Getting Back on the Roadmap Toward Peace in the Middle East

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Thank you for having me.

QUESTION: Ambassador Hughes, could you tell us a little bit about the outcome following the Rome conference now? A conclusive plan regarding a ceasefire, you know, it failed to be reached. And how is peace going to prevail, you think, without a ceasefire? What are the alternatives that the US might have to solve the issue there?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well, we all want a ceasefire, and we want one urgently, and we are working for that. What I think everyone recognizes is that, in order for there to be a ceasefire between the government of Lebanon -- which does not control its whole territory right now, it has a terrorist group basically defying its wishes -- and the government of Israel - in order for there to be a ceasefire there has to be the presence, probably, of some international forces to help keep the peace, to help control the terrorist group that started this all by firing on Israel. And so that’s why Secretary Rice convened the conference in Rome. She wanted to bring the international community together. It was the United States that took the lead in bringing the international community together, saying, ‘What are the circumstances, what are the ways that we can achieve a ceasefire and achieve a more lasting peace?’, which is what the people of Lebanon want. We found a way forward. I disagree really with the way the media has characterized what happened in Rome. What happened in Rome was the international community came together and said, ‘We want to put an end to the violence,’ and here’s the way to do it: We need to convene a force of international peacekeepers. We need to support the government of Lebanon in being able to control its entire territory and be able to push militias out of the country so the only one who controls arms in Lebanon is in fact the government of Lebanon. And that’s the way forward. We were working urgently on that as we left the meeting to come to Malaysia, and Secretary Rice sent a member of our staff to Europe to begin working on that international force.

QUESTION: OK. Now the term set by the U.S. is for Hezbollah to withdraw, and the Lebanese to actually take control of the entire situation.

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: No, that’s not set by the U.S.

QUESTION: OK.

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: That is demanded in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1651.

QUESTION: OK, but taking into consideration that’s kind of, we would say, we would kind of think it is almost close to impossible, what other way is there?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well, again: That is the requirement of the international community, and no one is saying that has to happen in full. What everyone is saying -- including by the way the Prime Minister of Lebanon, who told us that the people of Lebanon are tired of war. They are tired of every year, couple of years, having to go through these horrible, horrible circumstances. They want the government they elected. The government of Lebanon should be able to control its own country, because it represents its own people for its own future, and so the government of Lebanon wants a lasting and more durable peace. In order for that to happen, we believe it’s important that there be the presence of some sort of international force to help – again, not there to impose anything, but to support the government of Lebanon, and to help the government of Lebanon enforce a peace. We are working very urgently to try to get that international force put together.

QUESTION: Now it doesn’t, it doesn’t seem to be any sign that Hezbollah will be withdrawing anytime soon, so how long do you think it would take for this whole situation to blow over? And what other alternatives could there be, you know, that the U.S. thinks there could to be, to settling this situation.

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well, one of the difficulties here is that we are dealing with a terrorist organization, and so the government of Lebanon which presumably -- the parties in any kind of ceasefire would have to defer to the government of Lebanon and the government of Israel, but the government of Lebanon obviously cannot control Hezbollah, because they didn’t stop them from firing against their wishes and starting this whole thing. And so we’ve got to figure out a way that the international community can come in and support the government of Lebanon in controlling this terrorist organization and stopping it from launching attacks. And so we are working very urgently towards that end. So we hope that this is -- you know, I don’t want to put a time frame on it, because again we don’t control … the government of Lebanon and the government of Israel ultimately have to be the parties here. Not the United States, not the international community but we are working very urgently to try to bring about a condition where the international community can help bring an end to the violence.

QUESTION: The Lebanese Prime Minister implied in a recent interview that the U.S. is biased towards the lives of Israelis over the Lebanese.

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well, I can assure you that is absolutely not true.

QUESTION: Why is that?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Because the United States of America was founded on the conviction that every life matters and every life counts. Every life is precious. A Malaysian life, an Israeli life, a Lebanese life, an American life. Every life is precious to us. We believe that that’s the founding conviction of my country: That every life matters and every life is precious and so we are -- the United States is – very, very concerned about the loss of all innocent life. About the lives of the Lebanese, over 400 people unfortunately, many of them women and children. As a mother myself, I was talking with Dato’ Shahrizat earlier today, and she was showing me some of the horrible pictures. She and I are both mothers and we just, we abhor this violence and the loss, particularly, of those young children. We also abhor the loss of innocent lives in Israel, and so we are working very urgently to try to bring an end to this violence, in a way, so that lives don’t have to threatened in the future.

QUESTION: Do you think that the UN would actually call for a ceasefire soon in Lebanon?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: We hope that we can come up with a UN Security Council Resolution that we hope would allow a force to come in and would endorse, perhaps, an agreement that could be made between the parties to end the violence.

QUESTION: Where would that be?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well, again, we are working as urgently as possible. Secretary Rice has indicated she is willing to go back to the region and talk with the parties to try to bring this about at any time and so we are working as quickly as possible. She called during the meeting in Rome for the UN Security Council to meet very urgently, perhaps as soon as this coming week.

QUESTION: As soon as this coming week?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Absolutely.

QUESTION: OK.

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: We believe in, again, that the Security Council said they will meet on their terms, but we believe it is very important that the UN Security Council meet urgently. We believe this is not a matter to be deliberated and talked about by the international community. That’s why America convened the conference in Rome: To urge our international partners to act and to step up to their responsibilities, and we want the UN Security Council to meet very urgently.

QUESTION: Ok. Now many have kind of said that the root cause of what is going on in Lebanon traces back to the Israeli aggression in Gaza and that, you know, you need to attack the root cause of the problem to solve the current problem in Lebanon. What do you think?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well, I think we heard a lot of discussion about root causes, and that’s one of the reasons that an immediate ceasefire, as people call for, is urgent. But it’s -- it’s difficult to imagine that, no matter what the international community does, that immediately you are going to end all the hostility in the Middle East. There is a long history, and as the Secretary said the other day, unfortunately the landscape in the Middle East is littered with ceasefires that haven’t held. There is in fact a ceasefire in place between Lebanon and Israel, where Hezbollah was not supposed to launch attacks, and that’s exactly unfortunately what happened just a couple of weeks ago. So there is a long history here. But we think its very important, first of all, that we act urgently to end the current violence between Lebanon and Israel and the current violence between, in the Palestinian territories, in Gaza and Israel, and we think it is very important that we act on that so we can all get back to working on the road map towards peace.

QUESTION: Are you confident that that will be achieved soon?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well I think it is very difficult, obviously. We are in a very difficult and very tense and very dangerous moment, and that is why America thought it was so important that we convene this conference in Rome and get the international community involved, because we think it is going to require the presence of an international force to help support. We believe that the future of Lebanon is at stake, and we are very concerned about that. The future of this wonderful country and its wonderful people is at stake because it is being threatened by forces from within. I mean, what you have here is as if a faction, a couple of your cabinet members in Malaysia decided to launch a war against another country with your government not agreeing to that war. And that is a very dangerous situation and it’s a situation that is very hard to control and so that’s why my country, America, felt it was so important to convene this international conference.

QUESTION: Now, I am sure you are aware of the demonstrations that were held outside.

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: I understand there were demonstrations, but I haven’t seen them.

QUESTION: OK. With demonstrations going on all across the world, you know, with regards to the U.S. handling of the Lebanese situation. What do you have to say about that?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well, I would hope that the demonstrators would understand that what the United States is doing is working urgently to try to bring about peace. And I would hope they are for peace. I hope they would also recognize that what provoked this situation was the decision of a terrorist group to cross an international boundary -- an agreed on international line between Lebanon and Israel -- and to kidnap a couple of Israeli soldiers, and then to launch rockets on civilians in Israeli cities. And, unfortunately, that is a circumstance that is very frightening, as you can imagine, to a sovereign government. And I think most sovereign governments, including I believe the government of Malaysia, would react very negatively to the invasion essentially of their country. And it’s very important that the international community meet urgently and try to urgently bring about a resolution and that’s exactly what we are trying to do.

QUESTION: OK, last question. Is it true that Dr. Rice will actually be extending here stay here in KL?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well, we are going to stay tonight, through tonight. And then as I said, she remains available to -- There are a lot of very difficult situations going on in the world, and when she said in Rome she wanted to address this situation urgently she means urgently. We have members of her senior team in the Middle East right now trying to work in Lebanon and in Israel. We also have people working in Europe trying to put together an international force that could perhaps help support the government of Lebanon in trying to bring the end to this violence. So we are working very urgently towards that and when she is available she is ready to go back.

QUESTION: So she is staying on in KL, she is extending her stay in KL?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: She is staying here overnight tonight.

QUESTION: Ok and when is…?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: And then tomorrow we are not sure where we are going. We’ll go wherever she can be most effective.

QUESTION: Oh so she, no reason for her to extend her stay?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well again, she is staying here tonight having dinner with members of the news media who traveled with us. I think it was a matter of how her schedule worked. And then I can’t announce her schedule yet obviously for a variety of reasons.

QUESTION: Who would she be meeting, who would she be meeting upon her extension of stay here?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Here in Malaysia? Well again I am not familiar with exactly what has been added onto her schedule but I know that she is, like I say, keeping in very close contact with world leaders so she that can be engaged where she is needed.

QUESTION: When will she be going back to the Middle East?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Well again, for security reasons and for other reasons, that is not something I can announce, but she is available to go back at any time that she can be helpful.

QUESTION: OK, thank you so much.

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES:: Thank you very much.

QUESTION: Alright, that’s it.