(Says Palestinian prime minister has been empowered to make decisions) (1230) State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States looks forward to working with Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians. "We've been looking for a long time, since the president's speech, to meet with Palestinian leaders, to try to take steps with Palestinian leaders that would benefit ordinary Palestinians and try to help them achieve their goals of having a state that can live in peace side by side with Israel," Boucher said at the daily State Department briefing in Washington May 7. Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to meet Abu Mazen in the West Bank during his coming trip to the Middle East. Last year, the U.S. government said it would no longer deal with Yasser Arafat as the Palestinian leader and called for the Palestinian legislature to designate a prime minister and a cabinet to represent the Palestinians in peace efforts with Israel. "Abu Mazen has been empowered by his legislature to carry out the functions of prime minister, and we look forward to working with him in that regard," Boucher said. Following is an excerpt from Boucher's May 7 briefing containing his comments about Abu Mazen: (begin excerpt) QUESTION: Back to the Palestinian Authority. Abu Mazen has come under some criticism for being too close to the United States. And my question is: Do you -- are you at all concerned that the upcoming meeting between him and Secretary Powell may sap his legitimacy or credibility with the Palestinian people to make the kind of the changes you want him to make? MR. BOUCHER: I have never heard anybody be accused of losing legitimacy because he met with partners to achieve peace for his people. I think it's important to understand that we have been looking for a long time, since the President's speech, to meet with Palestinian leaders to try to take steps with Palestinians leaders that would benefit ordinary Palestinians and try to help them achieve their goals of having a state that can live in peace side by side with Israel. We have the opportunity now to sit down and do that with a representative of the Palestinian side who has been approved by the Palestinian legislature, has the endorsement thereby of Palestinians, more generally, because of that process, and is in a position, we hope, to exercise the kind of leadership that can achieve the goals of the Palestinian people. So I think being able to sit down with people who can help you, in order to achieve the goals that your people want, is usually considered a positive action and not a negative one. QUESTION: Let me just ask it another way. As I am sure you know, Yasser Arafat is still a political player on the ground in the West Bank and in Gaza, and he has specifically criticized Abu Mazen for being too close to the Americans. And there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the United States is not particularly popular right now with the Palestinian people. Is there any concern at all that the U.S. public meetings with the new leader could undercut his credibility? MR. BOUCHER: I think public meetings with leadership is the only way to achieve anything. QUESTION: Okay. MR. BOUCHER: Consider the alternative. If one accepted your proposition, then it would be better not to meet with anybody and talk about peace and talk about how the Palestinians can -- QUESTION: No, but like what you do with the Iranians, and like, you know, back door envoys, and do it in private and don't admit to it. MR. BOUCHER: I think everybody knows the history of the Middle East is a little bit different than the history of our relationships with Iran, especially since 1979. QUESTION: Sure. MR. BOUCHER: For those of us who have been in the Foreign Service since then, we remember. But the point, I think, is that Abu Mazen has been empowered by his legislature to carry out the functions of Prime Minister, and we look forward to working with him in that regard. Are we going to agree on everything? Probably not. We don't agree on everything with anybody, with any other government or prime minister. So, but we intend to work with him, see if we can achieve the goals that he wants and that the Israelis want and that we all want, and that's for Israelis and Palestinians both to be able to live normal lives in peace in this region. The only way to achieve that is to work together with us, to work together with the Israelis, to work together with the Palestinians, to try to achieve those goals. QUESTION: New subject? QUESTION: Actually, can we stay on this subject? MR. BOUCHER: Andrea. QUESTION: Richard, is the U.S. satisfied that Abu Mazen, Mahmoud Abas, is a free agent and is not somebody who is sort of speaking on behalf of Yasser Arafat, that Yasser Arafat is not still exercising control? MR. BOUCHER: I am not going to try to do political analysis. I can tell you the -- QUESTION: But I think it's important. MR. BOUCHER: I can tell you the -- QUESTION: It's important. MR. BOUCHER: Well, then you can do the political analysis. I -- QUESTION: No, no, no. I mean, I'm just -- MR. BOUCHER: Let me tell you what the objective facts are. QUESTION: Yeah. MR. BOUCHER: The objective facts are that he has been empowered by the Palestinian legislature, he has been given a set of responsibilities, he's had a cabinet approved, he's had the framework of his functions have been approved by the Palestinian legislature to do certain things. We've said all along that was a very welcome process that indicated that, in principle, he had the authority to exercise these important functions. We've also said it's important that he does exercise those functions, that he does find ways to effectively control security, that he does find ways to institute, continue to institute, transparent finances, that he does find ways to exercise his authority over all these areas. So that's something, I guess, you'd have to say that remains to be proven. But certainly the authority that he has should be sufficient to put him in the position of leadership where he can make these decisions and take his community forward towards peace. QUESTION: And the U.S. -- one of the overriding concerns of this government here in Washington was that there be new leadership in the territories and that Mahmoud Abas would represent someone other than Yasser Arafat because this administration had decided it didn't want to deal with him. That's why I was asking the question. MR. BOUCHER: And all I can say is he's got the authority to do so and we'll work with him in order to achieve those goals. QUESTION: So is it -- does the U.S. believe that Yasser Arafat, as far as a decision maker has been concerned, that he has been sidelined? MR. BOUCHER: Even if I were a political analyst, which I'm not, I would think that a week or so after he's been sworn in is maybe a little too early to reach a definitive judgment on his tenure as prime minister.