Downing Street Says » Washington Talks

Asked if the President needed to push more force behind the momentum towards a peace process in the Middle East, the PMOS said that of course the Government wanted to drive it forward, and that they also recognised that the US was in a unique position to help drive that process forward. The PMOS also said that the two governments could not move it forward unilaterally. They could help the players in the regions, but they could not impose on them, and instead they would have to work with the Palestinians and the Israelis to drive it forward.

Asked if there was a role that the UK, US and European leaders could play in helping a smoother Palestinian electoral process over the next 40 days, given the Israeli presence, the PMOS replied that question would be better answered tomorrow, but that helping the process of elections was important, and that linked up to his earlier comments about helping the political development.

Asked if there was any pressure on President Bush to appoint a Special Envoy to the Middle East, the PMOS answered that talk about formats and procedures was secondary to talk about momentum and sending a signal of intent.

Asked if there was going to be another conference, the PMOS replied that the same answer applied, and what was important was to get the momentum, and then a decision could be made about what tools to use to achieve the goals.

Asked if the Roadmap was the objective, the PMOS replied that it was, and what we had to do was to recreate the momentum to go towards it.

Asked what the other items on the agenda for the Washington talks were, apart from the Middle East and Iraq, the PMOS said that Iraq was obviously still important, not least because momentum still needed to be kept going towards their elections. Other issues were relations with Europe, and how things would be moved forward, and also the G8 issues of Africa on climate change.

Asked if there were going to be discussions about moving more troops into Southern Iraq, the PMOS replied that he was not aware of any.

Asked what the Iranians’ answer was to the final offer made by the E3 ahead if the IEA Board, the PMOS answered that there was still a tentative agreement at political director level, and it had gone back to the Governments, who will deliver their verdicts on it. It was not just a matter for the US and Britain, but for other governments as well. The PMOS imagined that Iran would be discussed with President Bush and the Prime Minister during their dinner, as this was their chance to have a one to one, wide ranging talk.

Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken this week to either President Chirac or Chancellor Schroeder to determine their positions, the PMOS replied that he was not aware of any conversations.

Asked again about the EU relations and their decisions about the Middle East, the PMOS replied that of course the Prime Minister will have discussed these issues with them at the recent EU Council, but Europe now has 25 members, so there are diverse views to be considered. The important thing was how to harness those views towards goals everyone believed in and wanted to achieve.

Asked about the UK’s Presidency of the EU next year, and whether it would be linked to the role of the Quartet, the PMOS said that the Quartet remained an important player in the Middle East and an important mechanism to involve Europe.

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» Thursday, November 11, 2004

Washington Talks

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