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| Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin
Press Briefing, Laromme Hotel Jerusalem, February 1, 1998 As released by the Office of the Spokesman U.S. Department of State |
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I'm just going to read a brief statement on behalf of the Secretary about her meetings tonight. She just got back from roughly four and a half hours of meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu. They were broken into three segments. The first segment was a dinner, a small group dinner, at the Prime Minister's residence that lasted roughly an hour and forty five minutes. During that dinner they focused primarily on the topic of Iraq and then they met briefly, I guess about forty- five minutes, in a one-on-one session, just the two of them and, that leaves one and a half hours, two hours, two plus hours in small group meetings with some breaks and things like that. So from nine through one thirty they had these meetings. She just got back and she asked me to tell you the following and you probably aren't going to have to call home.
Secretary Albright had extensive discussions tonight with Prime Minister Netanyahu. She had a chance to brief him on what the United States is doing to deal with the crisis created by Saddam Hussein's defiance of the world and the Security Council, and his continued blocking of access for the UN inspectors who are seeking to uncover weapons of mass destruction. Not surprisingly, she also spent the bulk of the time talking about how to break the stalemate between the Israelis and the Palestinians on the Middle East peace process. The ideas the President presented to the Prime Minister and Chairman Arafat and the initial reactions both leaders have had to these ideas. In light of the preliminary reactions of both sides, the Secretary raised some new additional ideas on how to move forward.
The Secretary and the Prime Minister had a detailed exchange of views on these refinements. I will now try to do the best I can with the little bit I know on background.
QUESTION: You weren't on the one on one meeting.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Correct.
QUESTION: So there is nothing that we can ask you that you can say it didn't come up? Right, if I say to you that she.. you don't know everything that went on..
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Correct, but I would like to go back..
QUESTION: I am not criticizing. I am saying that you can't say, for instance, whether she asked Israel to hold it's fire if Iraq attacks.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Right, I was not there. I do not know the answer to that question. They discussed the issue in detail of Iraq and what the United States was doing and what its plans are for how to deal with the crisis. You will have a chance to ask her tomorrow. The Prime Minister may get asked this question during the course of his daily forays with the media and he will presumably have something to say on that as well. Again, I don't think they would be in a position to talk about what she said tonight if they are talking about the ideas that preceded tonight's meetings.
QUESTION: ...Chairman Arafat
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Well, as far as any such meetings are concerned, I can't give you a read about that. Certainly, we would like to see both sides pursue what they can do to build confidence. One of the ways we thought was a step forward was Chairman Arafat's letter detailing which parts of the charter have been annulled. I read that letter to you. The Palestinians, apparently, were going to take another step to have that executive council affirm those actions and we would like to see as much confidence building develop as possible. As far as why they did or didn't do that I don't know, I will take you at your word for what they said the reasons were but, all I can say is that this will presumably be something that is discussed tomorrow with Chairman Arafat because it is an issue that is of importance to build confidence through these kind of steps envisaged by Oslo.
QUESTION: What, (inaudible) refinements that you oppose (inaudible) proposals (inaudible)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Well, the only specificity that I can give you about this is that the ideas that President Clinton put forward and Secretary Albright has been refining in her discussions with the two leaders are based on a parallel, step-by-step process, where the two sides will take simultaneous steps, the Palestinians on security, the Israelis on further redeployment. The nature of that further redeployment, its quantity, its quality and its timing, are things that are being discussed intensively right now and it's our view that it wouldn't be wise to get into the details.
QUESTION: At least you don't want to go into details until the other side hears some of these details.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: And to the extent that we'll be even able to go into details at that point.
QUESTION: Well, you didn't answer Carol really. You folks have had various views, jumping to final status talks, and whether you have to go through the interim stage, you can do it simultaneously now. What is the current U.S. position. Should there be two more stages of withdrawal, or can there be one stage additionally and jump right into final status.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Well, we are looking for the best path to get us to the final status negotiations and build on the Oslo accords. We are trying to marry those two, and as you know, one of the pieces of that puzzle that we are trying to put together is the question of further redeployment. That is an issue under discussion. I cannot tell you what our ideas are on how many further redeployments and when they would take place, what they would contain, except to say that we stand by Secretary Christopher's letter in substance.
QUESTION: Is Israel considered an important or significant player in the Iraqi crisis, or is Israel on the sidelines in this crisis as far as the Secretary is concerned.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I think the Secretary, like all secretaries of state and all recent presidents, feels very strongly about the security of Israel and certainly the Secretary of State today in London made clear that our concern here is the threat that Saddam Hussein poses to the region -- that means the Arab neighbors in the region and Israel which is also in the region. So of course the threat that he poses is particularly germane here, it's germane throughout the region.
QUESTION: Was she a happy Secretary of State when she came back? Was she swearing? Was she saying, "you know, he's really a great guy." How would you describe her mood?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I think the Secretary of State woke up very early this morning in, where were we London, and had a long session with Foreign Minister Cook, we had a long plane ride, she was in four and a half hours of meetings, plus travel, and now it is two in the morning. So the only thing that I can say definitively is that the Secretary of State is a little on the tired side.
QUESTION: What is the Administration's position on the whole issue of whether Israel should or should not retaliate if attacked by Iraq?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Well, we feel very strongly that the United States must take the lead in explaining to the countries in Europe and now the countries in the region about the stakes involved in the crisis with Iraq, the importance of dealing with it, the importance of not ruling out options. As far as what would or would not happen in a hypothetical use of force, I'm not in a position to talk about it.
QUESTION: Do you recognize Israel's sovereign right to defend itself if attacked, or is that something that has to be worked out with the U.S. in a configuration of a larger problem.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: This sounds like one of those questions that I will be sorry that I answered, so let me simply say this, that Israel is a close friend and the United States and Israel worked closely during the Gulf war, and would continue to closely coordinate in any security situation.
QUESTION: ...(inaudible) in the morning before she goes to breakfast.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Yes, Defense Minister Mordechai.
QUESTION: Why did you run so late?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I think it's the nature of these things. They had two very important topics, the same topics that we all briefed you on the plane, which went on quite long, so long that many of the other people on the plane that many of the other people on the plane didn't get to eat for a long time. And let me finish my answer, but if you have any further commentary at any time, please jump in. The subjects are intensive, they are very important subjects. Iraq is a subject that involves the security of the region, the security of the world, and the Middle East peace process is something she's been working on very hard so one could say they were long there four and a half hours but one could say they were short but they clearly went on for four and a half hours.
QUESTION: It went much more than was scheduled to begin with.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: It is my experience with these types of meetings is that they in both the case with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other meetings of this kind, that those of us who expect meetings to go on longer than scheduled, schedules are designed to set some plans but in a situation like this it wasn't surprising or strange that it went on longer, given the importance of the issues.
QUESTION: All three countries you've been in, in fact, with the fourth leader- King Hussein- we were given to understand that all of them supported- to one degree or another- that Saddam Hussein has to open his sites to inspection. We were pretty much a description from the United States how your friends- if you still consider Russia a friend- how they felt about this policy. Can you tell, give us some idea what Israel's views are?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Well, I wouldn't want to speak for the Israelis on this subject, but I don't think there is any doubt in our minds that Israel and the United States share the objective of getting Saddam Hussein to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
QUESTION: Yesterday, the Turkish Prime Minister said that they could be mediator for this effort, and today the Turkish Prime Minister said they would start their efforts very soon. Did the U.S. administration have any contacts with Turkey about this mediation attempt?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I haven't heard any specific comment from our people on a Turkish effort in this regard. Our view on all efforts in this area is that it's not so important who the messenger is, it's important what the message is. And the message has to be compliance and no more excuses.
QUESTION: ...the other parts of the agenda- the time out.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I am sure in the course of this long discussion that went on a long time that the full scope of the Middle East peace process was discussed and certainly one of the major topics was how to accelerate the permanent peace talks and one piece of that puzzle as we said for some time was the time out. So I would be very surprised if that did not come up at all.
QUESTION: Will she talk to Arafat tomorrow about Iraq?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I presume so, yes. This trip has two basic components, Iraq and the Middle East peace process. In previous meetings Chairman Arafat has publicly called on Iraq to abide by its UN Security Council resolutions and I would be surprised if that didn't come up in some way.
QUESTION: Secretary Cohen made statements today in Washington to try to downplay expectations of a bombing strike might have in obtaining compliance from Saddam Hussein. I believe General Shelton also told the administration that a massive bombing strike was not an option. How concerned is the Secretary of State that these messages might cut into her sales pitch as she goes around the Gulf States this coming week.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I would disagree wholeheartedly with your characterization of the military advice given to the President or others about how our objectives can be achieved. I would point you toward the objectives the Secretary has pointed to herself, publicly, which are two. One is if force is necessary, that it be significant enough to thwart Saddam Hussein's ability to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction, and to prevent him from being a threat to his neighbors. Those objectives are not inconsistent to Secretary Cohen's statements.
QUESTION: Was there any discussion this evening about a meeting between Netanyahu and Arafat or a trilateral meeting? How are we going to follow up?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: I think she will be down to talk to you all. Hopefully that meeting won't last so long that she won't be able to meet with you and I think it's planned that she'll meet with you tomorrow and then be able to talk about next steps to the extent that next steps are planned. But given that she has not yet talked to Chairman Arafat I just don't see...
QUESTION: King Hussein of Jordan made a rather extraordinary statement in the form of a letter to the Crown Prince today that his state of health was deteriorating. Has the Secretary received any further information on this, is this a matter of any concern?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY RUBIN: Well, I'm not familiar with that letter. I know she met with him last night and I did not see her or anybody saying that he was unable to conduct the meeting. I just don't have anything for you on that.
Thank you.
[End of Document]
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