Condoleezza Rice on Iraq, Lebanon and Cuba

GREGORY: About this international force, what will its parameters be? Will its primary mission be to disarm Hezbollah?

RICE: Well, the mandate of the international force has not yet been written because we wanted to get to a place that we could establish certain political conditions that would not allow return to the status quo ante. But I don't think there's any expectation that the international force is somehow going to disarm Hezbollah.

GREGORY: Well, then who does it then, is the question?

RICE: The Lebanese.

GREGORY: But the Lebanese government has yet to even condemn Hezbollah. Is that a concern?

RICE: Let's remember that Hezbollah has two wings. It has the political wing; it has the military wing. You can't have one foot in politics, one foot in terror. And the Lebanese government has certain obligations under not just Resolution 1559, which was passed a couple of years ago in the Security Council, but also under something called the Taif Accords, which was essentially brokered by Saudi Arabia in 1989 to disarm militias.

Now, right now, the country is (INAUDIBLE) state within a state. It has Hezbollah that has this military wing that caused this attack, that operates singularly in itself. And so, yes, you have to extend the authority of the Lebanese government. You have to rebuild the Lebanese armed forces.

But the Lebanese do not want a circumstance in which their territory can be used in this way, bringing destruction down on the entire country. So this is a matter of getting the status quo -- not going back to the status quo ante in the south and then allowing a political process, with the support of the international force, to disarm Hezbollah.

GREGORY: Do you think that Hezbollah, which will have to be an important part of this process, will actually allow an international force to come in which will have the mandate of helping the Lebanese government effectively destroy it?

RICE: Well, first of all, (INAUDIBLE) the Lebanese themselves, when Prime Minister Siniora was at Rome, called for an international force.

He went back, and he got a cabinet decision that included the two Hezbollah ministers that there should be an international force, U.N.-mandated force.

We will see what Hezbollah does, but they will certainly be outside of the consensus of their own country. They'll be outside the consensus of the region if they do want to see the conditions that would permit a sustainable end to the violence.

GREGORY: In the view of the administration, has Hezbollah to date been sufficiently degraded to justify the wide-scale loss of human life?

RICE: Well, I cannot speak to the military realities on the ground. I do think that the issue of Hezbollah at the border, able to carry out the kinds of attacks that it has, with the command and control that it has, and so forth, that there has been significant degradation of some of those capabilities.

But the real key here, of course, is to create conditions in the south so that they cannot operate freely in this militia way without the consent of the Lebanese government, without the consent of the Lebanese armed forces. And that's what we have to try and establish. And that would be a real change, David, a real change in the circumstances of Lebanon.

GREGORY: As the fighting continues, as more lives are lost, there is some sense of urgency within the international community to end the fighting. But how concerned are you, especially with threats from Hezbollah that they might attack Tel Aviv, that this could become a wider war, could become a more intense war, before you get around to a cease-fire?

RICE: Well, you have to be concerned about the potential for the region as a whole. I think everyone is concerned about that. But we are moving, I think pretty effectively now, with the French and with others in the United Nations, toward a cessation of hostilities, toward an end to the fighting, an end to the violence, so that -- and, by the way, on the basis of a kind of political framework that would prevent this return to the status quo ante.

We then have to move in a second phase to a security force, and we do have to get to a sustainable and permanent cease-fire. This is a process that we will be beginning with the resolution that we hope will be ready, and I believe will be ready, within days.

But, obviously, Lebanon remains a place that is greatly fragile, but it's been fragile for a lot of years. Syrian forces were there for 30 years. We finally succeeded in getting Syrian forces out. You now have a government in Lebanon that is democratically elected, that has a wide range of people in it, obviously, but also has a kind of democratic center coming out of the March 14th movement, the true democrats of the country.

And so there is a lot to work with here. And while it may be fragile, while clearly this terrible spasm of violence has had tremendous costs, human costs to Lebanon, human costs for Israel, what we must stay focused on is getting a sustainable cease-fire, a sustainable end to this violence that will not allow this to happen again in several months or even in several years.

GREGORY: Secretary Rice, only a couple of minutes left, let me turn to the issue of Cuba in our remaining moments. What is the latest this government knows about Fidel Castro's condition, his health?

RICE: Well, given the nature of that society, I don't think anyone knows the nature of Fidel Castro's health. I will say this though,

David: A transition is clearly under way in Cuba. One way or another, a transition is under way.

The people of Cuba have lived too long without freedom. They've lived too long as the exception in this hemisphere. And as you go down the street here to the Organization of American States, the only seat that's empty is Cuba, and that is because you have to be a democracy to be a part of the Organization of American States.

It's time for the Cuban people to have their freedom. And so, as this transition goes forward, the United States is prepared and has been preparing, through a commission that the president appointed several years ago, to plan for support to the Cuban people in their aspirations for democracy and freedom. We're working with international partners to make certain that the Cuban people know that they would have support and help in what will undoubtedly be a difficult transition.

But it's extremely important that no one think that it is acceptable when there is a change in Cuba that the Cuban people have to go from one dictator to another. In a hemisphere in which democracy is the rule not the exception, the Cuban people deserve a better future...

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: How concerned is this government about an attempted mass exodus from Cuba?

RICE: Well, clearly we believe that Cubans should stay in Cuba and be a part of what will be a transition to democracy. That's why we want to put in place and are putting in place efforts to help in whatever may be the near-term problem of Cuba and the Cuban people, as they come out of this transition.

We've looked at humanitarian assistance to them. We've looked at international support to them, what kinds of support would they need in that transition. So Cubans can stay knowing that they will have the support of the United States for a peaceful and democratic transition.

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