Saudi Arabia - Secretary Rice Travels To Middle East

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Secretary Rice and Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal meeting in Saudi Arabia in June 2005. State Department photo.

Secretary Rice Starts Middle East Engagement:
First Stop Saudi Arabia

"I've directed Secretary of State Rice to lead a diplomatic effort to engage moderate leaders across the region, to help the Palestinians reform their security services, and support Israeli and Palestinian leaders in their efforts to come together to resolve their differences."

President Bush [Sep 19, 2006]

Rice to Discuss Mid East Peace
Monday, 2 October 2006
The Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH - KING Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice on Monday evening. They will review aspects of bilateral cooperation besides the developments in the region, Okaz Arabic language daily reported Sunday.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs, is expected to hold a meeting with Rice on the same day. During the meeting they will discuss the importance of the Saudi-American Committee for Strategic Dialogue, the last of which was held in Washington several months ago. They will also discuss the developments in the region, especially with regard to Palestine in the light of the failure to form a national unity government.

They will also discuss the latest developments on the Iraqi arena and the situation in Lebanon especially the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and the deployment of UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Prince Saud Al-Faisal will lead the Kingdom�s delegation to the Arab foreign ministers� meeting with Rice in Cairo Tuesday to discuss how to activate the Mideast peace process.

Sources told Okaz that the objective of these meetings is to review all aspects of the peace process and how to activate it with the aim of establishing peace in the region on the basis of the UN Security Council resolutions and the Arab initiative.

Asked whether they will discuss a Gulf-Egyptian-Jordanian initiative for reviving the peace process, the sources said that in the first place the meeting will discuss activating the peace process in the region. The sources pointed out that the GCC foreign ministers held a meeting last week on the sidelines of the 61st UN General Assembly meetings with Rice in the presence of the GCC Secretary General. The meeting was chaired by Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and head of the current round of the ministerial council. They discussed the relations between GCC countries and the US.

They also discussed subjects of mutual concern especially those related to the economic fields and the means to bolster and support the economic negotiations between the GCC countries and the US.

Source: Saudi Gazette

Briefing En Route
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
En Route Shannon, Ireland
October 1, 2006

SECRETARY RICE: We are on our way back to the Middle East.. ..We're going to start in Saudi Arabia and meet with King Abdallah and then go on to Cairo for meetings with the GCC+2, which means the GCC plus Jordan and Egypt, and then on of course to the Palestinian territories and to Israel.

But I think the way to think about this trip is that the President said in his remarks at the UNGA that it was necessary to consult with, and in effect rally, moderate forces and moderate voices in the Middle East. When Lebanon happened I think we got in very stark relief a clear indication that there are extremist forces and moderate forces. The people -- the countries that we're meeting with particularly in the GCC+2 is a group that you would expect to support the emerging moderate forces in Lebanon, in Iraq and in the Palestinian territories. And so I look forward to consulting with them on how we strengthen these forces and what needs to be done.

I should note too that it's possible, though not yet certain, that we may have a P5+1 on Iran toward the end of the week, but I'll get back to you on whether or not we decide to do that.

Okay. Questions?

[Numerous questions regarding the book "State of Denial."]

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, I have a question about the Middle East. I wanted to know what is new about this initiative, what is different from before? Because you see the same people, the same moderate people, the same Jordan. So what is really different this time?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the same people are there, Sylvie, and they're still the important actors. Look, I do think that the GCC+2 effort is new and it gives us an opportunity in a new configuration to work with the moderate states and the moderate voices in the region both to support these new moderate forces like Siniora's government in Lebanon, the government of -- I mean the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas and the government of Iraq. And that configuration I think can be quite powerful in resisting extremist forces as well.

But it's important to consult with people. It's important to get together and look at what we face and, you know, also be working with the Palestinians and the Israelis to see how we might move that forward. But I think the main -- the GCC+2 I consider an important new dimension to the effort.

[Off-topic question.]

QUESTION: You're hoping to build support on this trip from the moderate states for Iraq among others, but are you concerned at all that there are signs that the Iraqis themselves are pretty nervous these days about their neighbors? President Talabani the other day talked directly about his anger with the Turks. He said in an interview with, I guess, NPR that all the neighbors with the exception of Kuwait were meddling in their affairs, went on to say that if they do that to the Iraqis maybe the Iraqis will do that back. It doesn't seem like a pretty positive attitude at the moment.

SECRETARY RICE: Look, it's always been a difficult neighborhood. That should be a surprise to no one. But I think if you had been at the international compact meeting on Iraq you would have seen a quite different story, which is that these states recognized, Iraq's neighborhood recognizes, that a stable Iraq is going to be in their interest.

And I think you will see as the Iraqis go to their national compact support for them among their neighbors. I can tell you that some of their neighbors played very important roles in trying to encourage Sunni involvement and encourage the tribes to be involved. They've already played positive roles, but I think you will see that grow over time as the Iraqis come to their national compact and the international system mobilizes to help them.

One more.

QUESTION: Thanks. A question on this whole notion of moderates versus extremists. How hopeful are you that you can manage to bring off a change in policy to stabilize Lebanon when you continue to avoid Damascus and you're not talking to at least the Syrians? I mean, obviously you want to try to talk to the Iranians about the nuclear issue. Given the Syrian background as a spoiler, how can this work?

[Off-topic question.]

SECRETARY RICE: ..

As to the Syrians, it took 30 years to get them out of Lebanon and the notion that somehow they can be a stabilizing force in Lebanon, I just -- I don't see. If they wish to be a stabilizing force, they can certainly do it. They know what to do. They know to stop transshipment of weapons from perhaps Iran to Hezbollah. They know to cooperate fully with the Hariri assassination investigation. They know to stop intimidation campaigns against others, other Lebanese leaders. So I don't think they have to be told what they can do to help Lebanon be more stable.

QUESTION: My question is about the forces of moderation. A year ago you gave a very important speech in Cairo talking about the need for democracy, that you were jettisoning 60 years of U.S. foreign policy. The emphasis now though is on forces of moderation, not on democracy. Would you acknowledge there has been a change?

SECRETARY RICE: No. I'm also going to talk about democracy because the forces of moderation ultimately have to transition into moderate democratic forces or the Middle East I think is not going to be stable. We have with the Saudis these discussions. We have with the Egyptians these discussions. Look, it's not -- Jordan is making really great strides in its political evolution. These countries are not moving at the same speed and they're not going to move at the same speed, but the President isn't going to stop pressing for democracy because he believes that ultimately it's the force that will stabilize the Middle East most.

But it does not mean that even if states are in some state not yet transformed to democracy that we're not going to have relations with them and that we're not going to work together to resist extremist forces in the region that are threatening the very young democracies that are already there like Lebanon and Iraq and to a certain extent the Palestinian presidency.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

SECRETARY RICE: Oh. Well, look, I'm going to have consultations with King Abdallah. I think that the Saudis have demonstrated their desire to help, for instance, Abu Mazen and I think we can talk about how we might do more to help Abu Mazen, and particularly to help Lebanon. The Saudis I think contributed $1.5 billion to help Lebanon. They've been very involved in countering the behavior of the Syrians, for instance. And so we'll have the discussions -- I'll have the discussions with the Saudis that I'll also have with the GCC.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

SECRETARY RICE: I want Saudi's involvement in the stabilization of Iraq, I want Saudi's involvement in the stabilization of Lebanon, through resources and political support. Saudi Arabia has a lot of standing with a number of the forces in Iraq and they've actually been very helpful in trying to get Sunnis involved in the elections. I think it would be very helpful if they were supportive of and working toward helping Prime Minister Maliki's national reconciliation plan, for instance.

Released on October 2, 2006

Source: US State Department

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