*EPF401 10/12/00
State Department Report, Thursday, October 12, 2000
(The Middle East) (570)

ALBRIGHT ON ATTACK ON U.S. SHIP AND ISRAELI/PALESTINIAN UNREST

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says the United States will use all its resources to determine the facts surrounding the October 12 attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden that killed four crewmembers and injured many others.

Speaking to reporters in the State Department briefing room, Albright said "rest assured that the United States will seek with all our resources to determine the facts surrounding this tragedy. We will continue taking every step we can to protect our troops, our diplomats, but we will not retreat from our responsibilities.

"If it turns out, as it appears, to have been a terrorist act, we will hold those who committed it accountable and take appropriate steps."

Albright said her prayers "are with the families of those killed and injured and with all the brave men and women in uniform who serve our country every day around the world."

She praised the president of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Salih for "being very cooperative in the investigative process" and for visiting the wounded in the hospital and offering his condolences.

But Albright cautioned reporters not to leap to conclusions about the cause of the attack.

The United States, she said, is also "deeply distressed" by "the murder this morning of Israeli soldiers in Ramallah."

She expressed her "condolences to their families and to the loved ones of all, both Palestinian and Israeli, who have been victimized by the terrible violence that has occurred in recent days, and especially the children whose hopes for peace so recently so raised have been dashed."

She called upon the entire international community to join the United States in urging Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to take the steps necessary to bring this senseless and destructive cycle of fighting to an end.

She also appealed to the Israeli Defense Force to cease its operations against Palestinians. "No matter how justified they feel at the mob violence against their soldiers, we are calling on the Israelis to bring an immediate end to the current operations by the IDF (Israeli Defense Force)," Albright said.

"Now is the time for leadership. There needs to be a cease-fire by both sides. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians can gain from further killing. Both gain from the silencing of guns, a cooling of tempers and a resumption of serious and constructive talks.

"The future of the Middle East must be decided at the negotiating table, not in the streets," Albright said.

She called the latest developments in the Middle East "a very sad and difficult period," and said she and President Clinton will continue to do everything they can in pursuit of peace in the Middle East.

Albright made clear that the United States will stay involved. "The United States is not going to stop doing what we have to do. We have responsibilities. We have national interests," she said.

"We are operating in a world that is filled with a variety of threats, but that doesn't mean that we can crawl into an ostrich-like mode. We are eagles, and I think that it is very important that the United States stay involved, that we understand the threats. And we will continue to do what we have to do."

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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