SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The Secretary started out, after a brief
introduction by
Lord Robertson and by Papandreou -- they were the co-hosts. He
went through what
the military situation on the ground is very briefly, how
much effort we
make to avoid civilian casualties, how much we re sensitive to
the images on
television that are upsetting to European publics, and as
upsetting to us.
He
then talked briefly about the importance of the U.N., that there has to be a
partnership with
the U.N. We can t say when that will all start, but that we
look forward to
Kofi Annan appointing a coordinator or a representative of some
kind who can help
get the U.N. efforts started. He closed by saying that he
would be very
interested in hearing from all of his colleagues as to their
ideas about how to
move ahead on Iraq, how to move ahead on the Middle East. He
mentioned briefly
that the intention is that as soon as Abu Mazen gets his
thing confirmed
that the roadmap will be issued and a lot of work will begin to
implement the
roadmap.
He said that he
would be very interested in hearing what all the ideas are of
his colleagues
around the table, and that it s very important to look ahead to
how we can begin
working together on establishing democracy, rule of law, etc.,
etc. in Iraq and
not spend any time .
QUESTION: We re
back to Iraq now?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes.
QUESTION: That s
right. We know their ideas on the Middle East. We re talking
back to Iraq now,
right?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Sorry, right. I switched back to Iraq. And
how important it
was for us to look ahead on Iraq, to figure out all the ways
that we can work
together on Iraq and not spend any time debating the things
that divided us in
the past. He said that we will look to endorsement by
international
organizations, international authorities, the U.N., for an Iraqi
interim authority,
because of the importance of their being able to function as
part of the
international community.
Then, his
presentation was maybe 10 to 15 minutes. And then every single other
foreign minister
in the room spoke. Each one was meant to be brief. They were
fairly brief. And
to summarize, each one focused on the following: They focused
on, number one,
how glad they were that he took the initiative to come talk to
them, that they
thought it was not only a very important gesture but an
important way to
get the dialogue going again. They all emphasized the
importance of a
dialogue rather than a debate. That they appreciated his asking
them for their
views of how we might begin working together on Iraq. Virtually
every single one
of them said that they were very happy to hear that he
mentioned the
importance of a role for the U.N. They looked forward to talking
about that as the
situation develops so that we have a better sense of what
that would be.
And every single
one of them mentioned how important it was that the United
States was
committing to, not only issuing the roadmap, but working to
implement the
roadmap in the period ahead.
Those were the
major themes from each of them. There was a summing up at the
end in which the
Secretary said that one of the things he s taking away from
this is that as he
s listened to all the different ideas about the U.N. role,
that this is a
dialogue, that there have been no decisions made about what the
role of the U.N
is, since after all the U.N. isn t even sitting here. So we can
t make decisions
for them. They have to be part of the dialogue.
QUESTION: They
said that. Or the Secretary said that?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The Secretary said that. The Secretary said
that. The U.N. isn'
t sitting here. We can' t make decisions about the U.N. They're not here.
QUESTION: Apart
from saying that the U.N. should have a role, an important
role, did he
actually put any flesh on that and say what role and how it would
be related to the
...
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No.
QUESTION: He used
the word, partnership in his words?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes. Partnership with the U.N., important
role of the U.N.
What he said at the end is it' s important we not use words
that make it look
like we made a decision about what that role is exactly
because it s too
early to determine that, number one. And number two it cannot
be determined
without further discussions with the U.N. itself since Kofi Annan
himself doesn t
want to be the director of Iraq.
QUESTION:. I can
only think of two constructions of what you' re telling us that
the others said.
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Okay.
QUESTION: Either
that in two magical hours all the opposition to the U.S.
approach for
post-war Iraq is melted away. If that' s the spin you re trying to
give us, it ain' t
going to go down. The second construction that' s possible is
he didn' t ask for
any decision, that he made the point this is all preliminary
discussion.
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: That s right. That s exactly right.
QUESTION: We' ve
got to talk to the U.N. and, by the way, did he say when he s
going to see Kofi
Annan?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No.
QUESTION: Because
he told us he d see him soon.
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I don t know when he s going to see him. He
didn' t say.
QUESTION: So,
everything is sort of on hold?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: It s the beginning of a discussion. It s the
beginning of a
dialogue. Nothing is decided. At the end, he said he very much
appreciated all
the comments. He wanted to take them back to Washington for
discussion with
his cabinet colleagues, what their views are about the U.N.
But the critical
thing is nothing is decided. Too early to decide. Not
possible to
decide. But one of the ...
QUESTION:
Certainly outside of the U.N. it s too early?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Outside the U.N, certainly it s too early to
decide.
QUESTION: Did
anyone ask him what U.N. role he does envisage? Did they press
him on this point?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Partly because of the nature of the
discussion. He
speaks. They each speak. By then we re already way past time. So
he only had about
a minute to respond. So they presented their comments on what
he had said or on
what the others had said.
So there s a whole
range between us, which is why we need to talk to the U.N.,
about what kind of
role. Is there going to be a coordinator? Would that be a
good idea? How to
get the U.N. humanitarian workers in, because of the security
situation? How is
all that going to work, which the U.N. has to help us out
with? All the way
to, the U.N. has to be in charge.
QUESTION:
What about NATO peacekeepers?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Was there any talk of NATO peacekeepers?
QUESTION: Because
[Spanish Foreign Minister Ana] Palacio thought maybe it s
time to get into
it.
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I believe I'm correct in saying there was
zero talk of NATO
peacekeepers there. One or two might have said one thing to
keep in mind is
the U.N. has a role, the EU has a way of participating, NATO
might even have a
way of participating. But absolutely nothing except that.
That s the sort of
thing that could come up now, in the next bit [meeting].
QUESTION: Oh, what
s now?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Now [the next meeting] is NATO only.
QUESTION: What was
this earlier?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: This [previous meeting] was NATO and the EU
together.
QUESTION: And now
we re just going to have NATO?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: And now it' s just NATO.
QUESTION: On the
question of international endorsement of the interim
authority, how
much opposition was there?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: None. None. The way it was discussed ...
QUESTION: Was
there any support for it?
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The way most people discussed it, they all
said it was
important for the U.N. to participate, that the U.N. have a role.
And there are all
kinds of gradations of what that role could be. But, U.N.
endorsement, not
only of the Iraqi interim authority or whatever, but U.N.
endorsement of,
approval, participation there were all kinds of words used
for any
arrangement as there is a transition from the military to the civilian
authorities. Some
of the things that are obvious is that you have got to have a
U.N. authorized
way to sell the oil, so that there s ownership - legal
ownership - of the
oil under Oil for Food [program].
QUESTION: Did he
speak of the U.N. coordinator, which is what
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: He did mention the importance of a U.N.
representative or
U.N. coordinator I think he said U.N. coordinator. He said
we have to be
careful about what titles, because we don't want to use titles
that connote the
wrong thing. So I don t know what title it would have.
QUESTION: But some
U.N. ...
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Somebody that we can work with.
QUESTION: Was
there any talk of a conference in relation to the interim
authority in
Baghdad conference?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: There were a couple of references to Wouldn't it be a good
idea to have something like the Bonn conference?
QUESTION: Not from
him [Secretary Powell] though?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No.
QUESTION: On the
roadmap, I know how hell-bent they are. Oh yeah, I know where
they' re coming
from.
SENIOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Every one of them mentioned the roadmap. At
the end, in his
[Secretary Powell s] sum-up, he said I really appreciate the
support for the
roadmap, but please understand that it can t just be issued and
magical things
happen. And it s not going to be just imposed. It s going to
take a heck of a
lot of work to get the sides to implement the roadmap. But
President Bush has
committed to pushing very hard.
QUESTION: He and
Rice have said it s not negotiable. They ve already caved to
the Europeans. So
he s not pulling back on that?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No. He s not pulling back on that. And
several asked
about that. They said, Are you sure you mean it s not to be
negotiated? and he
said, It s going to be issued the way it is.
QUESTION: And then
implementing it is the serious ...
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Implementing is the serious issue and that s
why we ve asked
the Europeans for help with this.
QUESTION: In the
way it is?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes. In the way it is.
QUESTION: But with
this level of detail on the U.N. role, he s not going into
any more detail in
the bilats? Is that where he s giving ...
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: That s right. In the bilats he s giving
exactly the same
thing.
QUESTION: Okay.
QUESTION:
Humanitarian assistance? Anything specific?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Mostly the focus was on the importance of
humanitarian
assistance. In his presentation he talked about how much he
appreciates the
E.U. humanitarian money that s already been put forward by
Chris Patten, the
importance of getting the humanitarian assistance in, the
importance of the
U.N. security coordinator authorizing ...
QUESTION: But
nothing more specific in terms of (unintelligible) . . . clearing
mines?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No. There was no real discussion of any
specifics like
that. It was much more concept.
QUESTION: So
(unintelligible) will be provider of . . .
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Exactly.
QUESTION: I m not
trying to put words in your mouth but it sounds like there
was no assertion
of positions in any serious terms. It sounds rather amiable.
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The atmosphere was really good.
QUESTION: Are you
sure the French were there?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes. And the French were the same. Let s talk
about the future,
looking ahead, important to do that, atmosphere was good
because he came.
Because he took the initiative to talk to them. Because he
said that it s
important to get the roadmap out without it being renegotiated.
Because he said
that we want an important role for the U.N.
QUESTION: Oh, you'
re talking about
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: This is my why did it go well?
QUESTION: But on
Iraq, nobody said, Oh, you re rewarding the belligerents? Or
You re trying to
impose democracy on the back of a cruise missile? None of
this heated
nastiness?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: None. None.
QUESTION: That was
Ivanov, of course. But Chirac spoke of the belligerents
getting rewarded
by running Iraq?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: There was no talk like that.
QUESTION: No such
talk?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No talk like that at all. It was good. A lot
of work still to
do. That was the other thing. We have a lot of work to do.
QUESTION: What s
next date? Any ...
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, right now we have the NAC meeting, so
there will be a
lot more discussion of that kind of thing.
QUESTION: But he
hasn t said something like, I'll see you at the NATO spring
meeting, or maybe
something in between?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No. There was some talk of the U.S.-E.U.
summit, but that s
not until the end of June.
QUESTION: So he
didn' t set up for two weeks from now, huh?
SENIOR STATE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: No.
[End]
Released on April
3, 2003
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