(Editor's Note: The U.S. State Department released today the transcript of a July 25 interview of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by Samir Nader of Radio Sawa, a U.S.-funded Arab-language station based in Washington DC and Dubai)
 

SECRETARY RICE: It's good to be with you.

QUESTION: To make it brief, you are going to the Middle East with Secretary Gates and it seems now it's a new situation, and especially you are going after the visit of the Iranian President to Syria, reaffirming his alliance with President Assad. What's on your mind? What would you like to achieve in this visit?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, first, it's to go and to talk with our friends and allies in the region and to make very clear that the United States is going to be very strong in its commitments to a Middle East that is transforming, a Middle East that is secure and a Middle East that is stable. And we will talk both about our important bilateral defense relationships, but also about the important political relationships that we have with allies in the region.

We will obviously talk about Lebanon, about Iraq, about Afghanistan, areas of concern where there has been some progress but where we need to make more progress.

QUESTION: You and the President, you spoke new language on asking Israel to end occupation. Do you think this will convince the Saudis to be a more active player in the coming international meeting that you are going to host?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I certainly hope that all interested states, states that are devoted to the two-state solution, will look favorably on the international meeting that the President will call. We have work to do. There's preparation to do. There are no invitations that have gone out yet and I want to talk to our allies in the region and our friends in the region about how they see and what they would see to be a useful international meeting.

But the President is just following in the very important tradition that he's begun. He was the first to call, as a matter of policy, for a Palestinian state, for a two-state solution. He was stating very clearly that Israel's future will rest in Israel, in places like Galilee and in the Negev, and that the occupation of the West Bank will have to end and a Palestinian state will need to be established.

QUESTION: How do you feel about the Arab League first visit to Israel today? Are you pleased with this?

SECRETARY RICE: This is a very important step forward -- the Arab League's visit. It is a very good thing that the Arab League is following up on the Arab peace initiative that was reissued, in a sense, at Riyadh. It is a very good thing that Egypt and Israel are going -- Egypt and Jordan are going to Israel.

I hope that there will be more Arab states that will --

QUESTION: The Saudis?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes, well, all Arab states that will take advantage of this opening to develop an Israeli-Arab track to go alongside and to support the Israeli-Palestinian track.

                                       ________________________

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The Jewish Grapevine

WASHINGTON, DC (Press Release) –  Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA) secured $300,000 in federal funding to replace aging buses in San Diego’s public bus system.  The funding was included in the transportation spending bill passed Tuesday night in the House.  She also obtained $150,000 for the Veterans Village of San Diego

San Diego's Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) has 89 buses that have reached the end of their lives, and replacing these vehicles will curb operating costs and allow MTS to maintain adequate service, reduce operating costs associated with maintaining service, and to provide system reliability that is essential for expansion of transit use. 

The new buses would replace diesel-powered buses with compressed natural gas buses, which would enhance the region’s air quality, and help the region to achieve its goal of 100% alternatively fueled vehicles.

“With global warming and reducing our nation’s carbon footprint in the spotlight, this funding will help San Diego make a difference with a cleaner fleet of public buses,” said Davis.  “But this is more than an environmental improvement.  It will be an upgrade for San Diego’s transportation infrastructure.”

H.R. 3074 passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 268-153.  The bill moves to the Senate.

The Veterans Village of San Diego (VVSD) will get federal funding to help veterans recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.  Davis secured $150,000 for the construction of long-term living units at the VVSD.

“The Veterans Village of San Diego will be able to increase their ability to help veterans in need start a new life,” said Davis, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.  “These men and women answered when their country called and it only makes sense that their country helps them in a time of need.  I am proud to help obtain federal funds for the quality work this dedicated organization does in our community.”

The funding will help VVSD construct apartments for those who recently graduated from the facility’s drug rehab center.  Those struggling to overcome their addictions will have the opportunity to live in the units for an extended period of time.  The apartments are within close proximity of the support and counseling certain veterans need to remain drug and alcohol free.

The federal funding was included in a larger spending bill (H.R. 3074) for housing programs.  The bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 263-158.  It now moves to the Senate.

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The Jewish Sports Fan

We found it troubling that some of the most democratic members of the Council supported these measures in order to achieve consensus on the seriously flawed institution-building package. We were particularly disturbed that the decision was made to deny Canada and other allies their procedural rights to call for a vote on the package.

The Commission was a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council and the regional distribution of its 53 seats reflected that organization’s slight Latin American, Eastern Europe, and Western Group majority. The Human Rights Council, however, is a subsidiary of the General Assembly, and its geographic distribution mirrors the substantial Asian and African membership of its parent body. In its first year, twenty-eight of the Council’s 47 seats were held by members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a group that typically supports economic, social and cultural rights over civil and political liberties.

Seventeen of the NAM members were also members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The decision of the NAM-dominated membership to make Israel the primary focus of the Council’s scrutiny has done much to undercut its credibility. The Council’s membership includes some members that routinely violate the rights of their citizens, such as Cuba. We have been clear from the beginning that the credibility of the Council would depend on its ability to act on the most egregious cases of human rights abuse globally – to make a difference for the victims of abuse. We are deeply disappointed in the Council’s failure to act to hold to account governments that systematically abuse their people.

We believe that the primary responsibility for these failures of the Human Rights Council lies with Member States, rather than the UN as an institution. In the words of one former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, “Blaming ‘the United Nations’ for what happens inside the talk palaces on the East River is like blaming Madison Square Garden for a poor showing by the New York Knicks.” The United Nations deliberative bodies reflect the views of Member States who send their ambassadors instructions.

As one positive outcome of this first year, some of our traditional allies have correctly pointed to the Universal Periodic Review, during which the Council will evaluate the human rights record of each United Nations member state. However, there are some real risks that this process will not work as intended. The cumbersome review process will take at least four years for the Council to review all Member States, and no special importance will be attached to reviewing the governments with the worst human rights records. Norway will be as high a priority as Sudan. Even more important, the quality of the review process and the final decisions that will result from the reviews will be constrained by the extent to which HRC members are committed to putting human rights principles above international politics.

We hope to be wrong in our skepticism about the Council’s future. We hope that Council members, especially the nearly one half of the members that are democracies with good domestic human rights records, will stand up for our shared values at the Council and work to set it on the right track. However, based on what we have seen to date and the underlying structural flaws in the way the Council was created, we cannot be optimistic. We believe the UN should take a leading role in human rights work, but we have serious questions about the Human Rights Council’s ability to contribute materially to such work.

We therefore need to redouble our efforts in other multilateral fora. There are many important ways for the U.S. to engage in multilateral human rights through the UN. Among them are direct technical assistance to strengthen institutions in developing countries and human rights monitoring and training. We have supported increased resources for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to increase cooperative technical assistance to Member States. It can be far more cost-effective to provide support for fieldwork rather than for a Geneva-based bureaucracy. For example, the UN Secretariat’s Electoral Assistance Division has done good work worldwide in election monitoring and training. UN officials lent logistical and strategic support to over twenty elections in the last year and a half alone, including in Afghanistan, the Palestinian Authority, Iraq, and Burundi.

We also remain hopeful that the General Assembly’s Third Committee can play a constructive role. In both 2005 and 2006, the Committee passed strong resolutions condemning some of the world’s worst violators. We will work with allies to focus on key priorities, in particular on abuses the Council has failed to address.

Additionally, we will strengthen coalitions with our allies as well as encourage better regional partnerships. With the Ministerial-level conference being held in Bamako, Mali in 2007, the Community of Democracies has the potential to become a more robust organization. The U.S. is deeply engaged in the human rights work of organizations such as the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. This year we increased outreach to the African Union on human rights issues. And, we are in the initial stages of establishing a similar forum for Asian countries to focus on democracy promotion.

As we have seen, the Human Rights Council is a troubled organization that increasingly appears unable to carry out its mandate to promote and protect human rights around the world. We must redouble our efforts to work in effective fora on behalf of the world’s vulnerable people.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, this meeting will be, as the President said, an opportunity to review our progress. It will be an opportunity to make commitments to support the Israelis and Palestinians in their discussions, in their future negotiations. But one of the reasons that I'm going to go to the region now is to consult with people on how to put this meeting together.

The United States doesn't want Made-in-America solutions. We need the entire population of states that are devoted to the two-state solution to work with us. And so these will be very important consultations.

QUESTION: I have to ask you a question about Lebanon. September is the time for the election of a new president. What can you do to help the Lebanese avoid a crisis and elect a president according to the constitution? And are you coordinating with the French on this issue?

SECRETARY RICE: We are, of course, coordinating with all of our partners concerning Lebanon and especially the French, where U.S.-French coordination has been very helpful in, first: getting Security Council resolutions that got Syria out of Lebanon, get its forces out of Lebanon; in getting the resolution that established the tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri. So yes, we're coordinating very closely.

But the United States is also working very closely with the Lebanese Government, the legitimate Lebanese Government. That means in terms of economic assistance, political support, and indeed in helping, as a part of an international effort, to help the Lebanese security forces reform and become more capable. I would like to say it is a little more than a year since the war in Lebanon began in July -- on July 12th of last year. And that was a terrible experience for the Lebanese people, a terrible experience for the region and a terrible experience for the world.

But I think nobody would have expected that the Lebanese army would now be deployed throughout the country for the first time in decades, that the Lebanese army would be taking on extremists in the Palestinian camps, and yet committing to the future a better life for the people who had lived there. The Lebanese Government has done some very extraordinary work and we should recognize that.

QUESTION: There's rumors that you may visit Libya in September. Today, the French President is visiting. Can -- is this true or just --

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don't have any dates or plans, but I certainly hope to visit Libya. Libya made an important strategic decision to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction. As a result, it has put itself on a path that is leading to investment in Libya by Western companies which could not invest there before. I know that American companies are very interested in working in Libya. And so I certainly hope -- and we, by the way, are -- have appointed an ambassador to Libya. So I sincerely hope that I will be able to visit there soon.

QUESTION: There's lots of speculation in Washington, I hear, from many people that President Bush will never leave the White House without deterring Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. What do you say about this?

SECRETARY RICE: I would say that the President is committed to a diplomatic solution because we believe diplomacy can work. We are working very closely with our allies, working very closely with the UN Security Council Permanent Five as well as the elected members. We've had two Security Council resolutions on Iran. There is a growing course of financial institutions and private companies that will not do business with Iran, because Iran is in that terrible category now of being under a Chapter 7 resolution and a lot of private enterprises don't want to do work because of the reputational risk and the investment risk. We're going to continue to pursue our options within the Security Council and also with those who wish to tighten their -- the financial sanctions and financial measures against Iran even if it's outside the Security Council.

QUESTION: Can I ask about the Wall Street article? There was a report yesterday that Syria is grabbing territory from Lebanese land, like about 4 percent equal to Arizona, and they are not helping, according to the UN envoy, in the demarcation of the Shebaa Farms. How do you view these problems?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes, well, I can't comment on the specific article, but I can tell you that I have never seen Syria do anything helpful for Lebanon. They occupied Lebanon, they have tried to keep their influence there. They have tried to intimidate Lebanon and its leaders. And we know that the UN is now working on the Shebaa Farms issue. We look forward to that report.

But Syria should begin by what was required of it in Resolution 1559: demarcate the border with Lebanon, treat Lebanon like an independent state, a sovereign state, send an ambassador to Beirut. These would be positive signs that Syria understands that Lebanon is not a client of Syria; it is a proud and sovereign, independent state with proud and sovereign people who want nothing but to control their own future in a democratic way.

QUESTION: There is -- do you recognize the Rabin deposit? The Syrians -- Assad gave a speech last week, put a condition that any negotiation with Israel -- Israel should recognize the Rabin deposit that Secretary Christopher --

SECRETARY RICE: No, this is just Syria, again, playing games. I'm quite certain that when Syria shows that it is prepared to engage in policies that are stabilizing to the Middle East, that -- rather than destabilizing, when it stops allowing foreigners to -- foreign terrorists to come across its territory into Iraq, when it stops intimidating the Lebanese, when it stops engaging in activities in the Palestinian territories that are opposite of what is needed for a two-state solution, that it will be entirely possible for Syria to promote its own interests in a stable Middle East.

But while the United States has no problem if Syria and Israel wish to seek peace, and I just want to be very clear, the United States is not standing in the way of Syria and Israel seeking peace. But Syria -- it is Syria's behavior that has kept it isolated.

QUESTION: If we could -- something for history. There are so many books written about you. What would you like to be remembered by at State Department?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I'll worry about history a little bit later. I've still got 17 months of very intensive work. I hope that in the Middle East we can make real progress on helping the forces of moderation in the Middle East, helping democratic forces in the Middle East. You know, the Middle East is a wonderful region with energetic people, people who are proud, people who want the best for their children. They don't want to live in a world in which young people are encouraged to be suicide bombers. I believe that the people of the Middle East want a better and more prosperous future.

And in the next 17 months, I expect to be fully devoted to that: to helping the Palestinians get at least closer to statehood so that Israel and Palestine can live side by side, helping Lebanon to continue its progress toward democracy and sovereignty, to helping the people of Iraq to put aside their differences and build stability, and to doing what the United States has always tried to do, which is to stand for principle and to help friends who want nothing but a better and more democratic life.

QUESTION: I wish you a successful trip, and thank you so much.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. It was great to be with you.