*EPF206 04/02/2002
Transcript: Powell's Interview on NBC April 2 About Conflict in Middle East
(Says U.S. still has important role to play) (1120)

Following is the transcript of Secretary of State Colin Powell's interview on NBC's Today show April 2:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman April 2, 2002

Secretary Of State Colin L. Powell Interview On NBC's Today Show with Matt Lauer

April 2, 2002

(7:04 a.m. EST)

MR. LAUER: Mr. Secretary, good morning to you.

SECRETARY POWELL: Good morning, Matt.

MR. LAUER: I know you know the latest: the Israeli tanks have moved into Bethlehem. They say they are trying to root out terrorism in that area. Have the Israeli officials given you any indication, Mr. Secretary, how long this action will last and how widespread it might become?

SECRETARY POWELL: They have said a few things about the operation they are now conducting. They said they have no intention of permanently occupying any of these towns, cities and villages. And I have heard different estimates of how long they think it would take, but I would guess right now that they are expecting it will take them a couple of weeks.

MR. LAUER: They are obviously ignoring a UN Security Council resolution that the US signed onto over the weekend, calling for them to withdraw their troops from the West Bank. Where does that leave us in terms of our role in this peace process, or even the cease-fire process?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think we still have an important role to play. We supported that UN resolution. It called for a number of things -- withdrawal. It called for a cease-fire and other actions. And it really paralleled the resolution two weeks earlier that was a breakthrough resolution calling for the creation of two states -- or the creation of another state living side by side with Israel. And it really is a resolution that followed a number of positive developments over the last several weeks, to include the Vice President's trip to the region, to include the return of General Zinni, because we thought both sides were ready to enter into the Tenet work plan.

All of these efforts were starting to come together, to include the Arab summit meeting last week, with a positive initiative from Crown Prince Abdullah; to include Prime Minister Sharon saying he would waive his requirement for seven days of quiet. Pieces were starting to come together. Those pieces were blown apart again by the Passover massacre last week which killed 22 people, a suicide bomber. And daily suicide bombings cause the Israelis to say we can't live with it this way; we have to go in and try to root out this terrorism. We recognize their right of self-defense, but at the same time we also know that when this is over we will still have to get back in to the Tenet work plan, which provides us a way to get out of this constant violence, a way to get into a cease-fire and the Mitchell peace plan, which will get us to a political process as soon as possible.

MR. LAUER: Let me ask you a -- go ahead.

SECRETARY POWELL: So I hope this will end quickly, but I can't predict when the Israelis will make their judgment that they can withdraw because they have dealt with the terrorist threat as they see it.

MR. LAUER: Let me ask you a couple of quick questions. You are hearing more and more out of Israel, although it's hard to get anyone to admit to this, that senior officials are talking about forcing Yasser Arafat into exile. How would it impact the situation?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I don't think it would help the situation. He is in Ramallah. He is seen as the leader of the Palestinian people. Whether that is attractive to others or not, that is the role he has. He is the head of the Palestinian Authority, an organization that we helped create some years ago. And he has food, he has water, he has utilities.

The Israelis said that they would not kill him or harm him, and so far they have kept that commitment. And so exiling him or moving him out is, frankly, a position the Israelis have not yet taken, even though they have made some suggestions that they would welcome his departure. We'll deal with the situation as it exists, and right now he is in Ramallah.

MR. LAUER: As it stands, under President Bush's own definition, why isn't Yasser Arafat labeled a terrorist by the US Government?

SECRETARY POWELL: Because we believe that he is trying to participate in the process. He hasn't done as good a job as we would like to have seen him perform, but he is a part of the Mitchell process, part of the Tenet work plan. But he hasn't done enough, in our judgment, with respect to stopping the terrorist activities or calling upon his people to stop conducting activities of this kind, which will serve no purpose for his own people. And we think he can do more. We think other Palestinian leaders can do more.

But because he is part of the process, we still think it is useful to continue to try to appeal to him, see if we can work with him. Because when all is said and done, at the end of the Israeli incursion, we will still have the same problem: Palestinians and Israelis in the same blessed land, trying to figure out how to find a political solution that will allow them to live side by side in peace. And Yasser Arafat, we may find, is still a part of that process.

MR. LAUER: Which leads me to my last question. Is there still consideration, serious consideration, being given to sending US troops into that region when some sort of cease-fire can be achieved?

SECRETARY POWELL: We have never said we were going to send US troops to the region. This report came out a day or two ago. What we said we would do is, if we got into the Tenet work plan which laid out conditions both sides would meet as they went into a cease-fire, and as we went into the Mitchell process with confidence-building activities, the United States was prepared to send some small number of monitors, which would probably be civilian monitors. But we have never said that we were planning to send military troops in to serve as a force in being in that area.

MR. LAUER: Secretary of State Colin Powell. Mr. Secretary, thank you again for your time.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you.

(end transcript)

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

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