For Immediate Release
March 3, 2005

Global Message

From remarks by Secretary of State Rice in various interviews 3/1/05

The roadmap is still the reliable guide to getting to a two-state solution.

Prime Minister Sharon has made clear, and the United States has asked that Israel make clear, that the Gaza withdrawal is not separate from the roadmap but consistent with the roadmap.

We eventually will have to get back onto the roadmap where the parties are taking the necessary steps on the way to the two-state solution, but we also need Palestinian reform.

We need a peaceful Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza, which the Israelis now appear ready to do.

The Israelis and the Palestinians need to cooperate so that when there are terrorist attacks they can work together to keep the talks on course, and to ensure that the perpetrators are arrested.

President Bush strongly believes that there is no place in the world in which the universal values of liberty and freedom should be excluded.

For too long the West, including the United States, assumed that it could turn a blind eye to the freedom deficit in the Middle East. What resulted was a malignancy that produced al Qaeda and the extremist philosophies. The only way to fight those extremist ideologies is to spread freedom.