C. David
Welch, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and North African Affairs
(
MR.
ERELI: Greetings, everyone. Thank you for coming. We have a limited
time with
our senior administration official so we'll get right into it. Assistant
Secretary
for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch is here to brief us
on Palestinian
assistance which we announced in the name of the Secretary at the briefing.
David will give a brief overview then be available to answer
your questions.
We also have two other experts here who may be called upon
if needed,
Assistant Administrator for Near Eastern South Asia Jim Kunder and Mr. Jonathan
Schwartz from our Office of the Legal Advisor if there are
any questions
in their area of
expertise.
So,
David, please, thank
you.
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Thank you, Adam. Hi, everybody. You have seen our statement today and
we are making ourselves available to answer any questions you might have in
follow up to that. As you know, we've done quite a bit of work to build a
substantial international consensus about the direction of policy now
that Hamas won
an election on January 25th to the Palestinian Legislative
Council and now
that it has formed a new government for the Palestinians. This
is embodied
in statements going back to January 30th by the Quartet which have at their
center three principles. Those principles are that any
Palestinian government should accept the right of pursue a
two-state solution it has to proceed in negotiations free of violence and
terror. Third, that negotiation ought to pay some respect to and deference to the
previous body of work to build Israeli-Palestinian peace. In particular, the new
government -- any new government ought to take up the obligations and undertakings of its predecessors. Those are in UN resolutions, Arab
League initiatives, the roadmap, et cetera.
So we
have that as an element of policy. Regrettably so far, the new
Hamas government
has not answered on any of those principles with anything that could approximate a yes. Accordingly and at the direction of our principles
here, we've
undertaken a review of And we
made an announcement today in respect of that which will mean that
we will
focus now our -- we will renew our focus on humanitarian assistance,
and particularly health, food and education to the Palestinian people
directly.
As you
all know, most American assistance has traditionally been
provided directly
to the Palestinian people through contractors and NGOs. Only on very rare
exceptions have we provided any assistance to the Palestinian
Authority itself.
So we will not do that in the future, as long as the
Palestinian Government
under the Hamas leadership does not accept these three conditions.
With
respect to other major donors, in particular the European Union, I
think they'll
be meeting next week to flesh out their own review of
assistance programs.
We remain committed to the vision that President Bush has laid
out for a
two-state solution. But as I said absent a commitment by the Hamas
government to these preconditions, we cannot see them as a partner for
peace. This
would mean, therefore, that we'll have to redirect a substantial
portion of our
assistance program to principally humanitarian
assistance.
We've
begun consultation with Congress on this and that will be proceeding. In fact,
I'll be back up there in a few minutes to continue conversations with our appropriators on the subject. Anything we do will not only be done
in consultation
with Congress, but with the appropriate notification as is typical when we
change assistance
programming.
We also
will direct some assistance to supporting a democracy in civil society and
independent institutions. We think this latter element is critical, since, while
Hamas did gain a majority in the PLC to form a government. It won by 44
percent
of the vote. In other words, approximately 55 or 56 percent
of Palestinians
did not vote for Hamas. We, as you know, have a no-contact policy with
Hamas before the election. And we have reviewed that policy and we
have reasserted it. In addition, we have strengthened our process for vetting
any recipients
of assistance so that we don't trip over either law or policy
in this
regard.
Our
message to the international community will be first by this review
in showing
that through discipline and rigor we can look carefully at this kind of assistance
and suggest that it be directed to humanitarian pursuits,
rather than to
supporting any government. We call upon others in the
international community
to join us in that
direction.
There may
be from time to time a highly limited exception for a reason which we have
not foreseen. We do have an overriding example,
in combating the avian flu epidemic and in close coordination with our Palestinian
friends, other donors and the Israeli government, we have responded to a
request for assistance for avian flu -- this is in-kind assistance,
not financial
assistance -- and to address what is a very highly unique
problem.
This, I
think, is just a quick encapsulation of what was behind the statement we
issued and I'd be delighted to take any questions you have. I'm sorry. I'm a little
more rushed than I would like to be because of scheduling that I didn't foresee.
MR.
ERELI: Let's go to
--
QUESTION:
I'm sorry, but I don't understand the figures. And you -- we
were said that
the humanitarian assistance is rising by 57 percent to 245 million
and we
had a figure before of 150 million through USAID plus 84 million through UNRWA, so
I don't
understand.
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Well
--
QUESTION:
Well,it was 234, so it's not
--
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Okay. Well, I'm not sure about all the previous data, but let me give
you what I understand to be the numbers. I'll do this quickly and
if you have
any follow-up, maybe I can turn it to my colleague Jim Kunder after I leave,
just to clean up the data. Now let me take from the position before the election
to the position after the election. And basically, we're going from a pre-election
planned expenditure of category
of $153 million approximately to a post-election planned figure
of 240. That
is a 57 percent increase in humanitarian assistance. Please bear in mind
that that's subject to consultation, notification to
Congress.
A
substantial portion of that would be through UNRWA. Before the election
we had
planned to assistant UNRWA in the neighborhood of $100
million. Post-election
we plan to increase that to over $130 million, a 30
percent increase,
roughly speaking, in funding for UNRWA. Food assistance would
be another
large category. Pre-election, we were planning on spending around $10 million.
Post-election, it'll be around $60 million, depending on if you count USDA
programs in that or not. That's quite a large leap in assistance. There
are a
few other categories that build up to the total of 240. As I
mentioned earlier,
we do have democratization programs underway with the
Palestinians. That
pre-election figure is around 29 million; post-election it would be
42 million.
Again, a substantial boost
there.
QUESTION:
Now the 42 million that are supposed to -- you are saying openly it's for the
support of the moderation and finding alternatives for Hamas. How could this be
read except for basically calling for ousting Hamas and why is it not possible
to direct the 130 million to the same ministry for
infrastructure projects,
sir?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Well, we haven't made exact decisions on how precisely
we will
use the suggested democratization funding. But I would disagree with
you that it
is to, you know, deal directly with the Hamas victory in the manner in which
you described it.
QUESTION:
What do you do to find alternatives for
Hamas?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: It says to find alternatives to Hamas. That's the important point
--
QUESTION:
(Inaudible) in
Hamas.
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Let me complete my answer, if I may. Fifty-five percent of
those who
voted in this last election did not vote for Hamas, so they're
out there
searching for other vehicles and alternatives to express their political wishes.
We think to continue to build the institutions of democracy is a very important
endeavor and to give them some hope that their voice can be
heard, particularly
when we believe that Hamas as a government is going to have great difficulty meeting the aspirations of the Palestinian
people.
Precisely
how we do that, we will look at both the existing programs we've had underway
and reevaluate whether those are effective in this regard. We also may propose
some new
ones.
MR.
ERELI:
Anne.
QUESTION:
Does -- their 165 million, I understand, is -- Sean said at
the briefing
money that you're still figuring out what's going to happen? Can you expand
that a little
bit?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH:
Yes.
QUESTION:
What does that cover and what are your options?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: There will be some things suspended or cancelled, some that are
subject to further review, and then this redirected amount that I've spent most of
the time describing. In the area of infrastructure where we had done a fair
amount of direct programming, because of the difficulties of doing
that without
interacting with the cabinet and ministries of a Hamas
government, we've
elected to suspend or cancel most of that work. There could be
some aspects
of it that we may permit to go forward after this review; for example, infrastructure
support to help make more efficient the crossings between the Palestinian
territories and decisions
yet.
MR.
ERELI: Elise.
QUESTION:
A lot more money is going to go to UNRWA, as you noted, and
even before
this all happened with the election there was always a question as
to whether
UNRWA could accept an increased capacity, that they had
certain limitations
as to their structure and things that you didn't know if they could bear
the additional funding to be able to handle those projects.
Have you
given any thought to that and whether you would actually fund helping increase
their capacity so that -- or are you looking at other organizations to help with
this humanitarian
work?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: That's a very good question, Elise, and I think part of your question
has to be answered by UNRWA as to what they see as their
capacity headroom.
But we took a look at our regular budget support for UNRWA. As
you know,
we are a very large contributor. I think the amount budgeted in
this fiscal
year that we have underway now is around 80 million. They have
an emergency
appeal. I think they have those annually. Am I correct in that? And so we
will probably meet part of the emergency
appeal.
UNRWA is,
for us, is an attractive vehicle because it has experience on
the ground,
we have some accountability mechanisms with which we have
some experience
in making sure our money gets to the right place and is not misused, and in
addition it's immediately available. So while there may be a
capacity question,
at least in the immediate term they can also use the assistance
if it's
provided to them, and it's very quick-acting in that
regard.
Also,
UNRWA's services two-thirds of the population in the
population in the That's a
pretty substantial population pool. So if we're directing
our attention
to supporting the Palestinian people, we think this would be
an effective
and quick-acting vehicle to do
so.
MR.
ERELI: We have time for a couple more. Charlie.
QUESTION:
David, can you explain in policy terms compared to the dollars
how you're
going to support President Abbas and not support the
Hamas-led government? And is there any money directly for President Abbas at this point?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Well, first of all, we do support President Mahmoud Abbas.
The PA
Government under a prime minister has been tainted by the fact
that Hamas, a
terrorist organization, now controls it. This is fully and totally a Hamas
government, from the prime minister through the cabinet on down to
the people
who work in those ministries. We will have no association with
the government.
By
contrast, the president, the presidency and entities reporting to
the president
are segregated from Hamas and that part of the Palestinian Authority is
untainted by their presence in government. That said, we have not made
a decision
on whether to assist those elements in any regard at this time. We may come
back and revisit that choice, Charlie, but we haven't made it
yet.
There are
also a variety of independent entities where governmental structures that were
out there even before governorates,
the central election commission, the attorney general
and judiciary
-- all these are bodies that in and of themselves are independent of the
government and we can look at alternatives for assistance
there.
But so
far, what we're doing is concentrating our attention on the humanitarian aspect.
MR.
ERELI:
Teri.
QUESTION:
But no money for President Abbas
now?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Not now. But I don't rule it out. I don't rule it
in.
QUESTION:
Could you tell us more about this deal that you mentioned on
the assistance for avian flu, the in-kind assistance? And does this indicate
that you see
in-kind assistance to the Palestinian Government as different
than money
and/or is there some way that this is not going to
--
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: No, all it indicates to you -- should indicate to you -- is not a
remark about the vehicle but a remark about the urgency of the
problem and a
recognition that avian flu knows no national dimension, it
follows migratory
bird patterns, and that there is an urgent need to deal with
it, especially in the
QUESTION:
(Inaudible) practical (inaudible) do
that?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Jim Kunder could do that, if you don't mind, afterwards. But you know,
it's basically, I think protective suits and we just turn them over to those
who are responsible for doing the culling and the destruction of the birds
there.
MR.
ERELI:
QUESTION:
David, on Anne's question, I want to follow up on the 165
million that's
still hanging out there. Is there any thought or how much that has been put into
so far, the idea of maybe creating a trust fund that could be used as a
carrot instead of sending that money back to Treasury? Does that
create problems?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: For now, all we have done is either suspended or canceled
certain
program activities. That, for the most part, is a decision that is in our
hands. When you get to the question of what you do with the funds,
it's complicated
because there are different budget years implicated, there
are different
procedures in that respect for consulting and then
notifying Congress.
So the answer to your question is short. It is no, we have not made those
decisions yet. We've put that money, generally speaking, in
abeyance because
we cannot spend money on certain activities that would have
us interacting with or supporting a Hamas
government.
QUESTION:
Are you actively looking at a way, a mechanism, that might create an incentive
for
Hamas?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Well, we would like to be in a position where either
are conditions
to be met or there would be a different government that would
be able to
step back in and provide assistance to what we think were
some legitimate needs and uses. But we're not at that point
yet.
MR.
ERELI: Let's do one question with
(inaudible).
QUESTION:
Sir, under what condition you think some money could go direct
to President
Abbas and do you think there is a plan to invite him to come
to
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Well, you know, as I said, we support the president. He has indicated
that his policy is one where he is calling for a negotiated
peace that
aims at a two-state solution. He wants to proceed within an environment of no
violence and no terror. And he's one of the architects personally of
the conditions. Those are his conditions. The international community has
adopted them in a
certain fashion and that's what we expect to be adopted by
any Palestinian
government and especially this
one.
We'll
continue our relationship with President Abbas and that includes meeting him. As
you know, I was just out there and saw him in days
ago and I expect we'll do that kind of thing in the future. Whether
there's
any possibility of a visit here, that's not under discussion right now.
QUESTION:
So why aren't you giving him
money?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: I didn't say we weren't. I said we made -- because right now we're
focused on what we consider to be the important humanitarian needs
in front
of us. We may make that decision in the future. Don't rule it
out.
MR.
ERELI: Let's do one more question. Steve.
QUESTION:
To what extent after your travels can you say that this approach is now
going to be adopted by the Europeans and maybe the Arabs? In other
words, reprogramming
money away from the day-to-day operations of the authority and into
these humanitarian efforts delivered by other agencies? In other
words, the
European Union is indicating that their cutoff is about to occur in advance of the
Monday meeting. What are your expectations, especially about since
you've been in touch with
them?
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Well, first of all, I'll let them speak for
themselves, Steve. I
believe they're having a foreign minister's meeting on Monday
which will
address this policy and they may or may not come out with a
statement afterwards. I expect there'll be some statement. Their presentation's
been pretty
consistent so far. They were, of course -- they subscribed as the EU to the
Quartet's decisions on January 30th. They have undertaken their
own assistance
review.
As you
know, the European Union collectively is a very large -- a major donor to the
Palestinians, including the Palestinian Authority. My understanding is that
for them to continue that relationship would be very, very complicated. I don't
want to speak for them, but you can read into the Quartet
statements you've
seen so far the evolution of the attitude in that
respect.
There's
also national assistance programs and in some cases those are
quite considerable. In addition to -- you know, as member-states to the EU they have these
programs. And I think most of the major donors are going through
a summary
review process, as we are. Some have made decisions already. You
may have
seen a Canadian announcement, for example. I think the broad
trend internationally is supportive of the direction in which we are
going.
On the
one hand, people have very clear criteria for what any
Palestinian Government
ought to address and it's now Hamas's responsibility to
address those.
On the one hand, we are also very supportive of the humanitarian needs of the
Palestinian people and we hope to see that those are
satisfied.
MR.
ERELI: Thank you very much. Appreciate
it.
AMBASSADOR
WELCH: Thank you, all. Have a nice
weekend.
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