For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 26, 2001
Background Briefing
By a Senior Administration Official on President's Meeting With Prime Minister Sharon of Israel the James S. Brady Briefing Room
5:30 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: Thank you. As you know, the President
and the Prime Minister met this afternoon. This is the Prime
Minister's second visit to the White House. They met with
their top aides for a little bit over an hour. This was a
very open, serious discussion. The atmosphere in the room, though, I
would say was warm and friendly. These are two men who have, I think,
a great deal of admiration for each other.
The President listened very carefully to what the Prime Minister had to
say about the current situation on the ground between Israelis and
Palestinians. He listened to the Prime Minister's ideas on
how to proceed with the implementation of the Mitchell Committee Report
in all of its elements, including the sequencing and how we will get
from one stage to the next. The President
expressed his personal appreciation and admiration for Prime Minister
Sharon's courageous demonstration of strength through
restraint. He said he understood the enormous pressures that
the Prime Minister is under. The Prime Minister's policy has
helped to create an opportunity to make progress towards ending the
violence, which in the end can save the lives of innocents on both
sides. The President reaffirmed his judgment,
which you heard in the pool spray, that the cease-fire has gained some
momentum, but still remains extremely fragile. The President
made clear his view that much more work needs to be done; there needs
to be a 100-percent effort to fight terror, to stop incitement and to
end violence. The President stressed his view that it's up
to the parties to make the judgments about how the effort is to
proceed. The Prime Minister and the President
also covered a great many other issues, including the threats of
weapons of mass destruction in the region, broader threats of
terrorism, the situation in Iran and Iraq. The President
gave the Prime Minister a readout on his discussions with President
Putin in Slovenia, because of the high interest Israel has in those
issues. The President is dispatching
Secretary Powell tonight to the region, in his second visit to the
area. Secretary Powell will work to help the parties
consolidate the cease-fire, and hopefully, to prepare the ground to
move forward with implementation of the Mitchell Committee Report.
Q Did the President
tell the Prime Minister or urge the Prime Minister to move into the
second phase of the Mitchell Report, and that is the cooling
period? Does he consider this now a cooling off period?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The
President did not make any decisions unilaterally about whether we are
in a cooling-off period, or not. As the Secretary of State
has said before, ultimately it is up to the parties when the level of
violence is sufficient that they can move from one stage to the next.
Q Did he give his
impression on where we are now, or -- SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The President reiterated what he
said to you in the pool spray, which is that we have made some
progress, but much more work needs to be done. There is a
great deal that still needs to be done in order to bring violence under
control. Q What is the
President's reaction to Prime Minister Sharon's 10-day statement
outside? He said that he wanted a 10-day period of total
calm before the cooling-off period. Does the President
endorse that 10-day idea? SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The Prime Minister's position has
been stated before. I don't think this was
new. What we are looking for now is a way to move
forward. Clearly, we agree that there needs to be a period
of calm. The timing of that, the sequencing, the time lines
are things yet to be worked out, and that's what the Secretary is going
to the region, to see if we can't help move forward.
Q If I can just follow
up on that. In the pool spray, the President said that he
would urge a realistic assessment of what's possible on the
ground. And Prime Minister Sharon is talking about 10 days
of complete quiet. Is that a difference of opinion?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I
don't think it's a difference of opinion, but I think it is a
reflection of the very fragile situation. The hold of the
cease-fire remains tenuous. And we need to see efforts by
both parties to try to consolidate it and make it go forward.
Q But would we prefer
Israel not to be so adamant on -- SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This administration's position from
day one has been clear, that we are here to facilitate progress between
the parties, not to impose our views on them.
Q Did the President ask the Prime Minister to
commit for a settlement freeze at this time?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The President and the Prime
Minister spent a great deal of time talking about the entire Mitchell
Committee Report which, as you know, calls for a settlement
freeze. How we will get to that stage of implementing
confidence-building is what still needs to be worked out and what the
Secretary will be going out to the region to work on. Our
view is clear, that the Mitchell Committee Report should be implemented
in all of its elements.
Q What does the Prime Minister think on that?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I
think the Prime Minister has made clear his position
before. We find encouraging the fact that both parties have
accepted the Mitchell Committee Report and we are going to hold to
Mitchell as is, no changes.
Q Where all will the Secretary be visiting on
his trip and exactly how long will he be gone?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I
think that that is still a work in progress. I understand
that we leave imminently to go to Egypt and then we go from there to
Jerusalem. The Secretary, I believe, hopes to be back by the
weekend. Q Who and how
will you make a determination that there has been a 100-percent effort
on both sides? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: I think that's a determination which, as the
President said, has to be based on a reality check. We have
to see what's going on, we have to make that call. We have
extensive contacts with both sides. As you
know, under Director Tenet's work plan, there are very precise things
that each side is supposed to do, and we feel confident that we'll be
able to measure their effort. But at this stage, we feel
that effort is not 100 percent.
Q The Prime Minister said outside he feels
pretty clearly that we need -- he wants 10 days of total peace and
quiet before moving on. The President in the pool spray made
clear that he would be open to moving into a cooling-off period sooner
than that. Can you get into a little bit how the two of them
discussed that and whether the President yielded to the Prime Minister
or -- SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: The two of them discussed the situation and how to
move forward. I don't think that in this case there is any
difference on the fundamental, which is there needs to be a reduction
in the level of violence; we have not gotten to that point yet. In the
end, it will be the parties that have to make the decisions about
whether they're prepared to move to the next stage. The
United States cannot do that for them.
Q How is it possible to lay down these
parameters of a 10-day complete cessation of hostilities, followed by a
six-to-eight week period, without, in effect, handing a veto to the
peace process to anybody who can stuff a can with nails and cordite?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: That's why our view is there has to be a
100-percent effort. The Palestinian Authority must make
100-percent effort to prevent terrorism, to fight terrorists, to stop
incitement, and do what it can to stop violence.
Q With all due respect,
what will 10 days or two months really show us? The last
group of violence that happened three years ago was similar and it
stopped for almost three years, and we're back to the same
situation. What will any particular period of time really
show us? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: The Mitchell Committee Report lays out a sequence
of steps to try to avoid a return to a pattern of violence. There is
no, in the end, perfect solution here. There is only what
the two parties have prepared to make political risks to
do. Our position has been that we will help them in
facilitating, trying to make those hard decisions.
You're absolutely right; we do not want a
reversion to the past. That's why we have supported the Mitchell
Committee Report in its sequenced approach to try to find a better way
forward. Q How will
the Secretary's mission succeed with the Prime Minister so determined
that there be 10 days, and only after then, the cooling-off period?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I
think the Secretary's mission is designed to see if we can't build on
the fragile momentum we have now, consolidate the situation
more. In the end, this is not an American conflict; it is a
conflict between the parties. And they will have to make
those hard decisions. We can push them forward; we can
encourage them; we can facilitate it. But the decisions on
whether we're going to get there will be Israeli and Palestinian
decisions. Q So we
would expect the Prime Minister to change his mind? It seems
to me that he's very determined. SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think that what we have seen over
time here is that the Prime Minister is a man who said he is committed
to the Mitchell Committee Report, which he reiterated to the
President. He is committed to the Tenet work plan and he
repeated that to the President. He wants to make those
work. The President and the Prime Minister
agreed that at this stage, there has not been sufficient reduction in
violence, but we should be looking for ways to move the situation
forward and to build on the fragile momentum that we had since Director
Tenet was in the region.
Q It seems as if the President, at least at this
point, has not made tremendous gains in changing Prime Minister
Sharon's mind about how to get started. What is the
Secretary intending on saying to Chairman Arafat to move him off --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I
think the Secretary will be very clear with Chairman
Arafat. There has to be 100 percent effort to fight
violence, stop incitement and to try to restore a measure of calm and
trust here. Q Is
100-percent effort tantamount to some period of complete quiet, like
Sharon said? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: I think in the end, that will be something we will
have to see when we get to something where we have 100-percent effort.
Q Are there plans to
involve Arafat more, bring him to Washington to talk to the
President? I mean, so far it seems like this is more of a --
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No
plans at this stage for the Chairman to come here. The
Secretary will be seeing him in less than 48 hours.
END 5:40 P.M. EDT
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