possibility of reviving and resuming the peace process, and more
determined to forge ahead along with the path of peace, democracy and
freedom. Thank you, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We'll take two questions a side. Terry.

Q Thank you. Mr. President, there are a lot of distractions for your White
House. The CIA leak investigation, a conservative uproar and congressional
criticism over the Harriet Miers nomination, and even investigations of top
Republican leaders in Congress. How preoccupied is the White House by these
problems, and how are you dealing with them?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I've just finished a very constructive dialogue with
the President of the Palestinian Authority, talking about how to achieve
peace.

And I've got a job to do. Part of my job is to work with others to fashion
a world that will be peaceful for future generations. And I've got a job to
do to make sure this economy continues to grow. I've got a job to make sure
that there is a plausible reconstruction plan for cities affected by
Katrina. I've got a job to make sure this hurricane headed toward Florida
is -- the federal response is prepared for it.

So to answer your question -- there's some background noise here, a lot of
chatter, a lot of speculation and opining. But the American people expect
me to do my job, and I'm going to.

Want to call on somebody, Mr. President. Oops. We've better go one at a
time here.

Q President Bush --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Who do you work for?

Q AFP. The road map that your administration backs calls for the creation
of a Palestinian state in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. Yet, the
Israelis' settlement activities, despite your repeated calls, included
today, still continue in the West Bank. What is your administration
planning to do to get Israel to put an end to those activities?

And then, President Abbas -- (as translated) -- what are the practical
steps that they want Bush -- President Bush to take in order to establish
the Palestinian state before the end of his term?

PRESIDENT BUSH: As I said in my -- in my comments, that we expect all
parties to adhere to the road map. And we are holding people to account on
the pledges that most of the Palestinians and the Israelis have made on the
road map. And we do so publicly and we do so privately.

It's -- a lot of these issues that have been very difficult for a long
period of time become easier to resolve as there's more trust between the
parties. And trust becomes a permanent part of the political process as
action on the ground takes place. The Gaza withdrawal is a magnificent
opportunity to help develop trust. It's an opportunity to develop trust
between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And after all, the world watched
strong cooperation between two willing governments to help good
disengagement of Gaza, which is a -- right now, I guess, we take it all for
granted.

You look back -- I think prior to the disengagement, there was a lot of
consternation, a lot of concern. I suspect some of you might have even
reported that, you know, better watch out, this disengagement could end up
being a very difficult period. And yet thanks to the President's leadership
and Prime Minister Sharon's leadership, the disengagement worked, which
established trust.

Mr. President has got an -- a job, and that's to establish trust with the
Palestinian people. He is a man who said, "I'm running on a peace
platform," and therefore, he has talked to us about using security forces
to make sure that armed gangs don't disrupt the democratic process. And our
job is to help him do that. And so to answer your question, yes, we hold
people to account for their promises made on the road map. And many of
those promises will be easier to keep for all parties as there's progress
on the ground. And we have seen remarkable progress during the past year.

And there's -- and the progress isn't over this year. There will be
elections. This is a very hopeful period. I'm very upbeat about being able
to achieve this vision. I understand it's hard. Things don't happen
overnight. Old feuds aren't settled immediately. And it takes a while.

The key thing, as far as I'm concerned, is that there are partners in
peace. Prime Minister Sharon wants there to be peace. President Abbas wants
there to be peace. And both men are showing strong leadership toward
achieving that objective. And that's why I'm confident. I'm a heck of a lot
more confident today than when -- I was when I first came into office. I
know it's nearly five years ago, and that's an eternity for some, but there
has been remarkable progress in this part of the world. And we'll continue
to work with the parties to achieve this important objective: two
democratic states living side-by-side in peace.

PRESIDENT ABBAS: (As translated.) Thank you. The truth is, our answer to
that question, we have to change the question: What are we supposed to do
-- as Palestinians and Israelis -- to do.

First of all, we have to work. We have to do our part. We have to think as
partners. So many years passed by, more than four years we did not have any
dialogue. We did not have any talks. And now we have confidence. We need to
rebuild and build on that confidence and on the relationship.

And on our side, we are extending our hand to be true partners in the peace
process, and we hope that the Israeli side also will do the same, so we can
do our parts. And what we ask President Bush to do is what he mentioned
during his remarks, the road map and the achievement and the realization of
his vision. The road map talks about settlements, about the barrier; all
these issues that will facilitate the road to achieving true peace, and
will facilitate building the confidence between the two peoples, the
Israelis and the Palestinians.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Steve.

Q Thanks very much, sir. Senator Specter called the rollout of the Miers
nomination "chaotic." Is that a fair criticism? Are you satisfied with the
way the nomination has been handled? Would you be willing to release any
more documents about her if it would help?

PRESIDENT BUSH: First of all, it's an unusual nomination because she's
never been a judge. And so, generally, people are used to looking at
different court opinions and how one ruled on this case, or how one ruled
on that case. That's not the case with Harriet.

I picked Harriet for a lot of reasons. One reason was because she had never
been a judge. I thought it made a lot of sense to bring a fresh outlook of
somebody who has actually been a very successful attorney -- and not only a
successful attorney, but been a pioneer for women lawyers in Texas. I
remind you that she was one of the top 50 women lawyers in the United
States; she's consistently ranked that way. And so this is a little
different process than the norm. I understand that.

Secondly, the questionnaire that she filled out is an important
questionnaire, and obviously they will address the questions that the
senators have in the questionnaire -- or as a result of the answers to the
questions in the questionnaire. But one thing the questionnaire does show
-- if people look at it carefully -- is Harriet's judicial philosophy. And
it's the main reason I picked her to serve on the bench, if confirmed, and
that is that she is not going to legislate from the bench. She will
strictly interpret the Constitution.

I said that when I ran for President -- I said, if you elect me, I will
name people that will have that judicial philosophy. I've now had two
chances -- one, John Roberts, and now Harriet Miers. And they share the
same judicial philosophy. That's what the questionnaire says.

And so Harriet will answer all the questions asked, and -- but out of this
will come a clear picture of a competent, strong, capable woman who shares
the same judicial philosophy that I share.

Do you want to call on somebody, Mr. President?

Q Thank you, President Abbas. As President Bush referred and said, that the
only way to achieve progress and the peace road is combating armed gangs.
And you are facing difficulties in doing this. Are you going to seek help
and support from American President George Bush, to help you in disarming
the resistance movements?

And, President, you say you wanted to see the Palestinian state made before
the end of your presidency. Are you still hoping to see something like
that? This is number one. Number two, don't you think the time has come to
talk about timetables to get the two parties to the issues of final status
negotiations?

PRESIDENT ABBAS: (As translated.) Regarding your questions, I am saying
that we are truly in need of help from the United States in a variety of
issues -- economic issues, and financial issues, and also security support.
And the reason is having General Ward among us, a man who has done a
magnificent job, and we appreciate him and appreciate his work very much.

Regarding our internal issues, we are following a policy. I believe it is a
successful policy. When we started and we asked everyone to accept the
hudna, or the calming, all the organizations that are recognized accepted
that. Then we moved into another phase, and that is the phase of banning
all public demonstrations with fire arms. All groups accepted that.

Now, all groups are underway to the electoral process, so all groups will
become a part of the political Palestinian fabric. I believe this will
create a new phase in the life of Palestinian people. It's a phase of
democracy and pluralism in full fledge in order to be a solid base for
peace in the region.

PRESIDENT BUSH: I believe that two democratic states living side-by-side in
peace is possible. I can't tell you when it's going to happen. It's
happening. And the reason I can't is because there will be moments of
progress, and there will be moments of setback. The key is to keep moving
forward, is to have partners in peace to move forward.

But one thing that will not happen is that we will try -- the United States
will try to conform and force parties to make decisions based upon the
political schedule in America. That doesn't make any sense. What matters is
the decisions made by the Palestinians and the Israelis, and the confidence
earned as we move forward.

And so you said I would like to see two states before I get out of office."
Not true. I'd like to see two states. And if it happens before I get out of
office, I'll be there to witness the ceremony. And if it hadn't -- if it
doesn't, we will work hard to lay that foundation so that the process
becomes irreversible.

Timetables are interesting -- an interesting thing. Everybody wants a
timetable, it seems like, on different issues. And these are very
complicated matters where years of conflict and years of mistrust are being
resolved by some basic truths. And one of the basic truths is free
societies are peaceful societies. And so we can look forward to working
with a partner in peace, a person who said, vote for me, I'm for peace, and
a man who declares his understanding that the Palestinian people, the
long-suffering Palestinian people, will be well served by a democracy, a
truly functioning democracy.

And so, Mr. President, we're glad you're back. I want to thank you for your
strong leadership, and we wish you all the very best. Thank you, sir.
Appreciate you.

END 11:27 A.M. EDT
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