S.N.A.F.U. at State

From Condi's remarks:

QUESTION:...Immediately after Annapolis, we introduced our -- Ambassador Khalilzad introduced at the UN the draft of a resolution or some ideas toward a resolution that would embody some of the Annapolis ideas. And then, by his account and press reports, that was withdrawn because the Israelis were not happy with that course. And that was played in the Arab world, on Al Jazeera, in the newspapers, as evidence that it was the Israelis who called the shots, not the Americans. It was a big story for them. And I'd like you to just to address it. What happened? Why did it go that way?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, after Annapolis, at the UN there was a desire to do something to welcome Annapolis and there were several options. One was a simple press statement. Another was a presidential statement. Another was a resolution of some kind. And discussions were going on as to what of those -- which of those would be most useful and what it might say. And Zal wanted to get a sense of what anything, any of those, would say and he went in to session with the Council.

It was very clear that there needed to be some more work done -- and by the way, not just with the Israelis but with the Palestinians as well -- about not what would be said -- I don't think anybody was concerned about what would be said -- but about the wisdom of a resolution at that moment.

And so when it went back to capitals, there was just a few that the resolution was not going to be helpful or welcome. You know, frankly, I wish that perhaps the capitals had spoken a little bit more clearly through their representatives. But they didn't, and no one was concerned that there was any walking back from what would have been the text of either a resolution or a presidential statement, but at that point it seemed that frankly the simplest and quickest thing to do was to simply have the Indonesian presidency state what had been stated, rather than continuing to work on something which frankly was not considered to have much force. So that's the story.