The Official Website of the Chateau

welcome to the Chateau

President Cherrie Mrs Cherrie Vice President Carosole Mrs Carosole News History &Tours Kids Your Government

Remarks by the President at a Press Conference
1 August 2006

The Kluger Terrice
The Chateau

10.30 AM WST

THE PRESIDENT: Good Morning and thankyou for being here today. I just want to update everyone on what has happend on the months pass, and of course I will take questions. It has been a while since I had a last open Press Conference as such, the last one at the conclusion of my trip to Jordan and Isreal some time in June. I think I will start by saying that since then we had of course the G8 summit in Rockeraiders, We had a State Visit by the King of Thailand just over the last week, we had of course the passing of the Speraker of Congress, and we have a huge Diplomatic Crisis on our hands now in the Middle East.

I of course in this respect had the Prime Minsiter of the United Kingdom over on Sunday and we talked alot about this. The Prime Minister and I have committed our governments to a plan to make every effort to achieve a lasting peace out of this crisis. Our top priorities in Lebanon are providing immediate humanitarian relief, achieving an end to the violence, ensuring the return of displaced persons, and assisting with reconstruction. We recognize that many Lebanese people have lost their homes, so we'll help rebuild the civilian infrastructure that will allow them to return home safely.

We agree that a multinational force must be dispatched to Lebanon quickly, to augment a Lebanese army as it moves to the south of that country. An effective multinational force will help speed delivery of humanitarian relief, facilitate the return of displaced persons, and support the Lebanese government as it asserts full sovereignty over its territory and guards its borders.

I of course have noted that Secretary Morrision in now in Brussles to meet with NATO, and EU,. and then he will go to Isreal and to Egypt to work something out. White that I will take a few questions. Jeremy

Q Mr. President, with support apparently growing among the Arab population, both Shia and Sunni, for Hezbollah by bounds, is there a risk that every day that goes by without a cease-fire will tip this conflict into a wider war?

And, Mr. President, when Secretary Morrision goes back to the region, will she have any new instructions, such as meeting with Syrians?

A: His instructions are to work with Israel and Lebanon to get a -- to come up with an acceptable U.N. Security Council resolution that we can table next week. And secondly, it's really important for people to understand that terrorists are trying to stop the advance of freedom, and therefore, it's essential that we do what's right and not necessarily what appears to be immediately popular.

And those are the stakes, that's what we face right now. We've got a plan to deal with this immediate crisis. It's one of the reasons the Prime Minister came, to talk about that plan. But the stakes are larger than just Lebanon.

Isn't it interesting that when Prime Minister Olmert starts to reach out to President Abbas to develop a Palestinian state, militant Hamas creates the conditions so that there's crisis, and then Hezbollah follows up? Isn't it interesting, as a democracy takes hold in Iraq, that al Qaeda steps up its efforts to murder and bomb in order to stop the democracy?

And so one of the things that the people in the Middle East must understand is that we're working to create the conditions of hope and opportunity for all of them. And we'll continue to do that, Jeremy. That's -- this is the challenge of the 21st century.

There's a lot of suffering in Lebanon, because Hezbollah attacked Israel. There's a lot of suffering in the Palestinian Territory because militant Hamas is trying to stop the advance of democracy.

Now, that's the battle that's going on. And, yes, it is always very difficult when something like this happens, as it has happened over the past few weeks. So we've got to resolve the immediate situation, but we shouldn't be in any doubt at all, that will be a temporary respite unless we put in place the longer-term framework. Carol, ABC -

Q Mr. President, you spoke of having a plan to rebuild houses in Lebanon. Wouldn't the people of Lebanon rather know when you're going to tell the Israelis to stop destroying houses?

A: We care deeply about the people whose lives have been affected in Lebanon, just like we care deeply about the people whose lives have been affected in Israel. There's over a million people in Israel that are -- are threatened by this consistent rocket attack coming out of Lebanon. And, yes, we want to help people rebuild their lives, absolutely. But we also want to address the root causes of the problem. And the root cause of the problem is you've got Hezbollah that is armed and willing to fire rockets into Israel; a Hezbollah, by the way, that I firmly believe is backed by Iran and encouraged by Iran.

And so for the sake of long-term stability, we've got to deal with this issue now. Listen, the temptation is to say, it's too tough, let's just try to solve it quickly with something that won't last; let's just get it off the TV screens. But that won't solve the problem. And it's certainly not going to help the Lebanese citizens have a life that is normal and peaceful.

And I -- look, we care deeply about - and people being denied a state in the Palestinian Territory. But make no mistake about it, it is the goal and aims of the terrorist organizations to stop that type of advance. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to evoke sympathy for themselves. They're not sympathetic people. They're violent, cold-blooded killers who are trying to stop the advance of freedom.

And this is the calling of the 21st century, it seems like to me, and now is the time to confront the problem. And of course, we're going to help the people in Lebanon rebuild their lives. But as Tony said, this conflict started, out of the blue, with two Israeli soldiers kidnapped and rockets being fired across the border.

Now, we have urged restraint. We made it clear that we care about wanton destruction. On the other hand, in my judgment, it would be a big mistake not to solve the underlying problems. Otherwise everything will seem fine, and then you'll be back at a press conference, saying, how come you didn't solve the underlying problems? Jason -

Q: Thankyou sir. Can you comment on the fact that you have had a widening relationship with the President of the United States? With the official posision delivered my MR. Morrison today in Brussels calling ofr a cease fire by this week, and of course the inability of the UN Security council to come up with an appropriate response last week at their meeting on Sunday?

A: My relationship with the Preisdent of the Untied States on this issue has been no different, and that is the international community at large must work together. I think we have had our differences, and yes I will admit, I think he is rather tard at time, and I think we do have our obvious differences, but both President Bush and I are comitted to ending the violance in the Middle East -

Q: Would you like to see a cease fire?

A: Yes I would, but I understand as well President Bush desires to see a power shift in the region. The only reson the US is not pushing hard to hold Isreal back is because it wishes to see Isreal disarm Hezbollah. That I however, have to agree is a worthy cause, as Hezbollah cannot continue it's terrorist tactics. Suzanne Marbole

Q Thank you. Mr. President, on the issue of a multinational force, what shape should it take, who should lead it, who should be part of it? And also, should Hezbollah agreeing to it be a precondition for setting up the force?

A: In terms of the troops, that's what the meeting tomorrow is going to be about. And this is one of these issues that requires international consensus, people who put forth ideas, and we'll participate in terms of trying to help develop a consensus about what the force ought to look like.

In a general sense, though, the force needs to serve as a complement to a Lebanese force. See, that's the whole purpose of the force, is to strengthen the Lebanese government by helping the Lebanese force move into the area. The whole cornerstone of the policy for Lebanon is for Lebanon to be free and able to govern herself and defend herself with a viable force.

And so one of the things you'll see in discussions there is, how do we help the Lebanese army succeed? What does it -- what's required? What's the manpower need to be in order to help this force move into the south so the government can take control of the country. What it looks like -- if I hold a press conference on Wed, I'll be able to answer that better. But since I probably won't be, read your newspaper. Parker

Q: Can I ask on the Ports. The Secretary of Transportation said that the Ports on the East Coast are not up to the standard of shipping -

A: Well, Today I met with some entrepreneurs during a breakfast meeting at nine, just before I came up here, and we did talk about the Port problem in Compete. . I met a guy named Nelson Gonzalez.And he's got a partner who's not here. But think about this -- I want to tell you about Nelson's story. It's a story about two people who had a dream, and 10 years ago they sat in Nelson's garage talking about how to create a business. And they had $10,000 in capital to start their business. And so they decided to build high-performance custom-designed personal computers. That was their dream. First year, the revenues were $87,000, like they started getting moving. Last year, the revenue was $192 million. They went from two people sitting in a garage to employing 750 people. So the ports are making money,and the Secretary of COmmerce is looking into that. Michael - last one.

Q: Sir Immigration? Mexico has been giving problems? and Fedial Castro's health?

One of the serious issues we have, and one of the issues that the -- some of the leaders brought up yesterday was -- the guy said, we really shouldn't be in a position to be document verifiers. And when you make something illegal that people want, it's amazing what happens -- got a whole industry of smugglers and innkeepers and document forgers that sprung up. And so people show up and say, I want to work; the guy says, show me your document, and they don't know whether it's real or not. And we got a Basic Pilot program to help people verify whether documents are real.

But one way to do is if you have a temporary worker program, say, here's a tamper-proof card that will enable our employers to be able to verify whether someone is here legally to do work on a temporary basis, and enable the government to hold people to account for hiring illegal workers. See, it's against the law to hire somebody who is here illegally, and the American people expect us to enforce the law, and we will. But the system needs to be reformed.

I told the workers last night that there are about 11 million people here, more or less, who have been here for a while, that are building families, and they're good workers. And they said, what are you going to do about it? And I said, well, there's two extremes on this issue. One extreme is, kick them out, deport everybody. That's not going to work. It may sound like kind of an interesting sound byte, kind of a nice throwaway line, but it's not going to work. It's impractical.

The other option is to say, well, you're an automatic citizen. That's called amnesty. That won't work. And the reason that won't work is if you grant 8 million or 9 million people who are here illegally automatic citizenship, it means another 8 million or 9 million coming.

The best way to deal with this problem, in my judgment, is to say, look, you're here illegally, there's got to be a consequence. The consequence could be a penalty, a fine. It could be proof that you're not a criminal. In other words, there's got to be ways to say -- make restitution for society for breaking the law; but say to the person, you can get in the citizenship line, but at the back of the line, not at the beginning. See, there are people in line who want to become a citizen of the Fed. It doesn't make sense to penalize those who are here legally, playing by the rules, to let people who have been here illegally get ahead of them.

On Mr. Castro's health, well I have no comments. I think we have to just wait and see. Thankyou all and have a good week ahead.

END