[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
[November 13, 2006]
[Pages 2078-2081]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks Following Discussions With Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and an Exchange With Reporters
November 13, 2006
President Bush. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome back to Washington. The
Prime Minister and I had a fascinating discussion the last time he was
here. We were sitting on the Truman Balcony. We spent probably an hour-
and-a-half strategizing about how we can work together to achieve peace.
Our conversation today continued this--that important dialog.
I appreciate the Prime Minister's strategic thoughts. He cares
deeply about his country, and he cares deeply about securing the peace.
We talked about our commitment to a two-state solution. We talked about
the need for a Palestinian Government to embrace the principles of the
Quartet and the roadmap, which both our governments strongly support.
We spent a great deal of time on Iran and about how we can work
together with other nations of the world to convince the Iranians to
abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions. I recognize the threat to world
peace that the Iranians propose, as does--that the Iranians pose, as
does the Prime Minister. We talked about Iraq. We talked about a variety
of issues.
But the whole central thrust of our discussions was based upon our
understanding that we're involved in an ideological struggle between
extremists and radicals versus people who just simply want to live in
peace, and that as democracies we have an obligation obviously to listen
to the will of our people, but at the same time, work together to help
those who want to live in a peaceful society achieve their ambitions.
Mr. Prime Minister, it has been a delight to be with you again, and
welcome back.
Prime Minister Olmert. Thank you very much. President--there's
nothing that I can add to the very accurate analysis that you made with
regard to these big issues. We in the Middle East have followed the
American policy in Iraq for a long time, and we are very much impressed
and encouraged by the stability which the greatest operation of America
in Iraq brought to the Middle East. And we pray and hope that this
policy will be fully successful so that this stability which was created
for all the moderate countries in the Middle East will continue.
We shared thoughts about the Iranian threat. There is no question
that the Iranian threat is not just a threat for Israel but for the
whole world. The fanaticism and the extremism of the Iranian Government,
and the fact that the leader of a nation such as Iran can threaten the
very existence of another nation, as he does towards the State of
Israel, is not something that we can tolerate or will ever tolerate, and
certainly not when we know that he is trying to possess nuclear weapons.
And I'm very encouraged by our discussion and thoughts that we have
exchanged about what needs to be done in the Middle East, Mr. President.
Finally, I say time and again, on different occasions, that we want
to open a serious dialog with the Chairman of the Palestinian
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Authority, and I will make every possible effort to help Abu Mazen to
get into such a dialog with us. Indeed, we hope that the new Government
will be established soon on the basis of the Quartet and the roadmap,
and that will allow an immediate contact between him and me that I'm
sure will lead into a serious negotiation process.
And again, Mr. President, it's always a great joy to be your guest.
And I always thank you for your friendship--your personal friendship
and, even more important, your friendship for the State of Israel.
President Bush. Thank you, sir. We'll answer two questions a side.
Tom [Tom Raum, Associated Press].
Iraq Study Group
Q. Mr. President, the Senate--the incoming Senate Democratic leaders
have called for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq. You met this
morning with the Baker commission. Would you accept any solution that
included a timetable, and what options did you discuss this morning with
the Baker commission?
President Bush. Tom, I'm not going to prejudge the Baker commission's report. I was pleased to meet with
them. I was impressed by the quality of the--of their membership. I was
impressed by the questions they asked. They are--they want us to succeed
in Iraq, just like I want to succeed.
And so we had a really good discussion. I'm not sure what the report
is going to say. I'm looking forward to seeing it. I believe this: I
believe that it's important for us to succeed in Iraq, not only for our
security but for the security of the Middle East, and that I'm looking
forward to interesting ideas. In the meantime, General Pete Pace is leading investigations within the Pentagon as to how
to reach our goal, which is success, a government which can sustain,
govern, and defend itself and will serve as an ally in this war on
terror.
I believe it is very important, though, for people making
suggestions to recognize that the best military options depend upon the
conditions on the ground.
And so it's an interesting period here in Washington, Mr. Prime
Minister. You might realize the opposition party won, won the Senate and
the House. And what's interesting is, is that they're beginning to
understand that with victory comes responsibilities. And I'm looking
forward to working with the Democrats to achieve common objectives.
Syria-Israel Relations
Q. Mr. President, do you see any change in the administration's
position regarding Syria? Do you support the resumption of Israeli-
Syrian negotiations? And the same question to the Prime Minister, if I
may. In the past, you rejected the resumption of the Syrian and Israeli
negotiations under--one of the reasons was the rejection of the American
administration regarding the policies of Syria. Do you see now, after
you discuss this matter with the President, any change in your position
regarding Syria?
President Bush. My answer to your question is, Prime Minister Olmert
knows how to run his own foreign policy. And he can figure out his
policy towards them. My policy towards Syria is this: That we expect the
Syrians to be, one, out of Lebanon so that the Lebanese democracy can
exist; two, not harboring extremists that create--that empower these
radicals to stop the advance of democracies; three, to help this young
democracy in Iraq succeed. And the Syrian President knows my position. We have told that to him through my
administration. We do have an Embassy there in Syria. But our position
is very clear, and we would like to see some progress toward peace from
the Syrians.
Prime Minister Olmert. I share the same opinion with President Bush.
We are not against negotiations with Syria. We would love to be able to
have negotiations with Syria, but that must be based on a certain
reasonable, responsible policy, which is not
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preformed by Syria for the time being. Everything that they are doing is
to the other direction: in Lebanon, in Iraq, and the sponsorship of
Hamas and Khaled Meshal as the main perpetrators of terror against the
State of Israel. With some changes in the Russian--I'm sorry, in the
Syrian attitude on these major issues, I hope that one day the
conditions for contacts between them and us will be created. But to be
honest, I don't think at the present time they manifest any such
attitude. And that makes it impossible.
President Bush. Matt [Matt Spetalnick, Reuters].
Iran/Nuclear Weapons Development
Q. Yes. Mr. President, Tony Blair today is going to be calling for a
reaching out to both Syria and Iran to help calm the situation in Iraq.
What is your response to that?
President Bush. I haven't seen his comments,
but you just heard my response on Syria. And my comments on Iran is
this: If the Iranians want to have a dialog with us, we have shown them
a way forward, and that is for them to verify--verifiably suspend their
enrichment activities. We put that proposal on the table a while back.
We said that if you want to have a dialog with us, we're willing to come
to the table with the EU, as well as Russia and China, to discuss a way
forward. But first, you must verifiably suspend your enrichment
activities.
Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give
up its nuclear weapons ambitions. And that focus is based upon our
strong desire for there to be peace in the Middle East. And an Iran with
a nuclear weapon would be a destabilizing influence. And so we have made
it very clear, our position in regards Iran, and it hasn't changed.
Q. Mr. President, do you think that it's better to impose sanctions
on Iran or to handle dialog with them?
[At this point, a reporter asked a question in Hebrew, and no
translation was provided.]
President Bush. I think it's very important for the world to unite
with one common voice to say to the Iranians that, ``If you choose to
continue forward, you'll be isolated.'' And one source of isolation
would be economic isolation. In other words, there has to be a
consequence for their intransigence. They have--we went to the United
Nations; we made it very clear--``we'' being a lot of the world--have
made it clear that the Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions are not in the
world's interest. And therefore, if they continue to move forward with a
program, there has to be a consequence. And a good place to start is
working together to isolate the country.
And my hope is, is that there are rational people inside the
Government that recognize isolation is not in their country's interest.
And I also, when I speak about Iran, speak about a government, not about
the Iranian people. I believe the Iranian people want a better way
forward. I don't think they want to confront the world. I believe they
need--I believe they could benefit by more trade and more openness with
the world. But their leaders have to make the decision, and the decision
is abundantly clear to them. And I say this in the interest of world
peace, that if Iran has a nuclear weapon, it will be incredibly
destabilizing and obviously threatening to our strong ally.
And so my attitude is, let's work in concert to convince the
Government that it's not just the Israeli voices speaking or the United
States voices speaking, but there's a lot of other voices saying the
exact same thing, and present them with a choice.
Assistant Press Secretary Joshua A. Deckard. Thank you all.
President Bush. Wait a minute. That seems a little unfair. He's got
a strong answer coming--I can feel it. [Laughter]
Prime Minister Olmert. She said it in Hebrew, and you can't blame
him; he
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didn't understand the Hebrew part of the question. I'll answer in Hebrew
for the Israeli voters.
President Bush. Sure.
[Prime Minister Olmert spoke in Hebrew, and no translation was
provided.]
Prime Minister Olmert. And again, I want to thank you, President
Bush, for being so gracious to me and to the State of Israel.
President Bush. Yes, sir. Proud to have you here.
Thank you all.
Note: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to James A. Baker III, cochair, Iraq
Study Group; and President Bashar al-Asad of Syria. Prime Minister
Olmert referred to President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad of Iran; President
Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority; and Khaled Meshal, leader of
the Hamas terrorist organization. A reporter referred to Prime Minister
Tony Blair of the United Kingdom.