Secretary Condoleezza Rice
En route Tel Aviv, Israel
March 29, 2008
On-the-Record Briefing En Route Tel Aviv, Israel
SECRETARY RICE: I will have an opportunity to meet with all my usual interlocutors. This time I'll meet Abu Mazen in
Jordan because that's where he is going to be, so I'll see the King of Jordan and Abu Mazen in Jordan.
I am looking forward to the opportunity to see President Olmert tonight. The purpose of this trip really is to continue
to work on the three major tracks of Annapolis, as well as on the Arab track to get the King of Jordan's advice and
counsel on how we continue to move the Arab support for the Annapolis process forward.
This time, I will spend a good deal of time on the issues concerning the West Bank and issues concerning the ability to
provide a better life for the people of the West Bank, including ways to improve movement and access in pursuance of
some of the economic projects that I know Tony Blair and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad would like to get going. You may
know that Defense Minister Barak and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad met last week to talk about some of the things that
might be done to make some really concrete progress on the ground, because I've become convinced that it's harder to
talk about movement and access just in general than to have rather specific ways to get certain economic projects going
and knowing what movement and access obstacles there are and then working on those obstacles. So that's the approach
that General Jones took when he was out here that he's now briefed to me and that I'm now going to follow up. I'll do
that in a trilateral format with Barak and Fayyad together with me, I think, tomorrow, is that trilateral.
The other element is to talk about how the negotiations are going. As I said to you before, they are doing those
quietly, below the radar screen. I think that's absolutely appropriate. And I'm not coming to insert American ideas into
this process. I think they're doing a lot of work on their own, but I do want to talk to them, get some sense of how
it's going, see where I can be helpful. But most importantly, this is an informal conversation with the two chief
negotiators, and I'll do that also in a trilateral format on Monday, in addition to my normal bilateral meetings with
all the parties. Obviously, we're continuing to try to find an answer for Gaza, where there needs to be an end to the
rocket attacks on Israel and where we need to find solutions, sustainable solutions, for the humanitarian situation for
the people of Gaza. So those are target questions and the way that we'll carry it out.
QUESTION: The second trilat is going to be with Foreign Minister Livni and Abu Ala; is that right? And do you have - you
know, you only have about a month and a half now before the President plans to come. What do you think it is possible to
achieve in that time? We're four months into this since Annapolis. There is not a lot that is tangible that has - you
know, that demonstrates progress either on the political side or on the, you know, Roadmap issue side. What, if
anything, do you need to get done in the next month and a half before he comes? Or is that not even a marker for you?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, certainly, we look forward to the President's trip. I want to underscore that the President is
also coming to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding and I don't want that to get lost, and clearly he's
conversations and discussions about the Annapolis issues and clearly, I think his being in the region will be an
opportunity. I think there has been a lot of work that has gone up to this point. You have progress when you have
progress. One of the problems is that I don't think you can try and keep a scorecard every day of what is happening. One
of the places that I think we really do need to see, something of a step-wise functional improvement is on the West Bank
movement and access issues, the ability to start to get some of these economic projects from Tony Blair, not in place,
because some of them are quite large, but to really clear away the obstacles to them and to get agreement between the
parties on how that piece of Annapolis is going to go forward. So the improvement of life on the ground is the piece
that has to be pushed forward pretty hard.
QUESTION: What specifically do you hope, do you think that you may get moving in terms of that, in terms of making it
easier?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, I'll have a better --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY RICE: -- a better answer for you tomorrow on that, but General Jones came out and spent a lot of time with all
the parties. And I - we've known and thought for some time that part of the problem is to be pretty concrete and
specific about what you're trying to do in a specific area, what economic projects you're trying to put there, what
Palestinian security forces are available in that area to take the transfer of Palestinian authority, of Palestinian
security forces, in the way that was done in Nablus, forward. Because if you think about it, that gets at one element of
the Roadmap, which is increasing Palestinian security, competence, and authority, and it begins to get at the questions
of improvement of movement and access and economic life for people.
And so to start to move forward concretely in some areas on those, and so to be able to be more specific about what
movement and access obstacles there are and to work on those. Think of them as ways to move forward, areas that might be
able to move on both security and on economic development.
QUESTION: What's the word that you're using before "access," I can't --
SECRETARY RICE: Movement and access.
QUESTION: Movement?
SECRETARY RICE: Yeah.
QUESTION: What about actual removal of checkpoints? Is that something that you think is possible? Are the Israelis
getting ready to do that despite the risks?
SECRETARY RICE: I certainly want to take a look at that. Obviously, there are security issues, but we do have to find
ways to improve movement. There are obstacles that are not checkpoints and then there are checkpoints that are obstacles
and I think you have to look at both.
QUESTION: You've said that you are not asking to insert American ideas, but you are doing a back and forth between Abbas
and Olmert, which is rather unusual, so I wanted to know if you have a special documents, or something special you want
their approval on?
SECRETARY RICE: I'm not bringing the "American paper." Because I don't think that is useful. What is useful right now is
for the parties to continue what I think is a pretty fruitful discussions and the only reason we are going back and
forth is that it gives you an opportunity to go back and forth and to hear ideas and to hear ideas and to hear ideas and
to hear ideas, and to the degree that I can help them to see where the shape of this might be going, then I'm happy to
do that.
QUESTION: You said earlier that, obviously, part of you're doing this weekend is continuing to try to find an answer to
the situation in Gaza. What sort of things are you exploring? Are you getting more involved in the whole idea of a
ceasefire or what?
SECRETARY RICE: No. I think, though, that there are questions about how humanitarian access could be more sustainable,
how the Palestinian Authority might have more of a role in providing for the people of Gaza. You know that we supported,
for instance, Salam Fayyad's ideas sometime ago, the Quartet did, on, I think, what could be done about getting back to
- not the full November 2005 agreement, but something that might take elements of the 2005 agreement help in the
management of crossings, that kind of thing.
Okay? I'll talk to you again.
QUESTION: Did Sylvie ask about Jordan?
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY RICE: No, no.
QUESTION: So what kind of --
SECRETARY RICE: (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: Can I just say something about the King?
SECRETARY RICE: Yeah, I just said that I thought it was important to keep in contact with our key Arab allies who are
the supporters of the Annapolis process, because we don't want to lose that thread, which is why I'm spending this time
with the King of Jordan. If you remember the last time I was here, I spent some time with Mubarak, and so I just think
that's very important as well.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY RICE: But remember that one of the important precepts of the Annapolis process is the Arabs have got to be
involved in this, partners in this, and so I think it's just really important that on any occasion that we have, we have
a chance to do this.
Okay?
2008/T11-1
Released on March 29, 2008