Rumsfeld: negotiated Fallujah settlement "difficult"

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says a negotiated settlement of the situation in Fallujah that does not include the capture of the former regime insurgents and foreign fighters would be difficult and remote.

Briefing reporters at the Pentagon April 20, Rumsfeld was asked whether there could be a negotiated settlement that did not include the capture of the insurgents.

"You never know how discussions are going to play out," Rumsfeld said. "The difficulty with these discussions, as I understand them, is that the people who are causing the trouble aren't part of the discussions. ... So the chances of those discussions producing an outcome along the lines you have described [are], it seems to me, to be difficult."

Asked if the United States would negotiate away the opportunity to take those terrorists and foreign fighters into custody," Rumsfeld replied: One would think not."

He said there is a possibility "that you might be able to get some of the wrongdoers brought to justice peacefully," but he added, "It seems remote to me."

Marine General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed with Rumsfeld and provided a brief operational update of the situations in both Fallujah and Najaf. Militarily, Pace said, the Marines outside Fallujah "are still poised to resume offensive operations ... still taking very aggressive defensive protective measures ... [and] as they are attacked, they are very aggressively killing the enemy [but] are giving the political figures in the country the opportunity to work out a political solution."

In Najaf, Pace said, coalition forces, some of whom are replacing departing Spanish troops, are outside the city right now. As with Fallujah, Pace said, the military is "trying to create the atmosphere ... that will get the people to talk to each other and find a peaceful solution."

Rumsfeld, when asked about the risks involved in transferring sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30 under current circumstances, responded, "Unquestionably, there are risks" in moving a society from a vicious and repressive regime to some kind of representative government. ... Everyone has to feel they have a stake in it."

The minority Sunnis, who were favored under the old regime, "have to feel that they have a ... stake in the country ... or else that system's not going to work," he said.

The risks are that if the Iraqis are given the opportunity for self-government, they may fail, he said. "On the other hand, if you don't pass responsibility ... they'll never develop the ... institutional capability to assume that responsibility. And therefore you have to take risks," he said.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)