28 January 2002

U.S. Wants Decisive Action From Arafat Against Terror

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher called upon Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to take "strong, resolute and irreversible action" against terrorist organizations in order to halt violence in the region.

"Words matter. Actions matter more. We need to see both positive statements and decisive action from Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to help contribute to this critical goal," Boucher said, briefing reporters at the State Department in Washington January 28.

Boucher said the recent arrest of a suspect in connection with a ship smuggling arms to the Palestinians was "a step in the right direction, but we would say that more needs to be done."

"[T]he issue at this moment is whether Chairman Arafat takes strong and irreversible action. We think that others need to understand that, need to convey that to Chairman Arafat and offer him support if he does," said Boucher.

Boucher said that although General Anthony Zinni was not currently scheduled to return to the region, the Bush administration would continue to review the situation and take action as necessary. "But," he said, "what Chairman Arafat does will be a big factor in that." Zinni has been designated to try to help Israelis and Palestinians negotiate a cease-fire.

Following is an excerpt of the State Department noon briefing of January 28:

Question: The Middle East again, please. It's been several days since the Secretary asked for several things from Arafat. What's the assessment here, please?

Mr. Boucher: I think the assessment is pretty much where it was before. We think that Chairman Arafat's focus, and indeed that of the entire Palestinian Authority, needs to remain on restoring calm and bringing an end to the violence. We have seen his words over the weekend. Words matter; actions matter more. We need to see both positive statements and decisive action from Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to help contribute to this critical goal. And I see some of the phrases quoted over the weekend probably don't do that.

As the President made clear over the past week, we're disappointed that he has not moved yet decisively to bring an end to terror and violence. There is no question that he has a responsibility for strong, resolute and irreversible action to halt violence, to give answers to what happened with the Karine A affair, and to bring under control those organizations under his authority that are conducting terrorist acts.

Question: Yesterday on TV, the Vice President said that you guys had seen evidence that directly implicated Arafat. When did this evidence show up, or is he talking about the evidence that you had before?

Mr. Boucher: I don't -- I saw him quoted as saying something different than that, frankly. I would have to look back at this. I saw him quoted as saying that the involvement of people at senior levels could lead to the conclusion.

Question: He said --

Mr. Boucher: Well, I'd suggest we check the Vice President's transcript. I know the Secretary, I think, addressed it again on Friday, and I'll double-check and see if there's any new evidence on this.

Question: What he said, if I may, was that -- the question was about the letter that Arafat had written to the President denying his involvement. Cheney said, "We don't believe him." So the implication in that is --

Question: That's not what I was talking about.

Mr. Boucher: Well, let's all double-check the transcripts, and in the meantime I will double-check and see if there's any new information or evidence for you on that.

Question: There were reports also over the weekend that Arab states were going to communicate jointly to the United States their concerns about marginalizing Arafat. Have we received a message of that kind yet?

Mr. Boucher: I'm not aware that we have. I'd have to double-check on that, but I haven't heard about anything like that.

Question: What about President Bush's conversation -- well, you might not be able to speak to that -- with President Mubarak, where he promised to do everything he can? Is that intrinsic in that statement; is it that he would continue to talk with the Palestinians, continue to engage with them?

Mr. Boucher: I think Ari Fleischer has already done a rundown of the President's conversation with Mubarak. It is important to remember in all this that we remain committed, we remain engaged, we remain involved in trying to help the parties achieve an end to the violence and a prospect of peace in the Middle East. There's no question that the requirement is on Arafat right now to take strong and irreversible action. We are continuing reviewing what our policy, what the next steps ought to be. How we act depends, in our judgment, on how we can be effective. The seriousness of Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority in taking action against terror and violence is obviously a big factor in that judgment.

So we're watching what does he do on these things. We're, I think, in the meantime giving a very strong message to Chairman Arafat that he has to act now, he has to act in his own self-interest, as well as to offer the prospect of carrying out the vision that the President and the Secretary enunciated, and which we remain committed to.

Question: I'm sorry if you already went over this, but did the Secretary make any calls to the leaders in the region about this?

Mr. Boucher: Don't be sorry; we haven't gone over it, and no, I don't think so.

Question: Can I just go back to my earlier question for two seconds? I just want to get this straight. Pending you're going back and rechecking the transcripts and all that, you're not prepared right now to say that you have evidence directly linking Arafat to --

Mr. Boucher: I'm not prepared right now to make any new statements on the subject. I offered to check and see if we did have any new information or evidence.

Question: So -- but right now, the line from the State Department is still that you've seen evidence of senior Palestinian Authority officials involved in this, but not necessarily Arafat?

Mr. Boucher: Right now, I personally am not aware of anything new, and I'll double-check to make sure that others are not either.

Question: There has been talk, as I'm sure you're aware, in cutting relations with Arafat. What is the thinking behind this? Would you, in that case, seek other Palestinians to talk to, or would you just not talk to Palestinians?

Mr. Boucher: Well, that would be purely speculative, because I just finished telling you that we remain engaged, we remain committed to the vision, and we remain -- we'll keep watching what he does to see if he does -- takes steps that serve to end the violence and offers us an opportunity to become -- to take further steps that can be effective.

Question: And can I just go over something else? You mentioned -- you said the phrases quoted over the weekend don't help, or something like that, don't help end violence.

Mr. Boucher: Yes.

Question: I'm just wondering what you're referring to, and could you elaborate further than what --

Mr. Boucher: I don't think I read the whole speech, but there were some fairly -- one might say ambiguous references to jihad, and what he meant by that was not clear, and certainly left open the possibility of escalating violence. We don't think that that kind of speech and that kind of statement is necessarily helpful in these circumstances. We want to see strong words and resolute action.

Question: Yesterday, Steve Croft of CBS on 60 Minutes interviewed I believe it was Mr. Masud of Hamas, and of course there are other groups being shielded by Syria. What are the steps being taken by our State Department with the Syrians to at least counter or prevent any further activities by those groups?

Mr. Boucher: We have been quite clear with all those concerned, whether it's with Chairman Arafat in the Palestinian areas or whether it's neighbors like Syria, that we think that the activities of these groups that are terrorist groups that are on our list of terrorist groups need to be curbed, and that has been an element of our diplomacy throughout our dealings on this issue.

Question: When the Israeli Government has said in the past that it considers Arafat irrelevant, the United States has, although not directly criticizing that decision, said that it doesn't believe not communicating is helpful, and these kind of things. Wouldn't it be a little bit hypocritical if the United States were to take the same kind of measure now and declare Arafat irrelevant?

Mr. Boucher: Who said we were?

Question: I didn't say you were. I said if you did. A consideration of it.

Mr. Boucher: That is what known as a speculative question. I am not going to start explaining a policy that hasn't been adopted.

Question: I hate to ask this question, but do you feel like being drawn into the Arab contention that the word "jihad" is given to various meanings and doesn't always mean a bloody uprising? In fact, I have heard it described as, I don't know what, sort of getting energetic about your rights.

Mr. Boucher: We have explained -- I think the Secretary, in reference to President Musharraf's speech, himself has said that jihad explained the way President Musharraf did, as a pursuit of social --

Question: Musharraf?

Mr. Boucher: Musharraf, yes, in his speech of the 12th of January talked about jihad in terms of pursuit of social development and achievement for his society. And that is certainly something we agree with, we support. We are trying to support President Musharraf doing it. But the remarks that were attributed to Chairman Arafat over the weekend, I think, leave the ambiguity there as to what he was talking about, and we think actually it is time for, as I said, clear words and resolute action.

Question: Even if Arafat did make some of these arrests today, are you going to judge him on the totality of everything he did, which would be 100 percent effort, or are you going to, every time he takes a step, see that as him moving towards -- I mean, obviously there are lists of things he needs to do.

Mr. Boucher: I am not sure there is quite a difference. Yes, we judge him on the totality of his actions and his words. Is he making a 100 percent effort to stop the violence? Is he taking actions to carry that out? Is he curbing the organizations? Is he giving an account of the Karine A affair and making sure that arms smuggling doesn't take place any more?

We noted that they have arrested and charged Fuad al-Shibaki as a suspect in the Karine A affair, after two weeks of questioning. Formal charges are a step in the right direction, but we would say that more needs to be done. We are still dealing with the fundamental issues of curbing the activities of violent elements, curbing the activities of organizations that carry out violence, and accounting for what happened with the Karine A affair and making sure that none of that arms smuggling is going to reoccur.

Question: With regard to your reference to President Musharraf's speech, is a military ruler now being held up as an example of what a Muslim leader should be doing or saying?

Mr. Boucher: We have been quite clear what we thought of the speech and the direction that President Musharraf has taken, and I'm not going to apologize for that.

Question: Very briefly, where is General Zinni? And are there any plans for him to meet with the Secretary to talk about the situation with the Secretary, or is it pretty much now the situation that there is not really much for him to report back to the Secretary on?

Mr. Boucher: I'll have to check on, "Where is General Zinni." As you know, he is not working for us. He has his own life, and I'll have to check where he is.

Question: Well, presumably he wasn't in Washington giving a speech to a group of Italian-Americans.

Mr. Boucher: About which there might have been inaccurate reports of what he said? I'll check and see. There's nothing scheduled at this point, I think, for him and the Secretary. But as I said before, we keep the situation under review as far as what we do next, and we're willing to take whatever action we think is necessary if we can be effective in the situation. But what Chairman Arafat does will be a big factor in that.

Question: And this is the last thing. The most recent suicide bombing. Does the United States make anything of the fact that it was apparently a woman who was the bomber in this case?

Mr. Boucher: I don't have anything particular to say about that. The fact that so many people were hurt -- there were four Americans who suffered injuries -- it doesn't matter who does it; it's wrong, it's bad, it's awful.

Question: Do you think Mr. Zinni has been compromised by these reports?

Mr. Boucher: By these reports?

Question: Whether accurate or not, does it do something to his --

Mr. Boucher: I seem to spend a lot of my time up here explaining inaccurate reports and trying to clarify them. So I don't think I want to say that any particular individual is compromised by the quality of the press reporting. But my understanding is that that report was not an accurate version of his remarks.

Question: (Inaudible) the same thing, but I'm just wondering if that has made things difficult for him?

Mr. Boucher: No.

Question: Arab governments, as you said before, are calling on the US to stay engaged. What is the US saying to the Arab allies in terms of what they can do? Do you think they're doing enough? Are they putting enough pressure on Arafat?

Mr. Boucher: What we have said to others is what we're saying ourselves, and what we're saying to you, that the issue at this moment is whether Chairman Arafat takes strong and irreversible action. We think that others need to understand that, need to convey that to Chairman Arafat and offer him support if he does.

So that's the issue for us, and in terms of US involvement, we have reassured them that this remains important to us. We remain committed to the vision that the President and the Secretary enunciated, to the vision of implementation of steps in the Mitchell process that can get us back to negotiations, based on Resolutions 242 and 338. And our commitment to that means that we're looking to Chairman Arafat to take the steps to end the violence that can lead us down that road. And we would hope that others would support us in that as well in their conversations.

Question: If I could follow up, every day from this podium, from the White House podium, you hear on interviews, Cabinet officials calling on Yasser Arafat to take more steps. Do you think there should be a more public cry in the Arab world for him to take these steps?

Mr. Boucher: I'm not going to prescribe how each individual government needs to carry this out. But we do think that we have seen some voices, I think, that have said the same thing, and we understand that others are saying it to him privately. So we think there is a fairly consistent view in the international community that the steps to end the violence and end the violent groups that have been carrying it out are a necessary element in getting down that path.

Question: Has there been any direct evidence of any kind that Arafat himself was personally involved in any of the violence?

And secondly, many of the Arab countries and many of the commentators from here are saying that he doesn't have the power with the siege that is going on. What is your onward vision of where it goes if the violence ends? You say the Mitchell Report, but the Mitchell Report doesn't really deal with the withdrawal of even the Israeli tanks from around the cities and the end of the siege. It has gone way beyond that. Do you have a second Mitchell Report?

Mr. Boucher: There is no second Mitchell Report. You remember the steps that George Tenet worked out to remove some of the military confrontation, to have each side do things on the security side that would start to constitute an easing of the tension and a pullback. The Mitchell Committee recommendations themselves have a whole series of steps that would be taken by both sides that would serve to ease the confrontation and ease the restrictions on normal everyday life for Palestinians, which has been a major concern of ours. So we want to go down that road. We want Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live safer, more secure and easier lives by going through this. That is part of the vision as well. But ultimately, the goal of that is to get back to negotiations.

Now, as far as whether Chairman Arafat has the ability or the authority, as leader of the Palestinian Authority, we have said he needs to exercise leadership and exercise the authority that he has.

Question: This may have already been asked, and I apologize if it has been. Can you say whether Arab governments are telling this government that they would be very unhappy with any plan to not deal with Arafat as a consequence of this --

Mr. Boucher: I leave it to what other governments want to say publicly for themselves. I am not going to try to speak for the other governments here.