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Skriven 2006-07-13 23:34:22 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0607138) for Thu, 2006 Jul 13
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Press Briefing by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security
Advisor Steve Hadley
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 13, 2006

Press Briefing by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security
Advisor Steve Hadley
Kempinski Grand Hotel
Heiligendamm, Germany


10:30 P.M. (Local)

SECRETARY RICE: All right, let me just make a brief statement, and then
Steve will follow on with a brief statement. And then we'll be happy to
take your questions.

Obviously, there is considerable concern about the situation in the Middle
East, both the situation in Gaza and the situation that has emerged in
Lebanon. Let me just step back for a moment and remind us all how this
began. This began with the abduction of an Israeli soldier in Gaza, a
similar abduction in Lebanon. It had followed weeks of rocket attacks
against Israeli population centers. This itself escalated today with
attacks against Haifa, a major population center.

And the reason that I mentioned this is that it -- suggests a way ahead.
First of all, let me say that Israel, of course, has the right to defend
itself. And we would not ask of any country that it not take steps to stop
the kind of rocket attacks that have been going on against Israel. It also
suggests a way ahead, which is that it is extremely important that the
abductions stop and that the soldiers be returned safely.

It is also very important that the international community continue to
condemn acts of terrorism. And because we believe strongly that there needs
to be another day -- in other words, that once this crisis ends, we need to
be able to return to the road map, we need to be able to return to our
partnership with the people of Lebanon to fulfill their democratic
aspirations -- it is extremely important that Israel exercise her restraint
in its activities of self-defense.

Those are the messages that we have been sending to the parties; those are
the messages that are being sent through numerous diplomatic channels.
Steve is going to describe some of the diplomacy that we have been engaged
in, but let me note that we believe that the best opportunity now for
de-escalation of this crisis is the effort that Secretary General Annan has
announced -- he's sending a three-person team to the region to seek means
of de-escalation.

This came, in fact, out of conversations the Secretary General had had with
a number of us. I had a conversation with him yesterday morning, suggested
that it might be useful for the U.N. to send a mission, and he is now
sending such a mission.

We are particularly noting that, as to Lebanon, there is a U.N. Security
Council resolution, Resolution 1559, that governs Lebanon -- governs the
issues of sovereignty in Lebanon, that oversaw the withdrawal of Syrian
forces, and that has tried to bring together an international consensus, an
international consensus that is actually quite strong, about a role ahead
for Lebanon in accordance with that resolution, including the disarmament
of militias. And so I'm quite certain that there will be some discussion
when Kofi Annan's mission is there about how to proceed with 1559.

Lastly, let me say that it is obviously extremely important that regional
states play a positive, not a negative role. And in this regard I would
highlight the very positive role that Egypt and a number of other countries
have played in trying to diffuse the crisis, in trying to bring the parties
together. But on the other hand, I don't think that there is any doubt that
Syria and Iran have been very much in the opposite direction, encouraging
and, indeed, in the case of Syria, sheltering the people who are
perpetrating these acts.

We have to remember that both the external leadership of Hamas and a number
of the Hezbollah activities are carried out from the territory of Syria,
and Syria needs to act responsibly and stop the use of its territory for
these kinds of activities, and it needs to bring all pressure on those that
it is harboring to stop this and to return the soldiers and to allow the
situation to de-escalate.

So it's a complex situation. We've been very active, very involved, but we
do believe that this is a situation that can be resolved if the parties
will take responsible actions.

Thank you.

MR. HADLEY: Condi has laid out most of it. I'll just talk a little bit,
give a little color to some of the things we've been doing. We have
obviously been in contact with representatives of the government of Israel.
Secretary Rice has talked to her counterpart, Foreign Minister Livni, as
well as talking to Prime Minister Olmert. I've been in touch with the --
Prime Minister Olmert's Chief of Staff.

The purpose of these communications have been to get some sense of what
Israel is doing, but also make some points about -- and to hear from them
their indications that they were focused on Hezbollah, which is the
perpetrator of this, not the Lebanese government; that the actions they are
going to take are going to deal with Hezbollah, will be done in such a way
to try and minimize collateral and civilian casualties, recognizing this is
difficult because Hezbollah has put targets in civilian areas precisely to
try and protect them.

We've had a number of comments and conversations about the need to try and
shore up and not destabilize the Siniora government in Lebanon. This is a
good government that is trying to bring -- create a democracy and freedom
to Lebanon, has a lot of challenges. This is one more challenge that they
do not need. So we talked about how to strengthen and avoid undermining the
Lebanese government.

We have been talking to countries in the region, representatives of
countries in the region. We've been also talking to traditional allies.
I've talked to my French counterpart, my German counterpart, my U.K.
counterpart, my Saudi counterpart. Condi has made similar conversations.

I think the sum total of those are to reinforce some of the points that
Secretary Rice has made that -- remember how this began with Hamas and
Hezbollah. We need to bring pressure on Hezbollah, and we have urged all of
those who have a line and have influence with Hezbollah to use that
influence.

It has been very important to get the regional players involved -- to get
Egypt involved, in particular, but other regional players, as well. Our
diplomacy has been to encourage them to get involved and see the
significance of this event for long-term prospects for peace in the region.

Thirdly, a lot of emphasis about concern about the role of particularly
Syria and Iran. And Secretary Rice mentioned that one of the purposes of
the emphasis on 1559 is it is both a device for shoring up the new Lebanese
government, but also putting pressure on Hezbollah and Syria.

Finally, I would mention that this element has been -- this effort has been
aided by the fact that when it began to develop, Elliott Abrams from the
NSC staff and David Welch from the State Department have been in the
region. They have been in neighboring states in the region. They've been in
Jerusalem. They've been a source of both information of what's going on and
counsel and direction to the major participants, and they have helped
formulate this effort.

The last thing I would say is that we hope that the U.N. mission the
Secretary talked about can be a framework for going forward, can do a
number of things -- can increase the pressure on Hezbollah and Syria, who
are going to be key to winding this down and getting these hostages back to
Israel; can be a vehicle for strengthening the Siniora government and help
them ride out this very difficult path; and finally, to be a framework for
avoiding further escalation.

And that's what we've been doing over the last two days or so. I don't know
-- Secretary Rice, do you want to add anymore details?

SECRETARY RICE: I won't add more details, but let me just note, we've also
been working very hard, particularly with the Israelis, on trying to deal
with the humanitarian situation for the Palestinian people -- conversation
about crossings, opening of crossings; also to make certain that the
attacks that are made -- do everything that they can to avoid both civilian
casualties and to allow the Palestinians to continue to have a reasonable
life.

Q Secretary Rice, the administration consistently said that -- and you said
just previously, a few moments ago, that Israel should exercise restraint,
and should keep that under consideration, both sides need to exercise
restraint. Is that what they're doing at this point? Do you see what is
happening as of this moment is restraint?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the point about restraint I think has been taken by
our Israeli colleagues. I think that they understand why they need to
exercise restraint. They have said that they are principally concerned
about dealing both with the source of the attacks that have come at them
and with any efforts that might be made to get the abducted soldiers out of
the region so that they are, so to speak, out of reach of Israel. And I
think that that is a definition that we understand.

Obviously, we don't talk about every single tactic or every single means
that the Israelis may use; that would not be appropriate between sovereign
states. But it is a message that we are continuing to emphasize, we are
going to continue to emphasize.

And I'd like to underscore something that Steve said and that the President
said this morning, which is that it is, in the case of Lebanon, especially
important that Israeli actions not undermine a new, fledgling democratic
government, which obviously has its problems in that it has within it
Hezbollah, which is the source of these attacks. And we understand that the
Siniora government, therefore, has a very complicated situation and nobody
wants to make that worse because, ultimately, the best chance for peace is
going to be a democracy in Lebanon in which Syrian forces are out and
remain out.

Q Are you worried that the --

Q -- is there anything in this --

SECRETARY RICE: I'm not going to try to judge every single act. As I said,
the Israelis have said to us that the target of their attacks are those
places, those elements that are causing the attacks against Israel, as well
as trying to prevent the transfer or movement of the soldiers. We just
continue to ask that the Israelis exercise restraint, be concerned about
civilian casualties, be concerned, of course, about civilian
infrastructure. And that's been the nature of our conversations.

Q In the blockade of the ports, you don't see that as a problem, then? If
that's a means of moving the abducted soldiers?

SECRETARY RICE: Again, I'm not going to judge any specific action. The key
here is to always be mindful -- for Israel to always be mindful when it is
trying to defend itself that the broader defense of Israel will come from
the establishment of democratic states in these troubled regions; that we
have the best chance that we've had in Lebanon in more than 30 years to
have a democratic state that will actually be a fighter against terrorism
rather than a harborer of terrorism; we have the best chance that we've had
in 30 years for a diminution of Syrian influence in that region, and that
strategic point has to be kept in mind when you talk about the broader
defense of issue.

Q Is there a danger -- do you see a danger here of the whole area slipping
into a war, that this will spin out of control?

SECRETARY RICE: Steve, I think it doesn't help to speculate on kind of
apocalyptic scenarios. What we have to do is we have to work day-by-day,
hour-by-hour, and that's what we're doing, and that's what a lot of others
are doing. And I want to emphasize it's not just the United States. I was
with the P5 yesterday, P5 plus one, on Iran. We had discussions there; we
had discussions with Chancellor Merkel today. I'm quite certain the
President will have discussions with his G8 colleagues when he's in St.
Petersburg. So a lot of people are working to de-escalate this crisis and
to get back on the road to peace. And I think that's how we have to spend
our energy.

Q Madam Secretary, you've said that democracy is the best solution here.
But, clearly, Hezbollah draws on democratic support in Lebanon, and Hamas
has majority democratic support in the Palestinian Territories. Wasn't one
of the ideas here that being part of government in Lebanon would somehow
normalize Hezbollah? Do you think that that's still possible?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it's certainly the hope that when people -- when
groups go to their people, ask for their vote, receive that vote, that they
then act responsibly, rather than making the lives of their people worse,
which is precisely now what the actions of Hamas and Hezbollah are doing.
And so I wouldn't blame democracy for this. I think that it is always a
good thing when people have an opportunity to choose their leaders. But
they chose these leaders because they thought they were going to bring a
better life and because of aspirations that they would be -- that these
people would be able to fulfill.

There's an obligation, when you're elected democratically, not to try to
have one foot in terror and one foot in politics.

And we've been saying that all along, and I think we're getting a
demonstration now of why that is so critical, because Hamas is clearly not
delivering a better life for the Palestinian people because they have one
foot in terror. Hezbollah is not helping the Siniora government to deliver
a better life for the Palestinian people because they have one foot in
terror.

And so that has to be resolved. We have a mechanism in Lebanon by which to
resolve that -- Resolution 1559 -- and in the Palestinian Territories we
still have a strong figure and an important and elected figure in Abu
Mazen, with whom everybody is working. So we have some important and
responsible leaders on our side.

MR. HADLEY: Let me just make two points on that. One is about Hezbollah.
Hezbollah took this action using Lebanese territory to attack northern
Israel without the authorization of the Lebanese government. This is not
the way democratic parties behave. It is also one of the reasons 1559
talked about disarming militias, getting them out of the terror business
into the political process, and having only one authority, which is the
government authority, imposing security throughout the country.

So this is an example of, in some sense, a failure in democracy by
Hezbollah, and that's one of the reasons I think you've seen some real
outrage about this -- some very strong statements, for example, from
Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Secondly, on the Israel point, I would just add one point, and Condi can
speak to her communication -- I don't want you to think that we're -- that
this is a struggle. In my first conversation with the Prime Minister's
Chief of Staff, he's the one who raised with me that they were concerned
about Hezbollah, they were going to narrowly focus on Hezbollah, they were
going to pick targets that minimize civilian casualties and loss of life.
And similarly, after a quick discussion about what Israel has invested in
success and democracy in Lebanon, this is now part of the Israeli program.
So I don't want you to think there's been an arm wrestle here. This is the
kind of inner discussion that close allies have in difficult situations,
and this is a very difficult situation for Israel.

Q The President this morning raised the specter that the attacks by Israel
could actually topple the government of Lebanon if they went too far. Has
this been communicated to Israel? And what can the United States do to help
prop up this government, this Lebanese government?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, yes, the concern about -- as I said, the strategic
issue of giving Lebanese democracy a chance has been communicated to the
Israelis. They understand this. They want the Siniora government to
succeed, as well, because I think they understand that there's a good
opportunity here for a different kind of Lebanon. So, of course, that's
been communicated.

I've talked twice with Prime Minister Siniora personally. There are a
number of other ministers who have talked with him. The Secretary General
is sending this team. Part of that is to strengthen the hand of the Siniora
government in dealing with elements like Hezbollah that are within it, but
not of it, I would say -- an element that decided to launch these attacks
without the knowledge of the Siniora government.

So that will give them the -- when the Secretary General's team gets there,
I think it will give Siniora, because 1559 speaks to a number of these
issues, an opportunity to draw upon the strength of the international
community.

Q Can you indicate at this point what you suspect or what you know the
Iranian role to be in this?

SECRETARY RICE: I'm not going to speculate. I will just note that Iran is a
principal funder and supporter of Hezbollah. That is well-known and
well-established. There have been obvious, numerous contacts -- public
contacts between the Iranian regime and both Hezbollah and the external
elements of Hamas. President Ahmadinejad was, not that long ago, in
Damascus doing exactly that. So the Iranians are not hiding their hand in
this. They have their links to Hezbollah, and I think it would be
unthinkable that they are not playing a role. There's plenty of evidence
that this had to be also external powers that were interested in this kind
of outcome.

Now, Syria, obviously, there's a very direct link there. Khaled Meshaal
lives in Syria. Hamas offices are open in Syria. Hezbollah operates there.
The Syrian hand is also very clear.

Q You mentioned having spoken to allies throughout the day. Any reaction to
Russia and France condemning Israel's strikes?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I haven't had a chance to talk today to the French or
to the Russians about this. I think you heard Chancellor Merkel and the
President today when they talked about always being aware -- I think the
Chancellor paraphrased, said something about "of the origin" of this. And
so whatever one wants to say about how this has unfolded, you're only going
to resolve it if you get back at the origin of it and how it all started.
The rocket attacks against Israel need to stop; the abducted soldiers need
to be returned.

Obviously, people are very concerned about the plight of the Palestinian
people. That's why we focused heavily on the humanitarian assistance
issues. And even in the midst of the Gaza crisis, in particular, I've
talked to the Israelis, including the Israeli Defense Minister, about
keeping Karni open, making sure people can cross back from Rafah, because
we do want the Palestinian people to be able to have as normal a life as
possible. So I think going to the origin of this, and then recognizing that
the only way that you're going to eventually deal with it is to go to the
origin of it.

Q Madam Secretary, the first soldier kidnapings were about 17 days ago. The
rhetoric heated up almost immediately. Why did it take 17 days to send
envoys over there?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, let's separate the two situations. There was the
taking of the soldier in Gaza after the tunneling into Israeli territory.
There had been and there continues to be an intensive diplomatic effort by
regional states to resolve that issue. It is not as if nothing was being
done about that. And let me just say about the rhetoric heating up, while
the taking of the soldiers was the approximate reason for the escalation of
this situation, let's remember that Qassam rocket attacks against Israel
had been going on for some time.

So the regional states that have been involved in trying to get the return
of the abducted soldier, that was going on during this entire 17-day
period. You then had, a couple of days ago, the incidents in Lebanon, which
have -- which I think we do need to keep separate. Here in Lebanon, you
have issues under 1559, and in part because you have issues under 1559, the
U.N. role is very obvious, very clear. I think that is what helped to
trigger Secretary General Kofi Annan.

But it also makes sense, given the generalized sense that there are these
crises in the region, to have a new diplomatic effort, one that can bring
the weight of the United Nations. But I don't want to leave the impression
that for that 17 days nothing was happening. There were very intense
diplomatic efforts between regional states, Israel and the Palestinians.

Q Could I ask you a quick follow-up there? Why not stop by Damascus? The
President said they were responsible -- partly responsible for the
escalation. Why not impose some sanctions on Syria, or go to Damascus and
deliver a tough message?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, let's see what the U.N. Secretary General's efforts
bring. That will be a regional effort. His envoys are going to travel
throughout the region, including to Damascus. And so let's see what they
bring. I would just note that we have not had particularly warm relations
with Syria for quite a long time. I don't think it's a surprise to the
Syrians that we think that they're a problem here. I think we've sent all
kinds of messages in that regard. But I think that the most -- what we
should all do right now is to focus our efforts on trying to make the
Secretary General's effort a success, and that's how we'll spend our time
over the next couple of days. And we can reassess after that mission is
over.

Q Do you expect any sort of diplomatic mission, or something to come out of
the G8 summit about this? How big a topic is it going to be on the agenda?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, you know how the G8 is. When there's a major issue
like this, it tends to be taken up at the G8, and it would be unthinkable
that these leaders are going to get together and not discuss what is going
on there. But I think everybody -- when I've talked to my colleagues,
including to Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier today -- everybody is now
very focused on trying to help the U.N. Secretary General's mission work.

And I think we don't want to send confusing signals. The kind of "too many
cooks in the kitchen" problem is one that we want to avoid, because the
Secretary General has all the right mandates to deal with this issue. I
might note, too, that as to the Gaza situation, of course, the U.N. is a
member of the Quartet. And so the U.N. Secretary General I think has all of
the right mandates. Let's put all of our efforts behind making his effort
work.

Q If the Lebanese government isn't capable of securing the south of the
country, would you consider a role for an international peacekeeping force
there?

SECRETARY RICE: I think it's too early to talk about what else might be
done. Obviously, we have been concerned for some time to build enough
Lebanese security capability so that the Lebanese army can deploy to the
south of the country, so that there can be, as Steve put it, a unified
force under the Lebanese government. We are in discussions and have
discussed these issues in the Contact Group that has been supporting 1559
-- that's Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United States, France and the
U.N. And I would not be surprised if, in support of the Secretary General's
efforts, there might be some discussions among members of that group again,
as well, about what might be done to support 1559.

But I don't think we need to jump to conclusions right now about what next
steps there may need to be. Let's see if we can't get Lebanese capabilities
--

Q Are you distressed by the Security Council's strong support for the
resolution condemning Israel?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, let's remember that there were five abstentions on
that vote, as well as a U.S. veto. We tried to have people understand, have
the sponsors understand, that the timing of a resolution, when the
Secretary General's mission has not even lifted off the ground, was really
not -- this was not very well-timed, and that it would be best not to use
particularly inflammatory language to inflame the emotions of the parties
prior to launching the Secretary General's mission that will have to deal
with those parties and try to bring a de-escalation of the crisis.

When it was clear that people wanted to go forward with the resolution, we
asked for time to talk about language that might be more balanced and less
inflammatory. When we were unable to get either of those dispensations, we
decided that we had no choice but to veto.

The U.S. veto does not mean that we are unconcerned about this crisis in
the Gaza. Obviously, we're very concerned about it. That's why we've been
spending as much time and effort as we have diplomatically in trying to
help to resolve it. But it does not help to have a resolution that doesn't
address in a concrete and useful way the origins of this crisis -- that is,
the abduction and the rockets -- and it doesn't help to have a resolution
that has inflammatory language about one of the parties. It's simply not
going to create an atmosphere in which this crisis is going to be -- we're
going to be able to de-escalate the crisis.

Q Steve, this is on a different subject, but two Republicans, John McCain
and John Warner, said today that senior administration officials had agreed
to back legislation that would prosecute terrorism suspects under a court
system based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And they said they
based that on meetings with you and others. Is this something that the
administration can support?

MR. HADLEY: We've had some very good conversations with senators and
representatives on the subject of how we move forward after the Hamden case
in the Supreme Court. One of the things that we need to do in moving
forward, obviously, is to, as the Court invited the executive branch and
the legislative branches to do, to work together and come up with a
commission structure that will allow for the prosecution of people who have
been engaged in terror in a way that is respectful of their rights, but is
tailored to the fact that it's sort of a unique problem posed by these
terrorists, and the challenges it poses in terms of classified information
and all these other things.

That's what we've agreed to do. We've started that process between the
executive and the legislative. How it's going to -- where it's going to
come out is still to be worked out. I think what we ought to do is focus on
that result: What are the objectives, what are the elements of a tribunal
system that we need in order to achieve those objectives? We've started
those discussions, and they're going pretty well.

I just might say, by way of summary, what you're probably going to see
going forward, in terms of Gaza and Lebanon, one, you're going to see
continued diplomacy of the sort that Secretary Rice has talked about.
Again, we make a choice -- in answer to a question earlier -- when is it
useful for the United States to have a high profile and when it's useful
for the United States to have a low profile -- and the key is what is going
to be effective.

We will see that the U.N. mission go forward. That will be a framework to
try and come up with some initiatives that can avoid further escalation. We
will obviously be supporting that mission. We will be getting -- the time
is right now, I think, to get the President involved in talking to some of
his counterparts, to try and help ensure the success of that effort as we
try and take a very difficult situation and put it in a different place.

Thank you very much.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

END 11:00 P.M. (Local)

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