"I do not think we are there yet,". "I would hope that we would be in a position to recognize a Palestinian state, but there has to be one first.

VOA: standard.2009.11.17

"So we are only now beginning to be in a position to have the assets in place and the strategy or the military approach in place to begin to implement the strategy and this is going to take some time,".

VOA: standard.2009.09.03

"It sure looks like the way they are suppressing speech, the way they are suppressing crowds, they way in which people are being treated that there is some real doubt about I do not think we are in a position to say,".

VOA: standard.2009.06.14

So I think that is somewhat premature. We have said previously if you go back to what the European Union has said that we would be in a position to recognize a Palestinian state, but the conditions are not there as of yet."

VOA: standard.2009.11.17

"But,it puts us in a very awkward position because,if we cannot go there ourselves to see what they are doing, to whom they are distributing and what criteria they are using, how much they are keeping for themselves, how much is getting lost, we start losing control over it,"

VOA: standard.2009.08.07