(State Department) - State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday, "The imperative on the Palestinian side of getting a handle on their security situation...ending the activities of groups that have supported terrorism, remains as strong as before....Any Palestinian prime minister...needs to have the commitment, the authority, and the resources to do that." "We have not bothered to talk to Mr. Arafat because our previous efforts to work directly with him didn't produce anything....We were making progress without dealing with Arafat. When we were dealing with Arafat, we weren't making progress. That is the objective fact the President talked about on June 24th of last year, that we had a failed leadership that wasn't leading us anywhere. That's been tried. Been there, done that. Road don't lead nowhere."
2003-09-10 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive