THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release November 6, 2000
PRESS BRIEFING
BY
JAKE SIEWERT
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
10:45 A.M. EST
Q Jake, jumping back to the Middle East, if I remember
correctly, when these meetings between Barak, the President and Arafat
were first proposed, they were conditioned on the fact that you would
make progress in the Sharm el-Sheikh --
MR. SIEWERT: No, we have talked at great length about the
importance of implementing Sharm el-Sheikh. I have never said here that
there is one specific set of preconditions before such a meeting would
take place. We've said that it's important to continue to take steps to
implement Sharm el-Sheikh, to end the violence and to begin to find a
way back to some sort of political solution and how best we could do
that.
But we have said all along that we'll make any judgment about any
visits based on an overall assessment of whether they might be useful.
....
Q Jake, is the meeting that are going to be here designed to
shore-up Sharm el-Sheikh or move also beyond that, and try to move
somewhere back in the peace process, in other words, to get the
President in a position where he can do more with the two leaders before
leaving office?
MR. SIEWERT: They are designed to discuss the current situation on
the ground, to find ways to restore calm and lower the level of violence
there, and how best to move forward towards a political dialogue. But,
ultimately, that's a decision the parties will have to make.
Q What state would you say Sharm is in right now, based on what
you're seeing on the ground?
MR. SIEWERT: It's not very useful for me to stand up here every
day and pretend to assess the situation on the ground. That's best done
in the region. We think that Sharm el-Sheikh is the best possible means
of reducing the violence and finding a way back to a long-term political
solution. That's our policy and that's what we'll be stating and
restating as the two parties arrive here.
Q But my question wasn't to ask you what you think of the state
of things on the ground. My question was, how do you think Sharm
el-Sheikh is going and how do you think the two sides are moving toward
implementation --
MR. SIEWERT: I think we've seen some steps - the Prime Minister
said this morning in the region that there have been some steps taken to
implement Sharm el-Sheikh, and we certainly share that assessment, there
has been some efforts to reduce the violence. But much more needs to be
done. There is too much violence still in the streets and that's part
of the reason why we're trying to gather both of the parties here, to
try to find a way to implement the security measures that were
anticipated by the agreement at Sharm el-Sheikh and to begin to restore
calm and lower the level of violence.
END 11:07 A.M. EST
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