[LottiFurmann]

Covering Iraq, Palestinians and jihad:

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/36596.htm

Excerpt

From news article:
MR. ALAMI: Mr. Secretary, to what extent the security situation affected the grandiose goals in the Middle East, Iraq being a model to the rest of the Arab world? To what extent that affected that goal?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I think that we have a lot of initiatives underway in the Middle East. Iraq, when it has its election and when it ratifies its constitution next year and then has another election, it seems to me that will be a good example for the Middle East about what reform and modernization is all about and what you can achieve through the democratic process.

But we're doing other things. Last Friday, in New York City, we had the first meeting, the beginning of the Forum for the Future. Twenty-eight nations came together, nations of the broader Middle East and North Africa and the G-8 nations came together and said, "How can we work together as partners to help the nations of the broader Middle East and North Africa modernize themselves, reform themselves?"

Everybody came and talked and now we've already scheduled future meetings where we can come together and talk. And so, the goal, not of the United States, but the goal of the people of the broader Middle East and North Africa, of the people of the Arab world, is for there to be improvement in their lives, improvement in their political life and in their social and economic life, so they can give their children a better opportunity and a better life.

One of the most important statements that was made in this conference on Friday in New York was a business leader who said, "The biggest time bomb facing the Arab world is unemployment -- unemployment. We have to create jobs for young Arab boys and girls who are growing up and entering the workplace and we have to educate them for those jobs and we have to give them a belief in the economic system."

So all of these things the United States and our other industrial nation partners in the G-8 want to help the Middle East nations achieve: better political development, as they choose; better economic development, as they see fit; and see what we can do to help them modernize and reform their countries and at the pace they choose. We're not imposing. They select.

We also hope that in the near future, if we can get the Palestinian Authority to organize itself so that they are ready to take over Gaza and the four West Bank settlements when Mr. Sharon has gotten approval to move forward, then we can get the Roadmap process started again. So the United States believes that stability in Iraq, the end of terrorism and the end of these old regime elements fighting to the death will produce a democracy that rests on free elections in Iraq.

We believe that with the disengagement from Gaza, we have an opportunity to get the roadmap moving forward. And with our efforts to help the Arab world reform, as the Arab world wishes to reform, we are showing that our interest is in the people of the Broader Middle East, to give them a better life, to give their children a better life.

MR. ALAMI: Mr. Secretary, I know it's very tough, you know, the topics in the Middle East. This week the Intifadah, they're going through to its fifth year. Over 4,000 people lost their lives. Three-quarters of them are Palestinians. And the people are in the position in the Middle East because of domestic -- particular consideration in this country, you just blame the victims and, you know, brave the occupier and just put the whole topic in the backburner.

SECRETARY POWELL: That's just not accurate. You say we blame the victims. Who are the victims? The victims are those who are being blown up by bombs. And then there is the response on the part of the Israelis, who have tried to protect themselves from these bombs by going after individuals who they believe are responsible. And so, there are victims on all sides of this question. But what is the Intifadah in its five years of existence? What has it accomplished to the Palestinian people? Has it produced progress toward a Palestinian state? Has it defeated Israel on the battlefield?

So it is time to end this process. It is time to end the Intifadah. I mean, we want a Palestinian state. The President so desperately wants to help create a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people that will live side by side in peace with Israel. And this will only come about when terror is ended. And the Intifadah has spawned terrorism and it has not achieved anything in these years, except the economy of the Palestinian communities has deteriorated, life in general has deteriorated, the Israelis have built fences to deal with this question, It has stopped us from being able to move forward with the many peace plans that we have put forward.

MR. ALAMI: But Mr. Secretary, what are you doing concretely to help the Palestinians now? And how do you explain the total absence of the topic from the U.S. elections?

SECRETARY POWELL: It will be discussed, I think, in the course of the U.S. election campaign, but the fact of the matter is that we need to see some movement. The President of the United States went to Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh last June and committed the United States and got commitments from Israel and a new Palestinian Prime Minister, who we needed to give authority, authority that has to come from Mr. Arafat. but Mr. Arafat did not yield authority to Mr. Abu Mazen and he has not yielded authority to Mr. Abu Alaa so that the Prime Minister of the Palestinian people can bring order to the security organizations of the Palestinian Authority, so that the terrorism can be brought to an end, and has not done what we believe should be done in the way of reform.

We also, as the President has noted, have concerns about actions that the Israelis have taken with respect to settlement activity, with respect to not destroying all of the outposts that were supposed to be destroyed.

So both sides have commitments and obligations in the Roadmap and we are anxious to move forward. The Quartet met last week in New York at the UN, reaffirmed our commitment to the Roadmap, and called on both parties to do everything they could, just as the President did in his speech to the UN before.