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James P. Rubin, Assistant Secretary Excerpt from Briefing at Chesapeake College Wye Mills, Maryland October 16, 1998

MR. RUBIN: (In progress)--to create that intimate atmosphere we're looking for here.

Let me start with a few comments on the activities today, and then move to the subject of Kosovo for those of you who are interested in that.

With respect to today, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat met today and Secretary Albright joined them for lunch at River House--the area where we're conducting this exercise. What we expect to happen during the rest of the day is that the interim committee and other committees are going to meet during the course of the day, and have been meeting over many hours, and will report to the three at about 4:00 p.m. That will include the subjects of the Gaza airport, safe passage, other economic issues and the question of security.

So these committees will be meeting, working together with and without American participation, and then will report on how much progress, if any, they have made to the three leaders at about 4:00 p.m.--at which point Secretary Albright, I expect, is going to be reporting to the President during the course of the day; probably at the end of that report from the committee heads on those four issues.

If you want me to take some questions on that, I can. I can also report to you on some information on Kosovo.

Q Will you come back this evening?

MR. RUBIN: I haven't made that decision finally yet. What I'd like to be able to do is give you a heads-up in the mid-afternoon of whether there's going to be another briefing in the early evening/late afternoon time period.

Q (Inaudible)--let me ask you about tomorrow. Let me ask you about tonight.

MR. RUBIN: Well, I'm trying to give you the schedule as it is unfolding. As far as tomorrow is concerned, you know the constraints the Israeli delegation is under. I would expect people to talk to each other; but as far as formal work or note-taking or formal travel, I wouldn't expect that. But we'll have to see. There is a dinner planned for tonight with the Palestinian and American delegations that Secretary Albright will host. The Israelis, for their religious reasons, will not be at that dinner.

Q Did the President give the parties an ultimatum and say, essentially, either come up with complete agreement--(inaudible)--by Tuesday or failure?

MR. RUBIN: I received pretty reasonable read-outs of the various meetings, including the two hours or so the President and Secretary Albright spent with Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Netanyahu at dinner last night, and I never heard anyone suggesting such a thing.

What we have said--and I will be happy to repeat--is that our goal is to complete the work, if possible, by Sunday. We don't want to speculate what would happen after Sunday.

Q A couple of weeks ago, the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat would share a meal together was in and of itself newsworthy; and you just sort of rattled that off at the beginning of your statement there. Is it becoming--are they becoming more relaxed around one another? Is there a rapport or a thaw that's developing?

MR. RUBIN: Well, as we indicated yesterday, we did try to create a setting here at Wye to maximize the chance for producing a constructive and pragmatic atmosphere. That means informal settings; it means the possibility of taking walks. I believe the lunch is going to be overlooking the river, people dressed rather informally. So we are also, as I indicated yesterday, the term of art, I guess, in this business is cross-pollination. I'm not sure what that means, but certainly a lot of contact between the delegations over meals and informally in this informal setting.

So it does appear that there is a better and more constructive atmosphere and more pragmatic atmosphere to work on these problems than there had been in the past. Let's remember, prior to Secretary Albright's meeting with the two leaders in New York and the President's subsequent meeting the next day, there hadn't been a meeting between the two leaders in 11 or so months. And now we've not only increased the frequency, but turned it into something that's more normal; something that one hopes will make each leader understand the needs, constraints and concerns of the other so that practical solutions can be found to very real problems.

Q But specifically between the two men, because the relationship between them and the understanding is so important, have you seen anything or has the Secretary seen anything to lead you to believe that they're coming closer together in terms of their mindset?

MR. RUBIN: I don't know about mindset, but I can tell you that the informality of it all has increased and it isn't as stiff as it used to be.

Q What are the other economic issues being dealt with by the interim committee, and is there also a working group on release of Palestinian prisoners?

MR. RUBIN: On?

Q Release of Palestinian prisoners.

MR. RUBIN: No, the four working groups that I'm aware of are the ones I specified. As far as other economic issues are concerned, I think clearly the Palestinian Authority and the people living there have suffered economically in recent years, and they have various ideas and others have various ideas of how to improve the prospects for them economically; and that is related to actions and policies of Israel. So we thought it would be a good idea to have people talking.

Q Since you're a little constrained on substance --

MR. RUBIN: More than a little.

Q Can you give us more about color? When you talk about dressed informally, is Bibi in some kind of Metallica tee-shirt? I mean, what are they doing?

MR. RUBIN: That's a very good question for which I am not prepared because I don't know. I wasn't there, but I can see if I can find out how "informal" would be manifested in the clothing of the leaders.

Q You mentioned Gaza airport, you mentioned the four committees. Whatever happened to safe passage? Whatever happened to the Gaza Seaport? What happened to the status of prisoners?

MR. RUBIN: Yes. I did mention the safe passage as one of the committees that is meeting--it's airport, safe passage--

Q: (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: The seaport is an issue that they have talked about that is something that I think most people feel will take some time to work out for a variety of technical reasons that I don't know. With respect to the prisoners, that is a confidence-building measure that obviously is of concern to the Palestinians.

What I'm telling you is not the sum total of discussions that are going on at Wye. What I'm telling you is the committees that have been organized to report back to the Secretary, to Chairman Arafat and to Prime Minister Netanyahu at 4:00 p.m. today. That doesn't mean that before we leave there won't be other committees, but these are the ones that have been specified.

Q And third FRD?

MR. RUBIN: And third FRD--think we've spoken to that issue, which is obviously an issue of concern. I think you are familiar with our position that we expounded earlier in the week, and I don't really see the need to expand on it.

Q Do you have any comment today on (inaudible)

MR. RUBIN: I've been trying to get different information about that, and I don't really have any new information. Our standing position on issues like that is that we don't want to see actions taken that create an unhelpful atmosphere. But the information about the specific question you asked, I posed and people didn't have any specific information on that.

There is the question of the reports of occupying a vacant house in a neighborhood that have come out. We have seen press reports of that. As you know, we view such acts as provocations which do not serve the cause of peace, especially at this sensitive time. So we're calling for restraint on all sides.

Q While these groups are dealing with these four issues, what are the leaders doing? Are they dealing with the issues; are they dealing with each other; or are they relaxing and waiting for the reports?

MR. RUBIN: This morning I know Secretary Albright took a walk by herself. I wouldn't be surprised if others did what they do in the mornings.

As far as what they're doing substantively, they've been on the phone. I know Secretary Albright was on the phone with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Chairman Arafat and, I believe King Hussein also this morning. Then they prepared for and made their plan to get together at 11:00.--the two leaders--and then at 12:00 for lunch among the three.

Q: So they are there, at this Wye plantation, talking to each other on the phone?

MR. RUBIN: Well, they--I was trying to--you asked a specific question about what they were doing this morning. If you want to draw some elaborate conclusion from it, I don't think that would be a very good idea.

Last night they had a dinner, the four of them; today they're going to be having a lunch overlooking the river. There is a certain informality to the setting and to the way people are approaching the meetings. In order to plan meetings and to plan lunches, people sometimes call each other on the phone to do that. There's no other way, really, to do that. So I don't think you should be surprised that they called each other on the phone to make a lunch date.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: As I indicated, she intends to, and I expect her to report to the President. He's on the road today. He's made very clear--and I think Joe made clear on his behalf--his willingness to be available for the weekend. I don't think we made a final plan as to when the President comes back.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: I know there was some talk of that, but I don't believe so. I don't think that's been finally decided, but I don' t believe so.

Q Is there some sort of unwritten understanding that no agreements can be finalized until Sharon arrives?

MR. RUBIN: No.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: I really just don't want to get into that.

Q When does the rest of the delegation arrive?

MR. RUBIN: Well, as I indicated last night, there are at least 20 on each of the Palestinian and Israeli side--experts, legal experts, technical experts, all the people necessary to work through the issues. There are some ministers who are not here from the Israeli side, who I expect will come over the weekend.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: I'll get you a transcript from earlier in the week.

Q I believe it was President Clinton who had asked both men to come and put in 100 percent effort. Does the Secretary believe that that's what's taking place?

MR. RUBIN: We do believe that the pace of the work, the seriousness of the work, the pragmatism that the delegations are bringing to bear, their constructive approach is there. Whether that will be enough is still an open question.

Q Jamie, is Minister Sharansky here? If so, did he arrive this morning or last night?

MR. RUBIN: I don't know the answer to that. I know he was in Washington. I haven't heard that he was going to be part of any particular meeting today, but that doesn't mean he's not there; and we can check that for you.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: Some, yes.

Q On security--

MR. RUBIN: Ah, yes.

Q The CIA plan?

MR. RUBIN: You know I have no comment on that.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: I think our position on settlements hasn't changed.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: And I'll get it for you for the record.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. RUBIN: I wouldn't want to quote the President directly, but I can say that our objective here is to work through the interim issues by Sunday in order to move directly to the final status, permanent status talks. That's our objective.

Q If land is not on one of these four issues, can we assume that the land issue has been sewed up?

MR. RUBIN: You should not assume that because I listed the committees and the topics of the committees that every other issue of concern to both parties or either party or part and parcel of the American initiative is not being discussed, will be discussed or has been so. You should not make that assumption.

[end document]

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