PRESS AVAILABILITY THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES RICHARD CHENEY AND ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON


The Prime Minister's Office
Jerusalem
March 19, 2002

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VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: I want to begin by thanking you, Prime Minister, for the tremendous hospitality that you have shown to me and to my wife and our entire delegation. I was delighted to have the opportunity to reaffirm the strength in America's commitment to the security and wellbeing of our friends in Israel. The Prime Minister and I have discussed a wide range of issues including our cooperation in the war against global terror and our share and concern about the spread of weapons of mass destruction. We reviewed ways in further strengthening our bilateral relationship and how the United States can continue to support the expansion of economic opportunities for Israelis. We also discussed ways of ending the terror and the violence that have brought so much suffering for the people of this region, especially during the last eighteen months. 

The Prime Minister and I have also had an excellent opportunity to discuss ways to advance the prospects for reaching a cease-fire and implementing the Tenet and Mitchell plans. 

I expressed my appreciation to the Prime Minister for his commitment in implementing Tenet and Mitchell and for his efforts to facilitate the work of General Zinni including the IDF's withdrawal last night from Bethlehem and Gaza. The Prime Minister made clear to me that his highest priority is assuring the security of the Israeli people and he believes that can best be accomplished through a cease-fire and the implementation of Tenet by both sides. 

I also want to emphasize the commitment of the United States to do whatever we can to help the parties achieve a durable cease-fire and to fulfill their obligations under Tenet and Mitchell.

General Zinni has had very useful discussions with the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships. He has laid out what is required to move forward, and he has made clear that failure to fulfill the requirements of Tenet and Mitchell will torpedo this process.

We will remain very actively engaged in this extremely important effort in the days and weeks ahead. In order to help General Zinni's mission as the Tenet work-plan is being implemented, I told the Prime Minister that I would be ready to meet with Chairman Arafat in the period ahead at a site in the region to be 

determined. The Tenet work-plan requires one-hundred percent effort by Chairman Arafat to stop the violence and the terror and I would expect a one-hundred percent effort to begin immediately. I asked General Zinni to meet Chairman Arafat this morning to convey the same message that I shared with the Prime Minister. I cannot emphasize enough how important it will be this week for Chairman Arafat to take the steps to get the cease-fire started and to start implementation of the Tenet work-plan, namely, to speak to his own people personally about the importance of ending violence and terrorism, to issue clear instructions to his security services to enforce the cease-fire and to follow up closely these efforts to ensure implementation of the Tenet work-plans. These steps, if taken by the Chairman, would create the environment that would make a meeting beneficial to the Zinni mission.

I am pleased that both the Prime Minister and Chairman Arafat have agreed to this approach. 

President Bush has laid out a vision of peace for this region in which two states, Israel and Palestine, would live alongside each within secure and recognized boundaries. That vision can be achieved. It is our hope that the current violence and terrorism will be replaced by reconciliation and the re-building of mutual trust. 

PRIME MINISTER SHARON: PRIME MINISTER SHARON (In Hebrew): Shalom to you all. I welcome the Vice President of the United States, my friend, Richard Cheney and the very distinguished group that came with him. The friendship between Israel and the United States is a true one, and there is a deep commitment between the two states which has to do with the common, shared, basic values, which mean the aspiration for freedom, for security for our citizens and for our democracy. Your visit today, Mr. Vice President, has also been under the sign of the full coordination between Israel and the United States in matters that concern both states where we have common interests whether local or regional. Israel will continue to stand with the United States, her leader George Bush who is leading with courage and determination the war against international terrorism, and with the people of the United States. Israel seeks peace, and I will make every effort that Israel will achieve peace and security. My objective, and that of the government I head, is to get to a cease-fire and to enter immediately into the Tenet Plan. We will make every effort to achieve this. Our decision is to reach a cease-fire. Our decision is to make every effort to enter immediately into Tenet. We want to reach the implementation of Mitchell Plan, and we want to eventually reach political negotiations which I hope, god willing, will bring us to peace. That is our decision, that is the task before us, and that I will implement.

I have said several times in the past that, in exchange for full peace, the State of Israel is ready to make very painful concessions, but not when it comes to security, and the security of its citizens. We are moving towards a cease-fire, we are for peace. But as in the past, I can only say that for the Tenet agreement, meaning stopping terrorism and violence and fire, we need a commitment on the part of the Palestinians, and these are the pre-conditions. I have told the Vice President that the implementation of Tenet will enable Mr. Arafat to go outside of the borders of the territories, and this has been decided in the smaller cabinet meeting this morning. Mr. Vice President, the cessation of fire and terrorism, the true war against the infrastructure of terrorism means a better future for this region. Mr. Vice President, I would like to thank you again for the effort you are doing to help us to arrive at a better future in this region.

QUESTION: Mr. Prime Minister, in the past you have suggested that Yasser Arafat was irrelevant. Have you changed your opinion? Do you think he can be counted on to bring a truce? First of all Mr. Vice 
President, can you tell us something about the meeting you talked about, will this be soon, will this be on this trip? And will it pave a way to a meeting between Mr. Arafat and the President?




PRIME MINISTER SHARON: If Mr. Arafat will be accomplishing what we demanded from him, first to stop terror, violence and incitement, and to take all the necessary actions against terror in order to reach cease-fire in accordance with the Tenet Plan, I think that we will be happy about it.

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: The question of whether or not the meeting occurs, will be determined by General Zinni. He will make a determination based upon whether or not the Tenet plan has been implemented by the Palestinians and whether or not the specific provisions that I have mentioned here today are in fact being implemented. The meeting can take place relatively soon, if in fact that process happens, possibly as early as next week but, again, there has been no specific time set yet and no specific local although we are going to work on that. It will be some place in the region and, again, as I say, the key element here is that Tenet must be being implemented in the eyes of General Zinni, the President's special envoy, in order for the meeting to take place. 

QUESTION: (inaudible)

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: That hasn't been discussed.

QUESTION (in Hebrew): Mr. Prime Minister, you just announced the decision of the reduced cabinet about allowing Yasser Arafat to leave if he will implement the Tenet Plan. Does that also mean you will allow him to return to the Autonomy, and in the event of terrorist attacks, does that mean he will not be allowed to return? And the second question, the terrorist attacks continue even though General Zinni is in the area. Why does Israel not react to these attacks militarily? Is this from a concern that the United States will blame Israel for the failure of the Zinni mission?

And Mr Vice President, please, if you can tell us the results of your visit to the region. What is the current American policy towards Iraq and how does Israel fit into this policy? Is there coordination? Did you coordinate anything with Prime Minister Sharon concerning a possible American action against Iraq.

(Sharon: in Hebrew) There is a full coordination with the government of the United States, President Bush, as well as the Vice President, Mr. Cheney, and as the administration know quite well that we have the right to defend ourselves and this is also approved by the administration. There was no pressure, neither at this visit nor in previous visits. On the contrary, there was lots of friendship and understanding between both sides.
And to the first question, it has already been explained that Mr. Arafat leaving the territories are under the conditions that he would also implement the Tenet plan. If within that time and because of the timetable he will be able to get straight to Beirut and we know that if he is getting to Beirut we are also expecting to hear a speech that will also address the importance of peace and stability of the region. We certainly hope so but if there will be serious terrorist attacks here during his absence and if his speech will contain threats to incitement, I hope this won't happen, this is what I hope and because he must understand the importance of such an arrangement, then we will have to convene the cabinet and to decide. And, I can't deny one thing or another.

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Question on Iraq. The United States has made clear in statements by the President and others in his administration that we are concerned about the Iraqi pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and, in particular, the failure of the government of Iraq to comply with the U.N. Security Council 
Resolution agreed to at the end of the Gulf War, which committed Iraq to get rid of, eliminate all of their weapons of mass destruction. We know that that has not happened. They have not complied with 687. We know that they have chemical weapons. Of course, they have used them in the past against the Iranians and the Kurds. We know they have biological weapons and we know they are pursuing nuclear weapons. The concern that we have as a government, I expressed during the course of my travels. I consulted with the host 

governments that I visited with about the situation in the region, and in particular about Iraq's role and about their failure to comply with U.N. Security Council Resolutions. I had extensive discussions with Prime Minister Sharon on these issues. We have discussed them before, and obviously we would expect to stay in very close consultation going forward with respect to how we might best deal with this threat. That is the commitment I made to all the governments in the region that I have visited with during the course of this trip. 

QUESTION: Good morning Prime Minister, Mr. Vice President. Mr. Vice President, what is preventing the announcement of a cease-fire here and now, today? Secondly, is there a deadline for implementation of the Tenet Plan which, if it passes, would actually torpedo the Zinni mission? Mr. Prime Minister Sharon, on the issue of Iraq, are you prepared to say today, that you would support a U.S.-led attack on Iraq, even if that required restraint from the Israeli Government in the face of an Iraqi attack on Israelis.

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: If I may go first, Prime Minister? There has been great press speculation about the possibility of military action against Iraq. I have said repeatedly throughout the course of my travels, in response to those questions, one: no such decision has been made. Secondly, we never speculate about prospective future operations. With respect to the question of a cease-fire, the point is Tenet. There is an agreement, there has been an agreement to work towards the implementation - to actually begin to implement the Tenet Plan, and to move from that into Mitchell. That gets us to a cease-fire. So, I think the focus here should be on the Tenet Plan that General Zinni is working to implement, that we believe is the right process by which we can achieve the ultimate result of a cease-fire.

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: I wouldn't speculate beyond that. General Zinni is the man who is in charge on a day-to-day basis. He is working very closely both with the Israelis and the Palestinians, and I wouldn't want to get into any other level of detail that I already have this morning. We want to move just as quickly as we can.

PRIME MINISTER SHARON: We have been supporting the courageous decisions and the great leadership that has been shown by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and by the American leadership in the struggle against terror -- local terror, regional terror and international terror. We regard that, maybe, as the most important decision that has been taken. We supported it then and we will support and back any American decision when it will come to Phase B or any other phase in that struggle against terror. We regard terror as the greatest danger to our free society, to our values, and I would say to our lives. With regard to the second half of your question, we discussed all those issues, and I think that both sides know exactly if something like that will occur, what we are going to do. 

QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, I have a question for you. How can the United states criticize Israeli army activities in the occupied territories against Palestinian terror, while in the last few months the U.S. army killed had hundreds and thousands of innocent civilians in Afghanistan during its war against terror there? Don't you think that you are using here a double moral standard? 

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: I don't believe that I would accept the premise of your question. The notion that we have killed thousands of innocent civilians in Afghanistan simply inaccurate. We exercise great care, as I am sure the Israeli Defense Forces do to do everything you can to avoid in your conduct of your operations any loss of innocent lives. The loss of innocent lives is a tragedy whenever it occurs. But I don't believe either the United States or Israel can be said to have been oblivious to the importance of doing everything we can in the conduct of military operations to avoid the loss of innocent human life.


QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, at each of our last nine stops, leaders of U.S. allies in the Arab world have urged you to take into consideration the plight of the Palestinians in this ongoing conflict with the Israelis, yet you leave the region without holding a single meeting with a single Palestinian, even as you have a prospect in meeting perhaps sometime in the future with Chairman Arafat. What concern do you have that these U.S. allies in the region will see this as a blatant disregard of their concerns, and this will undercut your effort to nurture relationships in the region and cement their support for the continuing war on terrorism?

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Again, I disagree with your interpretation of events. We believe that it is appropriate, as I've laid out this morning and as Prime Minister has agreed and Chairman Arafat has agreed, that if there is implementation of Tenet in a manner that is satisfactory to General Zinni, then I have agreed to make a trip to a location in the region that is yet to be determined, that I will in fact sit down with Chairman Arafat. I don't think that justifies the charge that somehow we are ignoring the Palestinian people. In fact we are working very hard, in the presence of General Zinni, as well as a lot of the conversations we have had during the course of our session here is aimed specifically in trying to achieve an end to the conflict that has plagued Israelis and Palestinians these past many months. So, I am hopeful that the effort that we are making here today will result in giving General Zinni the kind of support he needs in order to move forward to achieve the objective of the full implementation of Tenet.

QUESTON: Does your statement today indicate that you have changed your mind regarding Chairman Arafat? That said in the future there is no point to talk to him?

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: What we said in the past about Chairman Arafat is that we wanted him to make an overall effort to support an end to the violence, before we agreed to meet with him. It is my view that if he does in fact keep the commitments and obligations that are embodied in the Tenet Plan and fulfill those conditions that I've talked about here this morning that are taken directly out of the Tenet Plan, then in fact, he will have done what we said needed to be done prior to the time he had a meeting with a senior American official. 

QUESTION (in Hebrew): Before the last military operations, you and the Minister of Defense had declared that the pressure exerted on Arafat would bring about that fight against terrorism and they will ask for a cease fire with Israel. Is this meaning, since we were asking for the cease fire, that this is the failure of your own policy?

PRIME MINISTER SHARON: The decision to increase our attacks against the foci of terrorism is a correct one. The IDF and the other defense forces, whether the police, whether the border police, everybody has to act within that very tough war, and we had first-class achievements. We have achieved a lot. And I expect of a commentator, who is a commentator of the IDF station, to emphasize those achievements of the army and of our forces, because you must understand that the fight against terrorism is not a brief one; it is a long war that we have to carry on, and you should also emphasize it, because this is the for the achievements of our objectives, and as long as we carry on with the Tenet Agreements -- and we would very much like to arrive at a cease-fire because we have through our force, through our IDF, if necessary we will use force. This will be a long war, a long struggle which eventually, as I have always said, will bring about peace.

Thank you very much.

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