White House Press Corps.org: Press Briefing on President's Participation in 61st United Nations General Assembly 09/15/06 (Topic: Middle Eastern Democracy)

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Press Briefing on President's Participation in 61st United Nations General Assembly 09/15/06 (Topic: Middle Eastern Democracy)
— Friday, September 15, 2006 —

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Q Hi. We've heard the President talk at length about his vision of spreading democracy to the Middle East. Are there any new twists this time, or is it pretty much the same or an extension of what he said before?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Why don't I let my colleague comment on that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, okay. I think that many of the elements you will have heard before, but this is the attempt of the President to put forth a kind of a comprehensive vision, tying together all of the different arenas in the Middle East and explaining how he understands them to be -- to fit together. As my colleague said, we have two kinds of states in the region. We've got those that are -- those in which there's an absence of freedom, and we have those in which, I would just say, weak states in which we need to help them build the institutions of freedom. And the three cases would be Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority -- of states that need our assistance.

And I think, in a way, he'll be saying, you know, the international community needs to come forward to help Middle Easterners realize their desire for freedom. He would say that very much what we are seeing across the region is a struggle for freedom. There are states, like Iran and Syria, that sponsor terrorism and they do so in order to stop the region from reforming and allowing people to realize their desire. He'll have in each case -- Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority -- I think he will have very concrete suggestions about the path forward for realizing his vision of freedom and role that the international community can play in that.

I don't want to preview for you right now exactly the steps that he's going to suggest, but in terms of what is going to be new, I think that's where you should be looking. You should be looking at the comprehensive vision, and then the immediate steps.

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Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 6:10 PM

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