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Gibbs says U.S. involvement key to any Mideast peace progress
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Press Release)--Following are excerpts of comments made by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday, August 17, during a briefing of news media flying on President Barack Obama's plane from the West back to Andrews Air Force Base.
Q Swapping topics a little bit to tomorrow. What does the President hope to achieve with his meeting with Mubarak?
MR. GIBBS: Look, again, I think this is continuing our outreach in the Middle East. Again, I don't want to get ahead of what the President will tell Mubarak. But I think obviously each country in the region on either side of this issue has certain responsibilities to uphold as we make progress toward a lasting peace in the Middle East. And without a recognition of those responsibilities it's going to be hard to move forward. So I think the President will take some time to talk through that.
Q Anything else specifically that he wants to discuss?
MR. GIBBS: Well, let me -- let me just leave at that, then we'll have -- you guys will have a chance to talk to them tomorrow afternoon.
Q More broadly, sort of six months from sort of starting his Middle East peace push, how does the President feel things are sort of developing? It seems we've gone to a situation now where the Arabs are telling the Israelis, you've got to go first, and the Israelis are telling the Arabs, you've got to go first. Is there any way you can sort of unblock that situation?
MR. GIBBS: Well, look, I think -- I think most Middle East observers will tell you that progress on this issue is not going to be made unless or until there's sustained involvement by the United States; that if we look back at progress that has been made, it's generally been with the involvement of the United States, because we all understand it's in our national interest.
I think the President talked throughout -- has talked throughout his time in public life as saying that most of all, what we have to have is have that sustained engagement that allows the two parties to work with each other and make progress. And without it, what happens, we tend to see -- we tend to see the absence of that progress.
And I think instead of -- instead of waiting until the end of a certain term or a certain time to have that engagement, the President's plan is to -- was to do that from the very beginning, and I think you saw that in the phone calls that he made the very first full day -- his very first full day in office. We'll continue to do that.
Q Has he spoken to Mubarak since the June meeting?
MR. GIBBS: I don't believe he has but I will double-check. I don't believe he has since then. They haven't -- I mean, they haven't spoken on the phone, I should say.
Q How else --
MR. GIBBS: Well, they could communicate.
Q He's got the e-mail address.
Q Yes.
MR. GIBBS: You could write a letter.
Q Does he have the BlackBerry --
Q Does he have the e-mail address?
MR. GIBBS: Not that I'm aware of, no. Just by letter.
Q So you'll let us know if any communication has --
MR. GIBBS: Yes, well, I'll double check with those guys.
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Q What's the format for tomorrow, is it -- with Mubarak? Is it the usual one-on-one, expanded delegations, lunch, that kind of thing?
MR. GIBBS: I believe so. I don't -- I have not seen the full itinerary, but I don't know why that would be different. And then I don't know where we're doing the spray with the questions, but we'll have all that information out for you guys either in tonight's guidance or first thing tomorrow morning.
State Department again presses Iran on missing American hikers
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)--Following are excerpts from a press briefing conducted Monday, August 17, by Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley, beginning with his opening statement:
MR. CROWLEY: Good afternoon and welcome to the Department of State. Secretary Clinton just finished an hour-long meeting with President Mubarak of Egypt, who is obviously in town to meet tomorrow with President Obama, his first trip to Washington in five years. It was a wide-ranging discussion befitting the strategic partnership between Egypt and the United States. They obviously compared notes on the status of efforts by the United States and others to resume a negotiation between Israel and Palestine as part of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. They talked about a range of regional issues, including the situation in Iran, the situation in Sudan where both Egypt and the United States have a significant interest in both improving the situation in Darfur but also moving towards implementation of the CPA. Talked also about the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan as we approach elections in Afghanistan on Thursday, and on the bilateral side, a variety of issues, including economics and trade, educational opportunities, human rights and democracy in Egypt.
A couple of statements this afternoon from Secretary Clinton. I’ll highlight a couple. But the United States joins leaders of all communities in Iraq in condemning the bombings that have been – have taken place over the past several weeks in various places across Iraq. In particular, we condemn the repeated targeting of Shia places of worship and, mostly recently, ethnic Shabak and Yezidi villages in Nineveh province. These attacks are reprehensible acts of extremists who continue to attempt to ignite violence between people who desire to live in peace, despite being of different sectarian and ethnic groups. We reiterate the Iraqi Government’s call that these individuals and groups responsible for these horrific acts will be pursued and brought to justice in accordance with Iraqi law.
Secretary Clinton finishes up by offering thoughts and prayers to the injured and the families of those innocent Iraqis killed in these attacks.
And just calling your attention, over the weekend, the Secretary also had an announcement just to reiterate our concern about the welfare of American citizens who have been detained or are missing in Iran. And once again, we call on the Iranian leadership to quickly resolve all outstanding American citizen cases, and that would include Kian Tajbakhsh, Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer, Sharah Shourd and Robert Levinson.
This weekend, we also had some terrible news, the passing of Ken Bacon, the president of Refugees International, and I think this is also felt here in the room. Obviously, he started with the Wall Street Journal many years ago before becoming spokesman for the Department of Defense, and then a tireless advocate for refugees around the world. But we will miss him greatly.
And finally a Media Note that Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration will be traveling to Sudan, Ethiopia, and Egypt between August 17 and August 24. Obviously, he will be in Southern Sudan to continue working on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the CPA. He will be in Addis Ababa for talks with leadership of key Darfuri armed movements on unification efforts in support of the Doha peace process, and will meet in Egypt with some regional leaders to talk about preparations for various steps that will be coming up in the CPA process.
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QUESTION: What prompted the – what prompted the statement on Iran and the detained or missing U.S. citizens? Was there any reason why it – you put it out when you did?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, we have – I think we just tied together a number of threads that we have been concerned about. Obviously, we have the most recent case involving the three Americans who wandered across the border from Iraq. On that situation, we continue to demand that the Swiss be given consular access to these three individuals.
QUESTION: Well, I’m just asking – I mean, was it an anniversary or something or was there a --
MR. CROWLEY: No.
QUESTION: -- an important date or something coming up?
MR. CROWLEY: No, nope. It’s just ongoing concern about the status of Americans in that country.
QUESTION: Okay. And then on the Mubarak meeting --
MR. CROWLEY: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: Was the Secretary able to get any assurances from the Egyptians on taking incremental steps towards normalizing relations with Israel?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, of course, Egypt isn’t a --
QUESTION: No, but I realize that they have a peace deal with --
MR. CROWLEY: I think, obviously, they compare notes. We have ongoing consultations with the parties in the region. So do the Egyptians. I think it was an effort to compare notes not only on where we feel the parties are but what they’re prepared to do. As we have said, we’re trying to work hard to create conditions for a negotiation to continue, and we hope to have this phase, this process, completed in the next few weeks.
QUESTION: Right. But is Egypt going to use its influence with Arab countries that do not have relations with Israel to push them to take these internal measures?
MR. CROWLEY: I believe that the United States shared a view that we have to have parallel steps here, that the – and I think they shared the view that, obviously, as the Israelis focus on settlements, as the Palestinians strengthen their position and take steps to improve the security situation, improve the stability in the areas that they control, work on ending incitement to violence, and that we agree that there will need to be steps by Arab countries to – gestures that move towards normalization of relations between Israel and the rest of the region.
QUESTION: Thank you. Thanks. Can you expand a bit on Scott Gration’s trip to Sudan? He made some comments relatively recently that struck many, talking about how sanctions perhaps aren’t making his job very easy, and talking about the nature of the genocide or not-genocide in Darfur.
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Do you think that he’s going to be pushing a new type of policy or any sort of new type of engagement with Sudan once he’s there?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, I think we are getting close to the point where we will announce the – a new policy approach on Sudan. I would expect that in the next couple of weeks. Also, I think you’ll see the fruits of General Gration’s labor emerge here very shortly.
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QUESTION: You did say he was not going to Khartoum, so he’s not expected to –
MR. CROWLEY: I’m not aware that he’s going to Khartoum.
QUESTION: So he doesn’t plan to meet with any members of the Bashir side of government?
MR. CROWLEY: He may meet with members of the government while in Egypt.
QUESTION: Of Southern Sudan?
MR. CROWLEY: I think that’s what we had in our announcement.
In Egypt, he will meet not only with Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit, but also Sudanese Presidential Advisor Ghazi Salahuddin, Libyan Secretary of the General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation Musa Kusa, and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.
So General Gration, in the conduct of his duties, does meet with officials of the Sudanese Government, as you would expect in terms of dealing with them on a range of issues, both what’s happening in Darfur and with the North-South dialogue. He will not meet with President Bashir.
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QUESTION: Hi. You mentioned that – (inaudible). You mentioned that during the talks between Secretary Clinton and President Hosni Mubarak at 1 o’clock today in Washington, there was mention – they talked about democracy and human rights in Egypt. What does the United States think of democracy and the human rights record in Egypt?
MR. CROWLEY: This is an ongoing source of concern to the United States. It is part of our dialogue, ongoing dialogue, with Egypt. It is something that we raise in every high-level meeting that we have. We would like to see Egypt embark on
a path to expand political dialogue in its country, expand political participation in the Egyptian political process. And we will continue to raise these issues with Egypt.
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QUESTION: On tomorrow’s talks between President Obama and President Mubarak, can you tell us anything about what will be happening?
And the second question is – I called the White House this morning, and I was told that they will not – there won’t be a press conference. Why is it sometimes there is a press conference with – when there is a, you know, president coming to visit the United States and have talks with the President, and sometimes not?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, I’ll comment on the first part.
QUESTION: Please.
MR. CROWLEY: I’ll defer to the White House on the second part. But obviously, reflecting – the Secretary met with President Mubarak today. She will be involved with the President in the meetings tomorrow. And I would expect that the discussion tomorrow will very much track their discussion today, not only the status of the Middle East peace process, what we’re trying to do, what Egypt is also doing in the region in support, other regional, bilateral issues. I think that probably the current situation in the region, be it the global economic situation may well come up, but I’ll defer to the White House in terms of the specific agenda.
QUESTION: Yeah, just a last – just a last question. You said that you will – for the second part of my question, you will refer me to the White House. But when I called this morning the Egyptian Embassy, they said that it will be hard for you to attend the meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel because the media attendance will be determined by the Egyptian Government, so it won’t be – it was not open for everyone?
MR. CROWLEY: Are you talking about today?
QUESTION: Yes, for today.
MR. CROWLEY: Well, today, the media rules for today’s meeting were set by the Egyptian Government.
QUESTION: Why is that?
MR. CROWLEY: Because they’re – the meeting was happening, in essence, on their turf.
QUESTION: Okay. So it was initiated by the Egyptian Government?
MR. CROWLEY: Yes.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. CROWLEY: But I mean, there’s a protocol aspect. We have the President meeting with the Secretary of State, and the President gets to --
QUESTION: Let me ask you a question, P.J. Are you saying that the Four Seasons is Egyptian sovereign territory? (Laughter.) Well, I mean, just because a head of state is staying in a hotel, does that mean that that facility --
MR. CROWLEY: I think the Egyptians have a fine embassy, which is sovereign Egyptian territory.
Jewish leadership reproaches Mubarak for hosting Bashir
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WJC)—A hundred rabbis and Jewish organizational leaders from North America have signed a letter reproaching the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for hosting his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir in Cairo. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in connection with the genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
The letter, organized by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, was handed Sunday to the Egyptian Embassy in Washington. "As Jewish leaders living in the aftermath of the Holocaust, we are keenly aware of the need for swift action against the perpetrators of genocide. Bashir should be brought to justice, not treated as if he is a respected international leader," it read.
The letter comes on the eve of Mubarak's visit to Washington. The White House wants Egypt to help press the Palestinians back to the table and to persuade other Arab nations to make conciliatory gestures to Israel. In Washington, Mubarak was to meet with US Jewish leaders.
In an interview with the newspaper ‘al-Ahram’ said the Arab experience with stalled peace talks in the wake of the 1991 Madrid peace conference "did not encourage" taking steps towards normalization with Israel. "I affirmed to President Obama in Cairo that the Arab initiative offers recognition of Israel and normalisation with it after, and not before, achieving a just and comprehensive peace. I told him that some Arab states which had mutual trade representation offices with Israel could consider reopening those offices if Israel commits to stopping settlement and resumes final status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority where they left off with Olmert's government," Mubarak told the newspaper.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WJC)—Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren said Sunday Israel was not mulling a military strike in Iran. In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Oren was asked if Israel would attack the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities by the end of 2009, as the former American UN ambassador John Bolton's had predicted. He replied: "I don't think it's true, I think that we are far from even contemplating such things right now."
Oren added that Israel was “greatly comforted” by Obama’s September deadline for Iran: “We actually have a date when it's going to occur. We are confident by the fact that the [Obama] administration, in the aftermath of recent events in Iran, has exhibited greater willingness to consider formulating a package of serious sanctions against Iran, even now in advance of the reassessment."
JERUSALEM (WJC)—The Israeli Jew Uri Davis, a sociology professor at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, has been elected to 128-member Revolutionary Council of Fatah. He is the first Jew ever to become a member of the Palestinian movement’s leadership. Davis was one of nearly 700 candidates.
Davis, who is married to a Palestinian woman, is an outspoken critic of what he calls Israel's "apartheid policies." He called for an international campaign to boycott Israel to be toughened up. Davis said he did not define himself as Jewish but as "a Palestinian Hebrew national of Jewish origin, anti-Zionist, registered as Muslim and a citizen of an apartheid state – the State of Israel".
The election results showed at least 70 new members entering the Revolutionary Council, with members from the Gaza Strip winning 20 seats and women winning 11.. Christian members won four seats.
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