Realities on the ground
Realities on the ground
The following is a transcript of an interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by Washington Post editors and reporters in the Post newsroom on Friday, March 25, 2005.
(When Bush sent letters to Sharon acknowledging that the settlements blocks were realities on the ground requiring negotiations, he conceded nothing but stated the obvious. In other words that there has to be a quid pro quo offered to the Palestinians which they accept. Once again, the Saudi Peace Plan is at the heart of the Roadmap. Full acceptance for full retreat. It requires pre '67 borders with mutually agreed exchanges of land.) Q: Since we're in the region I just wanted to get a clarification on the United States' views towards settlements in Israel. The Israelis say that they have reached some sort of unspoken agreement with the United States that allows them to build within settlements, within construction lines, going up rather than out. And in fact they suggested it somehow contained in an exchange of letters with [inaudible] Was that the way the policy---
SECRETARY RICE: What we asked the Israelis some time ago was can you explain to us what it is you're really doing. There is so much information, misinformation, who said this, who said that, no, it's just a tender, that the picture was just too confusing. And so the only commitment or assurance that is there between the United States and Israel at this time is the one the president made to Prime Minister Sharon on April 14th of last year, which is that there is an understanding on the part of the United States that there has been a chance in circumstances on the ground, large population centers have grown up, and that that will need to be taken into account in a final status agreement, but that that final status agreement has to be negotiated. In other words, how that is taken into account has to be negotiated. That's it.
Q: So this idea of allowing the growth, just this kind of this natural growth--
SECRETARY RICE: Understanding what this is all about, because what does a settlement freeze mean because we're trying to figure out when we get to that [inaudible] road map what does it mean. But there is no agreement that you can build some, it's one way or another. There is at this point a desire to understand that better so that we can understand better what a settlement freeze might really mean.
Q: And you mentioned those commitments that the president made to Sharon. What do you think of the idea of having a balancing set of commitments to the Palestinians such as noting that if they give up the right of return there might be some payment of some sort?
SECRETARY RICE: The only thing that the president was doing on April 14th was recognizing certain realities, not trying to negotiate the final status. And so--
Q: But wouldn't that be recognizing a reality that they'd get some sort of compensation for giving up the right of return?
SECRETARY RICE: Well there are the realities of what the president recognized on April 14th and there's the reality now that the Israelis and Palestinians are in a considerably different place than they were a year ago. And our focus at this point is to try to help everybody get through the next stages here. That means the Palestinian parliamentary elections, that means the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza and the West Bank. That needs to go smoothly so that this can continue to move. And then I think that you're going to find that we're very far along on the road map so when we talk about something like discussions that might go on with Israelis about [inaudible] we figure that at some point in time this is going to be a major, you know, we're getting down the road on the road map once we're through this period.
But I will say this, they're actually going to dismantle settlements in the Gaza and the West Bank, so that was not anticipated that it would be fully ready and actually that it would be all the way through the Israeli government and ready to go. When we met last April, it was Sharon's proposal at that time; it's now the policy of the Israeli government.
Posted by Ted Belman at March 26, 2005 08:10 AM
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Per
said:
It's amazing that the Israeli still don't seem to realize what a mess they have created for themselves by not rejecting the Roadmap altogether. The Oslo-process was terminated by Arafat five years ago, giving them a very good pretext to do so. Instead, Sharon is still trying to feed that dead horse, which is nothing but the Oslo-deal supplemented by the Saudi requirement of full return to the armistice line, as well as full return of the refugees beyond that line, effectively killing what might be left of Israel. That's what Condi and her Eurabian friends actually claim.
Nobody seems to remember that Israel entered formal peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan in 1979 and 1994, delineating its international and recognized borders against these countries. Nobody seems to understand that the abolishment of these agreements and a retreat to the former armistice line, may formally reopen the 1948 war, which is just what the Arabs want.
The establishment of a "viable and contiguous Condistan" inside Israel's recognized borders will only serve to make it easier for the Arabs to resume and conclude the 1948 war to their advantage.
Posted by: Per on March 26, 2005 08:39 AM
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Realities on the ground
The following is a transcript of an interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by Washington Post editors and reporters in the Post newsroom on Friday, March 25, 2005.
(When Bush sent letters to Sharon acknowledging that the settlements blocks were realities on the ground requiring negotiations, he conceded nothing but stated the obvious. In other words that there has to be a quid pro quo offered to the Palestinians which they accept. Once again, the Saudi Peace Plan is at the heart of the Roadmap. Full acceptance for full retreat. It requires pre '67 borders with mutually agreed exchanges of land.)
Posted by Ted Belman at March 26, 2005 08:10 AM