H.E. Dr. Marwan Muasher
Minister of Foreign Affairs
FM Press Conference with US Secretary of State Colin Powell
April 28, 2003
Washington, D.C.
SEC. POWELL: Good morning, everyone. It's been my pleasure to host Foreign Minister Muasher of Jordan. We had a good conversation, and as you might expect, we talked about the two topics of the day of greatest interest to us, and that was where we are in Iraq now that, for the most part, the serious hostilities are over. Although we have not yet finished cleaning up all the pockets of resistance, nevertheless, you can see that our attention has turned to dealing with humanitarian needs. And I am pleased that food is not a problem in the country, and we're hard at work fixing the electrical grid and making sure that the people of Iraq have clean water and the other things needed for satisfactory daily life.
We will begin the effort of rebuilding the ministries. And as you know from the meeting taking place in Baghdad today, work is also underway to help the Iraqi people create a new government that will be representative of all the Iraqi people.
So we discussed this issue in some detail, and then we moved to the Middle East peace process. And I reaffirmed President Bush's commitment to release, with the other members of the Quartet, the road map, as soon as Prime Minister-designate Abu Mazen has been confirmed by the PLC, and we hope that will be in the next several days. And both the minister and I expressed our hopes that both parties - the Palestinians and the Israelis - will grab this new opportunity to achieve progress along the path to peace through the use of this road map. So we're encouraged by this development, the transformation within the Palestinian Authority, that will allow the Palestinian people to have a prime minister who can be a responsible partner working with Israel and working with the United States, members of the Quartet, and the countries in the region, leaders in the region, to move forward to our goal, which is to create a Palestinian state in a period of time that President Bush suggested, within a three-year period of time.
So, Mr. Minister, as always, it's
a great pleasure to have had you here.
MIN. MUASHER: Thank you, sir. Let me thank Secretary Powell for this very
productive meeting. We discussed, of course, again, the two main issues on the
region's mind - Iraq and the peace process. We emphasized the need to start a
political process in Iraq that would lead to the formation of a credible and
representative Iraqi government so we can get on with the process of rebuilding
Iraq, and the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq.
On the peace process, I am very encouraged by what I heard from the secretary
about the president's resolve to get ahead with the road map. We are all looking
forward to the time when the road map will be announced, in a few days,
hopefully. More importantly, I think there is serious work ahead of us in making
sure that the road map is implemented at a very early time and in an honest
manner that would restart the peace process, that would give people hope that
they can live in peace and security, and that would get us to the time when a
Palestinian state will be established alongside Israel, and where the occupation
- again, the Israeli occupation will end.
I look forward to working with the secretary on these issues, and I believe that
the time has come in the Middle East to truly look at all the problems of the
Middle East in a way that would end all conflicts there.
Thank you.
Q: Mr. Secretary, is the U.S. - are you getting support from Europeans
and Arab governments - I could ask the minister, too - on your - what should I
say? - hopes for a transformation of the leadership, of, frankly, a sidetracking
of Yasser Arafat, bringing to the fore Abu Mazen? Is the U.S. alone on this or
is it reinforced?
SEC. POWELL: I don't think we're alone. Clearly, we have been ahead of
our European colleagues with respect to calling for transformation in the
leadership of the Palestinian Authority.
But I think I can speak for the
members of the Quartet when we say that we welcome the appointment of a prime
minister who we believe can be a partner to work with members of the Quartet and
others in the region to move the peace process along. Chairman Arafat is there,
but I believe we need new, reinvigorated leadership of the kind that we hope Mr.
Abu Mazen will bring to the table; the kind that Mr. Fayyad, the minister of
Finance, is bringing to the table. And this is not the time to look back. It's a
time to look forward and do everything we can to help the new prime minister.
Q: Minister, is that something that - do you have something to say about
it?
MIN. MUASHER: Well, this is a - the Palestinian reform process is that, a
Palestinian process that is internal and that is ongoing. And we believe that
the recent developments have been very encouraging. You have a new government.
You have a prime minister with authority, and you have ministers that are
authorized with going on with some very serious work, both on security and
finance, among other things.
We support the new Palestinian
government, and we intend to work with it in order to make sure that the proper
conditions are created on the ground that would help in relaunching the peace
process.
Q: Mr. Foreign Minister?
SEC. POWELL: Yeah? Yes, here.
Q: Mr. Foreign Minister, you've spoken about moving ahead with the road
map but also that you would like to see more of a U.S. engagement, not only
rolling out the road map. Could you describe what kind of U.S. engagement you'd
like to see going forward?
And Secretary Powell, on North
Korea, the North Koreans, there's been some reports out through the Chinese that
the North Koreans offered to scrap their nuclear programs, not do any testing,
in exchange for a security guarantee by the United States. Is there anything you
could say on that? Thank you.
MIN. MUASHER: Well, I think what we all want to see is tangible
differences on the ground, differences that would indicate to Palestinians in
particular there is indeed hope that the peace process is finally relaunched and
that their lives have changed. We would like to see Israel lift the curfews,
stop demolition of homes. We would like to see an end to settlement activity,
and we would like to see the security situation also stabilized.
So these are the kind of early
activities that we would be looking at to see whether we can indeed translate
the road map into a tangible difference on the ground.
SEC. POWELL: The trilateral meeting that we held with the Chinese and the
North Koreans last week in Beijing, I think, turned out to be quite useful. The
North Koreans acknowledged a number of things that they were doing and, in
effect, said these are now up for further discussion. They did put forward a
plan that would ultimately deal with their nuclear capability and their missile
activities, but they, of course, expect something considerable in return. And so
we are studying that plan, or we are examining it with our friends and allies.
We're staying in the closest touch with the South Koreans, the Japanese, the
Chinese, Russians, Australians and others. And so I think it was useful to get
it all out on the table and see where we go from here.
They've never used the word "testing." You suggested they threatened to test. But they never used the word "test." They said that it is the kind of capability that one can display in one way or another. And we're taking all of this (in?) seriousness, and now that Assistant Secretary Kelly is back, we'll be spending quite a bit of time going over his notes and his impressions on what he heard.
Let me take this opportunity to
thank the Chinese government for not only hosting this meeting but being a full
participant in this first multilateral session.
Q: Mr. Secretary, have you asked the Jordanians in any manner to help
work with the Syrians for moderation, and also to ask for special policing and
other type of army-type infrastructure to go into Iraq?
SEC. POWELL: No, it didn't come up in the course of - the second part of
your question - didn't come up in the course of our conversation. And I don't
know if the minister wishes to say a word to that point.
With respect to Syria, we always discuss Syria when we are together. And as you know, I plan to travel to Syria in the not-too-distant future and have a full range of conversations with the Syrian leadership over issues that are on our mind and of concern to us and that we have been speaking about rather openly in recent weeks. And I'm sure we'll have complete and comprehensive discussions with the Syrians.
And I hope that in light of the
changed circumstances in the region, not only with respect to what happened in
Iraq, but with the likelihood that the road map is about to be placed down over
the next several days, I hope that these two elements - changed circumstance in
Iraq and the road map - will cause the Syrians to review all of their policies
and give some consideration to changing those policies, which we believe have
not been helpful in the past.
Q: Mr. Secretary, there were reports over the weekend that North Korea
actually told the State Department on March 31st that it had begun this
reprocessing, although the press didn't find out about it until a later date.
And there are some allegations that the rest of the administration didn't find
out about it, or other agencies. Can you address that?
SEC. POWELL: Yeah, that's nonsense. Over a period of time, the North
Koreans have made different statements about reprocessing and whether they are
or are not reprocessing. And we always examine those statements and we try to
determine the validity of those statements. And our intelligence community still
cannot give us any validation or confirmation of what North Korea has said at
various times and in various places with respect to reprocessing.
So what we were told on the 31st was shared within the administration. I'm not sure if everybody in the administration got it, but it isn't relevant because it didn't seem to be anything that was terribly new or different from what we had been told on a regular basis over the last several months. It was not, in our judgment, anything that was particularly new or newsworthy.
Thank you.