Editor's Note:
On May 7, 2007 Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice talked with
veteran journalist Hisham Melhem about developments in the
Middle East and answered the question, "What is the status now
of the U.S.-Saudi relationship?" SUSRIS is pleased to provide a
transcript of the interview for your consideration.
Interview With Hisham Melhem of Al Arabiya
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
May 7, 2007
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, thank you for this opportunity.
Let's start with the headline. How do you read the Sarkozy
election in Paris and do you anticipate that this will help your
efforts in Iraq in Lebanon with -- vis-�-vis the tribunal and
the war on terror?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, we very much look forward to working with
soon-to-be-President Sarkozy. We've had very good relations with
the government of President Chirac. We've had our differences.
But we work particularly well, for instance, on Lebanon and on
the Middle East and I would expect that to continue, maybe to
intensify because there's a lot of work to do in the Middle East
and it's good to have a valuable partner like Paris, a partner
that shares our values and we look very much forward to working
with them.
QUESTION:
Okay. Vice President Cheney is leaving to the Middle East and he
will be meeting with the crucial leaders, crucial to your
efforts in Iraq in particular. Is this only a follow-up to Sharm
el-Sheikh or do you want those key leaders to do more in Iraq?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, we had planned for some time now for the
Vice President to go. And it's a very good time after Sharm
because really now, the neighbors need to focus on what they can
do to help this Iraqi -- young Iraqi democracy to succeed. Prime
Minister Maliki, I thought, did a very good job at the Sharm
conference of showing what Iraq is trying to do. They have a
struggle internally because they're extremists who are trying to
destroy the foundation for a democracy. And so the Vice
President will follow up. He'll talk to our allies in the region
and I think it'll be very important for them to take a really
hard look at what they're doing and to say how can they do more
to help the Iraqis.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, what is the status now of U.S.-Saudi
relationship? The
Vice President will be seeing King Abdallah in Riyadh. The
King was critical of U.S. -- what he referred to as the American
occupation in Iraq; your interlocutor the Saudi Prince Saud
Al-Faisal in Sharm said that we don't see improvement on the
ground. And there was talk about the Saudi monarch delaying or
postponing a visit to Washington. Talk a little about this
relationship.
SECRETARY RICE: Well, our relations are very good with Saudi
Arabia. We agree completely on the strategic direction here. We
are both concerned about extremism in the region. We are both
concerned about al-Qaida and terrorism in the region. And
clearly, the Saudis -- for instance on Lebanon, we have had very
strong policies that go in the same direction. Saudi Arabia was
very generous for the Lebanese Government during the Paris
conference. Saudi Arabia has been a leader in helping to get the
Arab League Initiative re-launched again out of the Riyadh
Summit so that we can use that as one of the foundations to help
press forward on Israeli-Palestinian peace, something that we
continue to be very dedicated to, something that the President
is committed to and we're going to continue to work, so we and
the Saudis are working there. Sometimes we have tactical
differences, but that really doesn't matter when you're pushing
in the same strategic direction.
And as to Iraq, I think it's well understood by our Saudi
friends that the American forces are there as a part of the
multinational forces. The multinational forces are there, of
course, under a UN Security Council resolution and we are all
there to help this young Iraqi Government to succeed. And so I
hope that the Saudis were reassured by what they heard from the
Iraqi Government. But of course, the government of Prime
Minister Maliki does have to work hard to make certain that
national reconciliation takes place so that Iraq is an Iraq for
all Iraqis.
QUESTION: What about the King's visit to Washington?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the King will, I'm sure, at an appropriate
time, come, but nothing had been scheduled, in fact. We've
talked about it from time to time and the President will welcome
him whenever it's possible.
QUESTION: I want to talk about the Syrians and the Iranians at
Sharm, but before that. I don't -- I know you don't talk about
domestic affairs in a state like Israel, obviously. But after
the recent report on the Lebanon war, it seems that the Israeli
Prime Minister, Mr. Olmert, has suffered a setback. I mean, what
would that do to your efforts -- and you've been to the Middle
East several times this year -- when you have a besieged Israeli
Prime Minister and a weakened Palestinian Authority, essentially
a two-headed authority. I mean, what would that do to your
efforts to revive talks? It is tough, is it not?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, Israel is a strong democracy
and democracies have a way of working their way through issues
like this and we look forward to working with the Prime Minister
and continuing to push forward. I hope that they will again
renew the efforts to have the regular meetings with President
Abbas. I think those -- I hope those will continue to go
forward.
And we're going to continue to work toward the two-state
solution because one thing that we know is that the Israeli
people overwhelmingly want to get to a place where they have a
neighbor who can be a contributor to their security and we know
that the Palestinian people have waited a long time for their
state. And so the President and I remain committed to that and
as Israelis work through their democratic process, we're going
to work with the Prime Minister and his government to move
forward.
QUESTION: Okay. Madame Secretary, the Syrians would like to --
your meeting with Minister Walid Mualem in Sharm el-Sheikh to
lead to something more, to a broader dialogue. And he obviously,
in the meeting, asked you to return the American Ambassador to
Damascus. Will they get what they want, both on the broader
dialogue and the Ambassador?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, this meeting took place in the context of
the neighbors meeting for Iraq. And that was what this
conversation was about. It was about Iraq. And it's in the
Syrians' interest to have a stable Iraq. It can't be a good
thing to have extremists transiting Syria and that was the case
that I made to Foreign Minister Mualem. It was a professional,
businesslike meeting. But as to broader relations with the
United States, there are many other issues. And one --
QUESTION: Lebanon, Palestine?
SECRETARY RICE: Yes, of course. And when it comes to Lebanon, I
would say very directly to everyone that Lebanese democracy,
Lebanese sovereignty is critical to the United States. We
consider it one of the most important interests that we hold.
The tribunal needs to take place. It needs to take place despite
the deadlock that is taking place in Lebanon because the
perpetrators of the assassination of Rafik Hariri need to be
brought to justice. And the Siniora government, the
democratically elected government of Lebanon needs to be
supportive -- supported and Lebanon and Lebanese can count on
the United States to do that.
QUESTION: So there shouldn�t be any concerns in Lebanon, that
there is going to be some sort of a --
SECRETARY RICE: No, no.
QUESTION: -- an agreement with Syria or that -- a lessening of
the American support for the Tribunal even under Chapter 7?
SECRETARY RICE: Absolutely. If we have to do that, then that's
what we will do because it's extremely important that this
tribunal take place so that Lebanon can turn to normal life.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, what happened with the -- with your
Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in Sharm el-Sheikh? He
somehow skedaddled before you arrived. Was it because he saw a
lady wearing a red dress or maybe he saw red when he saw you?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think maybe they should ask the Foreign
Minister. Look, it was fine. We had not asked for a bilateral
with the Iranians and they had not asked for one with us. We did
encounter each other at lunch. It was pleasant and civil. But
again, this was not a conference about U.S.-Iranian relations.
QUESTION: Yes, sure.
SECRETARY RICE: This was about Iraq. And I hope that in the
context of that meeting, the Iranians will undertake to stop the
flow of foreign fighters across their border, to stop the flow
of sophisticated weaponry, particularly these explosively formed
devices that are really just devastating to innocent Iraqis and
to coalition forces who are there under a UN Security Council
mandate. And so that was the message of the meeting and I think
that message got through.
QUESTION: I don't know if you want to speculate on this matter.
Could this be, as some people argue, a function of domestic
differences within the government in Tehran or if they want a
dialogue that will include the nuclear program?
SECRETARY RICE: You know, I don't know. And I -- no one can read
the internal politics of Iran, most especially, not me. But I do
hope that the Iranians understand that there are two different
channels here. We've always said that if it was appropriate we
could use a channel in Baghdad. The Ambassador has -- is there.
We did this in Afghanistan.
QUESTION: Sure.
SECRETARY RICE: And we have a channel for the nuclear issue
through Javier Solana and the six states with which we have made
the offer to Iran. So the proper channels are there. They're
established and they can be used at any time.
QUESTION: I'm sure you're familiar with many voices in this
country especially in academia who argue that, look, maybe the
United States should remove the military option off the table to
entice the Iranians to have a dialogue and that the Iranians may
have some concern because of the increase in naval power --
American naval power in the Gulf. Now, that option is still on
the table, as the President keeps saying.
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the American President is not going to
take its options off the table and I would think you don't want
the American President to take its options off the table. But
the President has also said that he is focused on and committed
to a diplomatic course. If the world stays strong, the
diplomatic course has a very good chance of working.
And what I would say to the Iranians and in fact had a chance to
say to an Iranian journalist when I was in Sharm el-Sheikh is
that there are two paths here: one is the path of further
isolation; the other is a path of engagement. And the
international community has made a UN demand, which is that Iran
suspend its enrichment and reprocessing and then there can be a
change of 27 years in American foreign policy and we can sit
down to talk about whatever is on their minds and on our minds.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, two years ago you gave a very
eloquent, well-crafted speech in Cairo where you really laid
down the case for democracy promotion in the region. Now, some
of your critics now in Cairo and other places in the Arab world
believe or get the impression that the United States is now
backsliding, backtracking on the democracy agenda because of the
fear of Islamists and they point out certain actions or
positions by Washington vis-�-vis the Egyptians and other
governments in the region. What would you say to those reformers
who pinned their hopes on a strong position from the United
States on this issue?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, let me be very clear. The Cairo speech to
me was perhaps the most important speech that I have given. And
it to me says what America stands for and what this
Administration stands for and we're not going to back off that.
Now, it is true that this has to be an indigenous move, that the
people in Egypt have to take up the course. America cannot bring
democracy to Egypt. That was never the intention. But I can tell
you that when I talked to the Egyptian leadership, I bring up
issues of what is happening with nongovernmental organizations.
I bring up issues of people like Ayman Nour. I bring these
issues up all the time with the Egyptian leadership because
ultimately, Egypt is a great country and Egypt can lead the
region to democracy. There have been ups and downs. I think that
the presidential elections were a point in time that says Egypt
will probably never go back to the kind of presidential
elections that it's had in the past.
On the other hand, there have been some steps backward. But I'm
a firm believer that without democracy in Egypt, without
democracy in the Middle East, without moderate voices having a
way to express themselves legitimately, the Middle East is not
going to be able to defeat extremism.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, I really appreciate it. Thanks so
much.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Source:
US State Department
