For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 19, 2006
Press Briefing by Deputy National Security Advisor and Senior NSC Directors on the President's Bilateral Meetings
Press Filing Center
Algonquin Hotel
New York, New York
5:43 P.M. EDT
PARTICIPANTS
Meghan O'Sullivan, Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan
Mike Kozak, NSC, Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Organizations
Judy Ansley, NSC, Senior Director for European Affairs
MR. JONES: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome. I have with me three
Senior Directors from the -- and one National Security Advisor from the
National Security Council here to brief on the President's meetings that
they attended today. I have with me Mr. Mike Kozak, who is Senior Director
for Global Democratization at the National Security Council; Ms. Meghan
O'Sullivan, who is Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and
Afghanistan; and Ms. Judy Ansley, who is Senior Director for European
Affairs at the National Security Council. We'll go in chronological order
and Ms. Ansley will discuss the Chirac bilateral meeting.
MS. ANSLEY: Thanks, Fred.
The President met this morning with French President Jacques Chirac. It
was a very good meeting, very constructive; actually ran a bit longer than
it was scheduled. They met for about an hour and 20 minutes. They covered
a wide range of strategic issues.
On Iran, they both discussed the importance of preventing Iran from
acquiring a nuclear weapon, and they both spoke about their desire to solve
the issue diplomatically.
On Lebanon, the President thanked President Chirac for French leadership in
resolving issues in Lebanon and for their troop contributions to UNIFIL.
They also discussed Darfur. They both share a concern with the ongoing
situation there. They both talked about a need to stop the suffering.
President Chirac has announced that he will make a formal appeal to
President Bashir to accept a U.N. force in Darfur.
A number of other issues -- they talked about Syria and the
Israel-Palestine situation. Overall, a very good meeting, very
constructive talks about how to jointly approach all of these issues. I
think I'll leave it there and just take questions at the appropriate time.
MR. JONES: Actually, let's do it right now --
MS. ANSLEY: You want to do these now? Yes, please.
Q Can I ask right off the bat if it was -- there were constructive talks
on Iran? How is it President Chirac, an hour or so after saying in the
presence of President Bush that they were totally on the same on Iran, then
went out and said that setting a timetable, any timetable -- suggesting
even the August 31st timetable for sanctions is counterproductive?
MS. ANSLEY: They didn't have a discussion that talked about that timetable
within the meeting, but they did agree on the need, or the desire to go
with a diplomatic approach, if that's possible. President Chirac has
historically not liked sanctions, he's very up front about that. He
doesn't think that they're effective. However, he has not taken them off
the table, including in the Iran case, if that's the option that ends up
being the one that people choose if negotiations don't succeed. What he
talked about is trying to see if there was a framework where negotiations
could go forward.
As you know, Solana, with the EU, is in talks with Larijani to see if there
isn't a way you can go forward on the basis of suspension for suspension.
In other words, you start the negotiations, the Iranians agree to suspend
their enrichment activities, and in exchange, the U.N. will agree to
suspend activities at the Security Council as negotiations go forward. In
assuming that negotiations can go forward on that basis, then we wouldn't
have to deal with the issue of sanctions at this point.
Q At the press conference, the French President seemed to be saying that
all six parties should first start together. He didn't seem to buy into
the President's formulation of, you know, talks by the EU, suspension and
the U.S. comes in. He seemed to be setting out a slightly different kind
of scenario.
MS. ANSLEY: The way he talked about it, I saw as being consistent with
what was discussed in the meeting, which was discussion of the six, if the
U.S. wanted to participate. And if the U.S. did not want to, then the EU3
and the other two if they chose to be a part of it -- this initial round of
discussions to get the negotiations going, they do it that way. And the
President made clear that he was not comfortable with being involved in the
first part.
As we've said all along, we will join the negotiations when Iran suspends.
So once you get to that point, we'll join the negotiations.
Q The President, in his speech, said that if the government of Sudan
doesn't accept a peacekeeping force, then the U.N. is going to have to act.
Didn't specify what that meant. Did that come up in the meeting with
President Chirac? Was there any more clarity on what that action would look
like?
MS. ANSLEY: It did come up in the meeting with Chirac, and the President
did say that we'd have to act, but no specifics were discussed.
That's it? Okay -- oh, I'm sorry.
Q Just one other thing. Why did the meeting go on longer than expected?
MS. ANSLEY: They had a lot of things to talk about. That's -- really,
they had a lot of items on the agenda, and they were having good
discussions, and the time just went on.
Q Did the President ask -- did our President ask the French President
about the comments that have been reported in the papers yesterday? Did he
--
MS. ANSLEY: Oh, sure, yes.
Q And what did -- how did Chirac explain it to the President?
MS. ANSLEY: They had a discussion about where they each were on the issue
of Iran and whether any positions had changed on that. Yes, they did have
a discussion, and I think that the way the things were reported in the
press were not quite the way that Chirac had -- not quite what his position
was. I think if you do a full reading of what Chirac said, even in his
interview yesterday, you'll see that there was some quoting that made it
look like there had been a change in position. But there really had been
no change in position, which is why, at the end of the meeting, they felt
-- and even during the meeting, they felt that they were still very much on
the same -- on the same wavelength on how to proceed.
Q Did the fact that they do seem to be of different minds over
sanctions, is that an accurate way to see it? Chirac did not, today,
mention the word, "sanctions" during his address to the United Nations.
He's saying there shouldn't be a timetable. So are they at least at odds
on the sanctions question?
MS. ANSLEY: No, I think that they -- there's an agreement that if you have
to go to sanctions, then we'll go to sanctions, or if they talked about
sanctions in the meeting today, as well. I think that Chirac's comments are
-- he's more talking about what he thinks is the most effective approach,
but I don't think there's a difference. I mean, we all want Iran to stop
what it's doing, to suspend its enrichment activities and to get to
negotiations. That's the preferred approach of everyone. Sanctions is
only if that fails.
Q Would it be accurate, though, to see Chirac as sort of saying let's
wait longer for sanctions than, perhaps, the United States wants to wait?
MS. ANSLEY: No, I think that -- like I said, the -- Solana -- the EU
through Solana is in talks with the Iranians right now to see if there can
be a basis for proceeding with the negotiations. And, hopefully, that
won't take very long. And I don't think Chirac would want to -- I
shouldn't speak for him. That shouldn't take very long, and then hopefully
we get into negotiations. But, obviously, we'd like it on a quick time
line.
Q How long has the U.S. supported this suspension for suspension
proposal?
MR. JONES: That's kind of a --
MS. ANSLEY: Yes, I just --
MR. JONES: -- you can characterize the meeting based on her participation
--
MS. ANSLEY: That's just not my -- that's not my portfolio. Okay, yes.
Q Did Chirac tell President Bush that the press has characterized his
comments, or is that your interpretation of the press's description of his
comments?
MS. ANSLEY: Yes, that's my characterization. They did not -- they did not
talk about it in those terms. They really just talked about just what
their positions are. They didn't get into any press characterizations.
Q Did President Bush discuss with President Chirac his recent meeting
with Interior Minister Sarkozy, and did anything about the current
political calendar come up?
MS. ANSLEY: No, nothing on that came up.
Q Did the President talk to Mr. Chirac about Mr. Chirac's comments on
Iraq? Yesterday, Chirac, I think in a couple of interviews, said, well,
everything came -- was borne out the way I predicted, and, you know, I'm
very pessimistic.
MS. ANSLEY: No, they did not speak about Iraq.
Is that it? Thank you.
MR. KOZAK: Okay, I've got three meetings in a row -- I'll try to keep them
quick -- the meeting with the President and Secretary General, meeting with
the President and the new President of the General Assembly, and then the
President's meeting with a wide group of democratic heads of state -- or
heads of government, and some non-governmental organizations involved in
promotion of democracy abroad.
The meeting with the Secretary General, they talked about how well they had
worked together over the years -- this is the Secretary General's last
general assembly, and so they looked back a little bit and assessed that
they had worked very well together, indeed. The President previewed in his
speech he was going to bring the focus back on freedom, that if we didn't
keep working for freedom in the world, that people end up enslaved, that
there's no other -- there's no third option.
The Secretary General observed that there had been a good meeting on the
compact with Iraq the other day, and the President congratulated him on the
work that he had done on that score. The President reiterated that Iraqis
need to solve Iraqi problems, but others need to help. And they were both
looking for ways to involve the international community more in helping.
The President raised Sudan and the fact that the situation there is
deteriorating, and the absolute need to get something done. And they
talked about the state of play, vis- -vis the Sudanese government, vis-
-vis potential troop contributors for a U.N. peacekeeping operation in
Darfur.
They talked about the Middle East, generally, and I think it was a bit of a
preview of what the President said in his speech; he reiterated his
commitment to a two-state solution and the need to get Hamas to talk as
part of an effort to peace, that they need to accept their role as a
partner for peace if they want to be successful.
They also discussed that after some frustrating days, that a good job had
been done on Lebanon by all concerned, and talked a little bit about the
way forward there in implementing the agreements reached and building upon
them.
They discussed Iran and the state of play there. I think the main thing
they both agreed on was the need to stay -- the international community to
stay consistent and united on the topics, so that there was clarity as to
the way forward and the way to a solution.
They discussed Cuba just a bit, because the Secretary General had been to
Cuba and visited President Castro as part of the NAM summit there of last
week. And they talked a bit about the future potential of Cuba as it
develops and becomes a state with a free system and a free economy.
That was the topic range for the meeting with the Secretary General. Then
we went over and saw Sheikh al Khalifa, who is the new President of the
General Assembly and the first Muslim woman President of the General
Assembly. So the fact that she's there is a great distinction. The
President congratulated her on election. They talked about the various
issues they have to work together on. They talked about women as an agent
of change in the Middle East, and the need to treat women with equality and
respect, as human beings.
And they went through some of the issues where the U.N. had been able to do
useful things of late, and some places where we still see problems, and
just talked about the need in general terms to work together to try to
bring about further reform at the U.N. to make it a more effective body --
discussing the importance of the organization for all concerned and the
need to build on its successes and make it improve.
In that context, the President of the General Assembly indicated that they
were going to try to make progress on the counterterrorism convention this
year. They also discussed briefly the process that will lead up to the
selection of a new Secretary General, which is one of the orders of
business for this fall.
The President then went to a roundtable which he chaired with these other
democratic leaders and non-governmental organizations -- I think we had
about 25 democratic leaders, or heads of state or government from all
around the world, and then we had 7 non-governmental organizations, two of
them with global reach, and the others that are -- the other five from
different countries.
And the main topic of discussion, the purpose of the meeting was to show
solidarity with these groups that are fighting for freedom in their own
country, but are increasingly coming under repressive measures, so it was
to get a sense of what kinds of problems they're encountering, and then
what they thought that democratic governments could do to show solidarity
and help them and support them in their work. It was a very lively
discussion that went on actually for an hour and 20 minutes -- even though
it started late, it ended much later.
We have, I think, a list of the participants, so instead of me trying to
read all of them, if you're interested, they're available from the press
officers. But I think, again, the purpose of the meeting -- it was
building on a meeting that he had last year with a similar group of
democratic governments. Then they were talking about the launching of the
U.N. Democracy Fund, which was an idea the President had had a couple of
years back, and last year we were able to say it's being implemented. So
the notion was these guys coming together seemed to have -- there was a lot
of energy there for how we can work and promote democracy. And so we
engaged with the NGOs this year. And I think it's going to be an event
that has follow-up to it as people take some of the ideas and then try to
see if we can be more partners with those groups.
Q Was there a discussion of the events in Thailand at any point in the
President's day?
MR. KOZAK: No. I mean, we heard about it between meetings, but it didn't
come up in any of the meetings I was in.
Q And what about any action on -- of the U.N. Security Council on Burma?
MR. KOZAK: During the time we were having the roundtable on democracy
there was -- also the First Lady had an event on Burma, to call attention
with a lot of Burma experts, which I -- I was not there, but I understand
went well.
As you may know, at our initiative, the Security Council voted last week to
put Burma on the agenda for the Security Council. So it's on the agenda.
When it will come up exactly I think remains to be seen. But it will come
up now because of that -- because of that vote. And we're just trying to
get more attention on that terrible situation there which has -- it's not
only political, but ramifications in the areas of refugees, drug
trafficking, just terrible humanitarian crisis. So a lot to be done in
that area, as well.
Again, the effort for that kind of problem is, how do you get enough
countries and groups of countries engaged that you can make some difference
with your diplomacy.
Q Did the Secretary General shed any light on who might send troops to
Darfur? Anything more on that?
MR. KOZAK: You know, I think if you go back to -- we didn't talk about
that specifically, no. I mean, we talked about the problems facing
potential troop contributors, but we didn't talk about individual countries
and where they stood.
Is that it?
Q I don't know if it's in the purview of this briefing, but did the
administration have any reaction to the coup in Thailand.
MR. KOZAK: No, I haven't had enough time to get fully briefed yet, even on
the facts.
Q One more thing, you said that Cuba came up. Did the President inquire
into Castro's condition?
MR. KOZAK: Yes. The Secretary General -- when he met with the Secretary
General, and so he said, I heard you saw Castro. And he gave a little
briefing on his encounter. I'd let the Secretary General characterize his
own meeting with President Castro. But it wasn't -- this was not a long,
deep, analytical thing. It was more, you know what did you find in Cuba,
and then some general discussion about the future of Cuba, not -- that
wasn't a prediction on the health of the leader. But just that one of
these days, if Cubans are able to make the kind of changes that they need
to make, that it could once again be an economic tiger in the Caribbean.
MS. O'SULLIVAN: I'm here to give you a readout of the President's meeting
with President Talabani. They met today for about an hour, and ended just
before getting here. Sorry to keep you waiting a bit.
The atmospherics, as I think many people in this room have seen, the two --
these two leaders together, and the atmospherics, as always, were very
positive. It was really a spirit of partnership throughout the whole
meeting. And I was trying to think of how I could best describe it to you.
And in some ways, there's a little anecdote from the meeting that I think
-- that shows the closeness of these two leaders.
They began talking through an Arabic interpreter, with Talabani speaking
Arabic and it being translated, and the President's words being translated
into Arabic. But I'd say about 20 minutes into the meeting, Talabani sort
of leaned forward in his seat, and the President kind of leaned forward in
his seat, and they just started talking in English. I think they were
feeling that the pace of their exchange and what they wanted to say was
being slowed down by the translation, and from there, you had a very kind
of vigorous exchange about a whole range of issues.
I'd say overall, the theme of the meeting was really one of support and one
of confidence that Iraq will succeed, but also one of commitment on all
sides to work together to help Iraq make some very tough choices that lie
ahead in its immediate future. And the President made a point -- which he
made both in his speech to the General Assembly today and he's done in
other opportunities with the press -- after Talabani and he finished up,
just about American support, about his commitment to Iraq and his
understanding of the difficult times that the Iraqi people are having and
his admiration for their courage, and at the same time saying that Iraqi
governments will have American support as long as they're making the tough
decisions necessary to build a united democratic Iraq.
Talabani, again, the same theme, he sort of affirmed -- affirmed the need
for the Iraqi government to make some tough decisions and expressed a lot
of appreciation for American support. You would have seen that today at
various public venues, including an op-ed that President Talabani had in
today's papers.
So in the context of that overall discussion, there are a few things which
I'll just highlight here. Both leaders talked about the Maliki government,
with the President saying that he really has a lot of confidence in Maliki
and he's very pleased with how Maliki has performed over the last hundred
days. He noted that Maliki is stronger a hundred days into his government
than he was at the beginning. And that, of course, in this environment, is
not something that could be taken for granted. That's actually my point
there; I'm not paraphrasing the President there.
And President Talabani spent some time talking about how he -- his party,
how the institution of the Presidency Council are all working together very
closely to support the Maliki government and how critical it is for this
government, for Prime Minister Maliki to succeed in Iraq's overall efforts.
Also, in the context of talking about the tough decisions ahead of Iraq,
the two leaders touched on a range of issues: oil, federalism, militias,
police reform, the army. So those were some of the issues that they
touched on, albeit, quite briefly.
Talabani spent a bit of time talking about that there has been progress on
the reconciliation front. And he said that we're in the process of
building a project, but we're not yet finished, and we need your support
and your patience. He talked about, again, the reconciliation progress.
And he really took the whole group back a little bit to where we were maybe
five or six months ago, and compared to the constitutional process how
there are so many patterns of interaction between leaders from different
communities that hadn't existed even just a year ago, talked about the
formation of the national unity government, talked about the government
agenda that they all agreed upon, and talked about a new commitment to
tackling these tough issues together.
There was also a conversation about the rule of law and the extent to which
crime is also a problem in Iraq, and that is -- it is integrated, I guess,
in some respect, into some of the other security problems there. There was
a discussion about the region. It generally focused on the importance of
having the region support -- Iraq support this government as it moves
ahead. And in that context, they spoke about the international compact and
what an important initiative that was. And they both referred to the
meeting that happened yesterday at the U.N., which was a foreign
ministerial meeting on the compact.
Just lastly, there was a brief discussion -- mention of the PKK, and the
agreement, again, by both leaders on the importance of addressing this
issue head on in working closely with Turkey to do so.
I think I'd stop there. I'm happy to take some questions.
Q Did President Talabani give the President any briefings or information
about the meetings that Prime Minister Maliki had in Iran recently?
MS. O'SULLIVAN: No, he didn't. There was a mention that the Prime
Minister had recently gone to Iran, but there was no characterization of
it. There was a little discussion about Prime Minister Maliki's attitude
before he went, which was certainly one of stressing that Iraq needs no
interference that works against the government by its neighbors.
I should also mention there was a brief one-on-one at the end, and -- by
the nature of one-on-ones, I wasn't there, so I have that caveat over
everything I say.
Q Can you elaborate on this point that the United States is going to
support the government of Iraq as long as it's making the tough decisions?
Can you explain that? I mean, it sounds like conditional love to me.
(Laughter.) I mean, what's --
MS. O'SULLIVAN: Actually, the President had a very similar theme in his
comments today in the speech.
Q I know -- curious.
MS. O'SULLIVAN: And there was -- I'm trying to think of the exact --
Q Can you explain what he means, though?
MS. O'SULLIVAN: Sure. And I'll try to shed some light on that. I'm just
going back to another speech that he gave -- I think August 31st. Anyway,
that's something that has been in a lot of the President's comments. And I
think it reflects the reality that the Iraqis have a lot of difficult
decisions to do, these are hard decisions to make, and that we need to both
encourage and urge them to take on these decisions, because we look at
something -- we look at the security situation and recognize that part of
this has a security solution, but a security solution won't be the whole
solution. It's got to be a political one, as well, it has to be an
economic one, as well.
And the issues that I described -- or I just listed very quickly, they're
very political issues, and these are the issues that the leaders need to
come together and figure out how -- and this, I'm actually characterizing
President Talabani's comments -- how Iraqi leaders in communities are going
to share the power and the resources of their country.
Q Can I follow up on that?
MS. O'SULLIVAN: Sure.
Q I mean, it's interesting, certainly, to -- it did seem to, you know,
we will not yield the future of your country to terrorists -- in return,
your leaders must rise to the challenge. Is there a definition for what
"rising to the challenge" means? And is there a kind of if/then, sort of,
part of this -- that if they don't rise to the challenge, the U.S. will be
less inclined to continue helping?
MS. O'SULLIVAN: There was no "if/then" in the conversation that happened
today. And it is implicit in the conversation that what they're talking
about, the tough challenges are the issues that I laid out for you, and are
the issues that the Iraqis, themselves, have identified as the ones that
are still points of contention with each other, and that these issues,
again, how to share the power and resources in Iraq are the ones that they
need to come to agreement on in order to pave the way for a stable,
democratic Iraq.
The President was overwhelming in his support and appreciation for the
leadership of Talabani, and recognizing that the Iraqis, again as I've said
before, have been through a very tough period. I think this is just, we
all need to move together, forward, is very much said in that fashion. I
don't think there was anything threatening about it. It was constructive.
Q Did they talk about the President of Iran, and Iran's alleged
ambitions in the region? Did that topic come up?
MS. O'SULLIVAN: They did not talk about the President of Iran. Iran came
up -- there were two references to Iran, there was not a heavy discussion
about Iran -- one, just as I mentioned, a little bit about Prime Minister
Maliki and his intention to talk to the Iranians and to urge them to
provide support for the government.
Secondly, there was a bit of a discussion where Iran was mentioned, but it
was mostly about the Iraqi Shia, and President Talabani was talking about
how the Iraqi Shia -- he was talking about the independence and talking
about their history, and underscoring the Iraqi Shia are not beholden to
Iran, that they're very different people and they have different traditions
and histories.
Q Did the President of Iraq come up in any of the other discussions?
MR. JONES: For the transcript, that's a "no." (Laughter.)
Okay, thank you very much. Once again, the first speaker was Judy Ansley,
who is the Senior Director at the National Security Council for European
Affairs. Our second speaker was Mr. Mike Kozak, who is the Senior Director
for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Organizations. And our last
speaker was Meghan O'Sullivan, who is Deputy National Security Advisor for
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thank you.
END 6:13 P.M. EDT
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