U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
Briefer: Philip T. Reeker, Deputy Spokesman
TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2000, 1:42 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
QUESTION: It is not on this, but it is on Israel. I guess on
Thursday, I understand, that the senior Israeli Defense Ministry
officials will be coming to this building to talk about what they
hope will be wrapping up an arms exporting agreement. Can you
give any kind of expectation, if you think that is going to be
done before the Barak-Clinton meeting? Can you talk about it at
all?
MR. REEKER: Yes. In anticipation of your presence here, I
checked into that. Upcoming talks between the US and Israel is
part of our continuing discussions that we began earlier this
month in response to the President's announcement after the Camp
David summit that we will: (1) conduct a comprehensive review to
improve our strategic relationship with Israel; to conclude a
Memorandum of Understanding regarding our bilateral assistance;
and consider assistance to upgrade Israel's security in view of
its withdrawal from Lebanon.
I think we talked about earlier the three days of discussions
that were held earlier this month which were intensive,
constructive, beneficial. But, at the time, we said that more
work needs to be done and we had planned to have additional
discussions. The present discussions are a continuation of that
work that we began in early August, and that is what will be
taking place with the group you described.
QUESTION: Will you be talking at all about technology transfer
and the question of whether, if Israel builds its own military
technology, who it can sell them to? There has been talk about a
list of four countries: China, Russia, India and Pakistan.
MR. REEKER: Well, in terms of questions about Israel's - any
proposed arms sales or transfers, I would have to refer you to
the Israeli Government, obviously. I think our talks will focus
on the subjects that I listed. We are not engaged in any
discussions with Israel regarding US arms sales to any country.
QUESTION: We are not engaged regarding US arms sales?
MR. REEKER: Right. Just to clarify, he was asking about arms
sales generally so I was making a point that we are not engaged
in any discussion about that. We do take into consideration the
effect on Israel's qualitative military edge when making our
decisions about arms sales to other countries. But US arms sales
policy is not a subject of these discussions at all.
QUESTION: How about Israeli arms sales policy?
MR. REEKER: I think, in broadly discussing the issues that we
outlined - that the President outlined - in terms of a
comprehensive review of our strategic relationship with Israel,
and a Memorandum of Understanding regarding our bilateral
assistance is what we will be talking about there. I don't have
anything more specific beyond that.
QUESTION: Also, you said that the present talks? This is right;
they begin Thursday?
MR. REEKER: Yes, exactly. Present, as in this is the set of
talks.
QUESTION: And they're how long?
MR. REEKER: I don't know. I don't have a specific set of --
QUESTION: But they are not open-ended days?
MR. REEKER: No. We had three days of discussions last time. I
would anticipate a similar session beginning later this week.
(The briefing was concluded at 2:40 P.M.)
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