[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 47 (Monday, November 24, 2003)]
[Pages 1661-1666]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Interview With Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat in London

November 19, 2003

    Mr. Al-Rashed. I know you are the busiest person----
    The President. Thanks for coming by. I appreciate your interest. I'm 
honored you'd come by.

Timetable for Transition in Iraq

    Mr. Al-Rashed. Mr. President, I think the question, number one, I 
have to ask is, now you're talking about transferring the power from the 
coalition now to the Governing Council sometime in the summer. What is 
exactly your timetable for that?
    The President. Well, it really depends upon the Governing Coalition. 
They've expressed a desire for the transfer of authority in June. There 
are certain benchmarks that must be achieved. But let me just give you a 
kind of a broader assessment.
    We--Ambassador Bremer came to the United States, as you know, gosh, 
I think it must have been a week ago or 10 days ago. And we sat down and 
made a conscious decision to listen to the voices on the Governing 
Council that were interested in accelerating the transfer of 
sovereignty, and we decided to--obviously if that's what they're 
interested in, that we needed to assess whether or not it was possible. 
The assessment was positive. And therefore, Jerry Bremer went back to 
the Governing Council and worked out a timetable that they're 
comfortable with. And that's very important.
    As you know, one of the--initially the thought was to have a 
constitution written, then elections, then sovereignty. It was going to 
take a while to write the constitution, because there was a sentiment 
amongst the people that there needed to be elections to a constitutional 
assembly. And yet, because certain things had happened, the transfer of 
sovereignty seemed more realistic at this point in time than it did 
initially. And I could cite some of those in a minute. And so the idea 
was to have kind of a standard law under which the Iraqi people would 
operate, transfer of sovereignty, and then a constitution be written.
    And as you know, the Governing Council is now in the process of--you 
asked the timetable--one of the decisions they must make is what will be 
the form of the kind of the local elections or caucuses that will then 
determine the makeup of the initial kind of representative body. That's 
their decision. And it's important for me to emphasize ``their'' 
decision, because we believe--and still believe--believed and believe 
that the Iraqi

[[Page 1662]]

people are plenty capable of running their own country, a free country.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. But who are we going to hand it over to--let's say, 
if you start in the summer, are we saying the summer is accurate?
    The President. Yes, I think so. That's exactly what we're aiming for 
now.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Who is going to go for without, of course, the 
constitution, without a----
    The President. Well, there's going to be kind of a general law that 
will be agreed upon before by the Governing Council so that people know 
that their rights will not be trampled, that there will be--that the 
minority populations will have a voice in the future Government. In 
other words, there has to be something other than a constitution, 
because the constitution it looked like was going to take a long time to 
write--but something that would have basic rights guaranteed, a 
preceding document to what eventually will be the constitution. And so 
that's part of what the Governing Council agreed to do.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. But your vision, you think it's going to be one 
person, a President would be----
    The President. My vision doesn't matter. That's important for you 
and your readers to know. What matters is the vision of the Iraqi 
people. And I've said in my speeches that I believe in democracy, but I 
recognize that democracy can come in different forms and democracies 
will not look like America's democracy necessarily. So there's ways to 
get to a system in which minority rights are represented, a rule of law 
prevails, all the systems inherent in democratic form. And they come in 
different ways, as you know, in particular in the Middle East or 
throughout the Arab world.
    In my speech today, which I don't know if you heard it or not----
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Not yet.
    The President. You've got to hear it--please.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. I will, indeed.
    The President. Okay, because it's important for you to hear because 
I think it gives you some insights into my thinking in my heart about 
the Arab people and the Muslim people. I said in my speech, there are--I 
said one of the things that the Western world has to do is change its 
way of thinking about the Muslim world or the Arab world. And that is 
that--some will say, ``Oh, these kind of people can't manage, can't 
govern themselves.'' I completely disagree. And one of the points I 
point out is that half the Muslims live under democratic societies, and 
they're contributing citizens. And those societies have got different 
ways of dealing with democracy. And Iraq's democracy will emerge in a 
uniquely Iraqi fashion. And that's what I'm trying to say.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. So we don't know in the summer it's one President or 
a governing council, elected----
    The President. And that's fine. Because a system is emerging. And 
that's what's important to know. But the Iraqi Governing Council, the 
Iraqi people will make that decision.

Withdrawal of Coalition Forces/Coalition Strategy

    Mr. Al-Rashed. Are we saying--will that follow by withdrawing 
troops, American troops from----
    The President. No--two separate courses. I'm sorry to interrupt you; 
I'm anticipating your questions in the name of time.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. No, that's the question----
    The President. We're talking two separate tracks. The political 
track is developing, and it's developing well, because certain things 
didn't happen. One, there was no great huge refugee flows. Two, there 
wasn't the sectarian violence. Remember, these were all--some of the 
predictions. I'm not suggesting you were making these predictions, but 
others might have been making predictions about sectarian violence--you 
remember that prediction--or refugee flows or hunger, food shortages 
throughout the country. And none of that happened.
    But obviously, what is happening is violence that we're dealing 
with, and that's a security issue. But the political process is moving 
forward, and the ministries are now being staffed. There is a local 
region--local governments up and running. There's a variety of 
indicators that the system is moving

[[Page 1663]]

toward this democratic transition, which the Governing Council 
recognizes and supports. So that's happening.
    The other track, of course, is the security track. They're not 
mutually exclusive, of course. But in terms of our participation, we 
will stay until Iraq is allowed to emerge as a free society, which we 
know will happen.
    Let me give you kind of the strategy. See, I said in my speech 
today, the Iraqi people will not reject freedom, and I believe that. And 
one way that they will protect their freedoms is to develop the forces 
necessary, internally, to work with coalition forces to deal with the 
few that are trying to destroy the hopes of the many. And I think we 
have over 130,000 now, Iraqis, in one kind of uniform or another. That 
would be your border guards, your facilities protection services, the 
police. And we've got a battalion in the army, and we're growing the 
army. I think they think it will be up around 30,000 by the end of next 
year, a trained, capable Iraqi army. And the first task, of course, for 
these uniformed Iraqi personnel is to rout out the killers, people 
willing to destroy.
    I had a very interesting meeting--I'm sure you read about the 17 
Iraqi women who came, that came to the White House. It was really, 
really interesting, a hopeful meeting, very capable women, anxious for a 
free society to emerge. And one lady made it clear to me that, ``Yes, 
you've lost people, but we've lost a lot.'' And the Iraqi people are 
suffering and are dying, because people are trying to terrorize their 
society by killing them. And the Iraqi people will reject this because 
they yearn for freedom, just like you yearn for freedom and I yearn for 
freedom.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Mr. President, am I getting this right, you will not 
have any withdrawal of any troops by the summer?
    The President. No. We will have troops on the ground that will match 
the security needs, is the best way to put that.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. So you're not saying more or less?
    The President. I'm saying I'm going to listen to the generals who 
say, Mr. President, we need more; we need less; we've got exactly the 
right number. They will tell me the number. Their job is to secure--is 
to work with the Iraqis to deal with the terrorists. And there are the 
Ba'athist terrorists; there jihadists; there are Al Qaida types, Ansar 
Islam types. And their job is to help the Iraqis secure their country, 
and they assess all the time, the commanders, and they say, we need this 
number here; we need that number here. And it's their decision to make. 
I set the goal; they decide the tactics.
    So General Abizaid--if you want to know what the troop strength will 
look like in June, go find General Abizaid, and he'll tell you.

Timetable for Transition in Iraq

    Mr. Al-Rashed. Are we saying that you are doing the transfer of 
power earlier than planned because the pressure, because of the loss of 
life, the French, everybody----
    The President. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because what I 
told you, that the Governing Council--the circumstances--the situation 
in Iraq and the Governing Council's progress led us to believe that this 
transfer of sovereignty could take place in a realistic and helpful way.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. So do you expect the violence--do you have a number, 
like, of loss of life will determine how you will run your----
    The President. Of course not. We're not leaving until we get the job 
done.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. How long is that and how----
    The President. That's like if you were interviewing me before the 
attack on Baghdad, you would have said, ``How long is it going to 
take?'' And I would have said, ``However long,'' you know. I mean, 
you're asking me to put calendars on things--this is the second calendar 
question you've asked me.

Iraq and Vietnam

    Mr. Al-Rashed. Some people make a parallel between Iraq and Vietnam. 
Do you see it?
    The President. I know that people are anxious to be free. They were 
glad to get rid of Saddam Hussein. They were pleased when his sons met 
their demise. This person tortured, brutalized an entire population. And 
it's a different situation.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. I didn't hear the word ``Vietnam'' in your answer.

[[Page 1664]]

    The President. No, because--I gave you the answer; you asked the 
question. You asked me if there's parallel. I said it's a different 
situation. You understand the difference here, the people----
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Yes.
    The President. Okay. You know what I'm talking about. The people are 
pleased to get rid of Saddam.

Progress in Iraq

    Mr. Al-Rashed. Mr. President, is it accurate to say that your 
military did a good job and they won the war in a very quite short and 
surprising matter, but your civilian managers did not manage the country 
very well?
    The President. I think what's safe to say is that the initial phase 
of the war went well, and the second phase of the war is going as 
expected, because Ba'athists--there are some people who refuse to give 
up and yield to freedom because they were the ruling elite. And we're 
making, in many phases, very strong progress.
    For example, the currency--I think if you were to go back and look 
at the history of currency replacements or issuing new currencies, 
that's not an easy task. And yet----
    Mr. Al-Rashed. ----President Saddam, his face on the currency----
    The President. No, they've got new currencies, and that's hard to 
do. And yet, we're making good, steady progress in replacing the 
currency.
    The oil revenue is an interesting question. Again, this was an 
issue, if you remember, before the--when the ultimatum was reached, 
there was a lot of speculation that if we went to war, the Iraqi--the 
main asset of the Iraqi people would be destroyed, and it would take 
years to bring the oil production back up. But in fact, the oil is 
flowing, up to about 2.1 million barrels a day, to the benefit of the 
Iraqi people.
    In other words--and we got that ministry stood up very quickly, and 
it's functioning well. The school system--I think there's 1,500 
elementary schools up and running with new textbooks and supplies. The 
hospitals--I mean, there's example after example on the civil society 
side where we've made good progress.
    Obviously, what is--what's tough are the terrorists who kill, and 
they kill Iraqis. They kill international aid workers. They kill because 
they're trying to shake our will. And they're not going to shake--
they're not going to shake our will.

Possible Visit to Iraq

    Mr. Al-Rashed. Are you going to visit Baghdad?
    The President. I don't know yet. Will I at some point in time? I 
certainly hope so.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Before election or----
    The President. [Laughter] I don't know. I'm just trying to finish my 
trip here to England.

Roadmap for Peace/Reform of Palestinian Authority

    Mr. Al-Rashed. What about the roadmap? It's your project, but 
nothing has----
    The President. No, it's our project.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Nothing has happened so far.
    The President. Well, that's not exactly correct. I mean, it's--first 
of all, the roadmap exists--let me tell you, this was U.S., EU, U.N., 
and Russia. So it's kind of an international strategy toward saying to 
parties, take responsibility, be responsible citizens.
    I gave a speech on June 24th, '02, in the Rose Garden, which--get on 
the web page and look at it, because it will give you my sense of--I 
hate to keep directing you to my speeches, but it will give you a sense 
for--and I reiterated that today. I spent quite a bit of time in the 
speech today on the Arab-Israeli issue. And I called on all parties to 
adhere to responsibility.
    I said the best way for--see, I believe that the Palestinians 
deserve a state. As a matter of fact, I'm the first United States 
President to stand up and call for that. And I believe it, and I mean 
it. But that state must be democratic in order for it to survive, with 
institutions that will survive the test of time. And it needs leadership 
that will not steal money, that will not deal with terrorists, that will 
not continually dash the hopes of the Palestinian people.
    And I found such a leader, I thought, in Abu Mazen. And I stood with 
him in Aqaba, Jordan, and as you might recall--and Israel

[[Page 1665]]

has got responsibilities, and the Arab states have got responsibilities. 
And I delineated Israel's responsibilities, end the settlements and not 
prejudice final negotiations on states with walls, to end the daily 
humiliation of the Palestinians. This was all clearly enunciated today, 
by the way, in the public arena.
    Anyway, I was with Abu Mazen. He convinced me that he believes in 
the aspirations of the Palestinians, and he wanted to work on the 
security issue. He wanted to dismantle the security--these terrorist 
organizations, which are destroying any chance for peace. And guess what 
happens to him? He gets shoved aside, and I thought it was an 
interesting lesson.
    We hope this new Prime Minister will stand up and do what is right, 
which is to work to dismantle the terrorist organizations and put the 
institutions in place that are larger than the people, institutions 
which will survive the test of time, so Palestine can emerge as a 
peaceful, viable, democratic state.
    Anyway, so therefore--that's it, the roadmap--there is a roadmap. 
The roadmap calls for mutual responsibilities. I just laid the division 
at the end of the road, which I believe in.

Saudi Arabia/Iran/Syria

    Mr. Al-Rashed. Can I ask about now, a loaded question, which is, I 
know it's----
    The President. Well, you've already asked about five loaded 
questions. [Laughter]
    Mr. Al-Rashed. It's about three countries. I'd like to hear your--
exactly how you're going to treat the end of this crisis. One is Iran, 
how you're going to----
    The President. Well, it depends on Iran's decision----
    Mr. Al-Rashed. ----on Syria, and finally your friends in Saudi 
Arabia.
    The President. Yes. Well, first of all, let's start with Saudi 
Arabia. Crown Prince Abdullah is an honest man, and he is a friend of 
mine. I like him and respect him. And he has told me that we are joined 
at fighting off the terrorist organizations which threatened the Kingdom 
and they threaten the United States, and he's delivering. He also has 
told me that he's going to work on reform, and I believe him.
    Iran: The choice is theirs. They must adhere to the Non-
Proliferation Treaty that they agreed to. And they must be transparent 
and open and honest with the world about their ambitions. It looks like 
we're making some progress. The Secretary of State, as you know, 
yesterday met with ministers from European countries with this message, 
that we all need to speak with a unified voice that says to the 
Iranians, ``Get rid of your nuclear weapons ambitions.'' And hopefully 
the--not hopefully--and work with the IAEA to develop a open and 
transparent regime with the Iranians.
    Syria: Again, it's the leader of Syria's choice to make. The most 
important thing that he can do--oh, by the way, on the Iranians, one 
other point I want to make to you is that they hold Al Qaida operatives. 
And we would hope that those Al Qaida operatives were sent back to their 
countries of origin.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. From Iran.
    The President. In Iran, yes.
    Syria: We have talked to Syria before, and we still feel very 
strongly about the same thing, that they need to shut down the Hezbollah 
offices in their country, Syria.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. ----jihad----
    The President. Hezbollah and JI, absolutely; Hamas, if there are 
such offices there. And they need to do a better job on their border to 
stop any infiltration going from Syria into Iraq with weapons and 
terrorists and jihadists. A peaceful Iraq is in Syria's interest. A free 
and peaceful Iraq is in the interest of the neighborhood. And we would 
hope that Syria would be cooperative in the development of a free and 
peaceful Iraq and not turn away from any infiltrations that might be 
taking place--that are taking place--from Syria into Iraq.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Does that mean you will--on Syria, is there 
negotiation now taking place?
    The President. Well, there's--there's not much negotiation. How do 
you mean, negotiations?
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Discussions.
    The President. It's hard to negotiate--stop terror. You either stop 
terror or you

[[Page 1666]]

don't stop terror. It's not--oh, yes, they understand. They know our 
feelings. They do, yes.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. They know it by--there is someone in between?
    The President. Well, they know it because they--first, they're going 
to read their story, and since I'm speaking directly to you and there's 
nobody in between, they will hear that. Secondly, that Secretary of 
State Powell talked to President Asad last--early last summer, I think 
it was, and delivered some of this message. This is before--I say ``some 
of it'' because this is before the--well, I think he delivered all the 
message, if I'm not mistaken. I mean, he is--in other words, if you're 
saying, has anybody--has President Asad heard from my Government? Yes, 
Secretary of State Powell had a good talk with him.

Discussions With Prime Minister Blair of the United Kingdom

    Mr. Al-Rashed. Did you promise Blair anything about the roadmap? 
Because there's a story yesterday about it.
    The President. What do you mean, promise him anything?
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Prime Minister Blair, about the roadmap. There was a 
story yesterday that came out--to be activated or some----
    The President. We haven't talked about the roadmap. I mean, we talk 
about the Middle East all the time, but he hasn't said--I'm not sure 
what you're referring to. It seems like a lot of things are printed in 
the newspapers here. [Laughter] Not yours.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Can I just have your signature here, please?
    The President. I'd love to. Thank you. Thanks for the interview.
    Mr. Al-Rashed. Thank you.
    The President. And what you need to do is get stationed in America 
again. [Laughter]

Note: The interview began at 2:50 p.m. at the American Embassy. The 
transcript was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on November 
21. In his remarks, the President referred to L. Paul Bremer III, 
Presidential Envoy to Iraq; Gen. John P. Abizaid, USA, combatant 
commander, U.S. Central Command; former President Saddam Hussein of 
Iraq; Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of former President Hussein, who were 
killed July 22 by U.S. military forces in Mosul, Iraq; former Prime 
Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Prime Minister Ahmed Korei of the 
Palestinian Authority; Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia; and 
President Bashar al-Asad of Syria. A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of this interview.