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Department Seal Richard Boucher, State Department Spokesman
Excerpt from the Daily Press Briefing
Department of State Press Briefing Room
Washington, DC, July 5, 2000

Question: Can we go to--somewhat related to the Mid East, can you say how the summit next week is going to affect, if at all, the Secretary's travel plans?

Mr. Boucher: She will not--she will not be able to go the G-8 ministerial. She has placed a phone call to the Japanese host, the foreign minister there, but I don't think she's actually connected and spoken to him yet. And she will be talking to her other G-8 counterparts about it. The Secretary will be full time at Camp David. She will be actively engaged in the process throughout. As the President made clear, he is prepared to devote as much time as necessary but he may be in and out of the process; the Secretary will be a full-time, active presence there in various levels of meetings we expect to occur. There will be trilateral meetings with the leaders, there will be different meetings with the Secretary, there will be meetings between the Israelis and Palestinians. There will be negotiators' meetings and the Secretary will be working in all of those levels actively during the process.

Question: Two things. One is, who is going to go to the G-8 and, secondly, does that mean that you are also going to be there and that this whole operation is going to move to someplace in Maryland?

Mr. Boucher: It's funny you should ask. There's a scheduling meeting going on right now.

Question: But you don't have that?

Mr. Boucher: But I don't have a final answer on that one yet. But I think--I would expect it to be something like previous models of this nature, in that there would be a significant press operation connected with it, although perhaps not--probably not--almost definitely not at the site. The--

Question: (Inaudible)--White House--

Mr. Boucher: The second question you asked about who would go in the Secretary's stead to the G-8, we don't have anything to announce on that yet.

Question: Can you give us some idea of how large the delegations might be that will come to the summit, whether there will be any limitation on the numbers of people that can be brought from each side? And also what happened between last week, last Wednesday, Thursday and now that has made it possible for this summit to go forward?

Mr. Boucher: Two things. On the size of the delegations that would be there, I can't give you any numbers at this stage. But I guess I would have to say that Camp David is a fairly small place. How many exactly it accommodates from each side in configurations, I think that is something the White House will have to answer for us. But generally it's a fairly small place.

On what happened in the last several days, I think what you've seen is a process that's been taken through the level of negotiators, it's been taken through the level of the Secretary's various visits. And what's happened is a realization that if we are to address, and we hope resolve, all the core issues of the permanent status, that the remaining decisions have to be made at the leaders' level.

So the process that we've gone through has, you might say, clarified the issues, laid out the issues that need to be decided but there is a realization on our part, on the President's part and I think now shared among the parties that the time for decisions and the place for decisions is at a summit of the leaders.

Question: And one other follow to that if I may, just quickly, there has been some mention in the Palestinian press about having more than one summit. Is it your expectation that this is it, we will not be talking about yet another summit later on in the summer?

Mr. Boucher: The goal is to reach agreement on all the core issues of permanent status. And that is the intention at this summit and that is what we would hope to do here and now.

Question: Do you have any details at all about then arrival dates for the negotiators who, I understand, are coming in advance of the summit? What areas they will be considering, where they will be meeting?

Mr. Boucher: No, I don't have any more sort of logistical detail on the negotiators. They will come a few days in advance, they will have meetings in the Washington area, not necessarily at the summit site. The goal I think is to work with them and with the parties in the context of an upcoming summit to see if there is more that we can do at that level, more that we can do to lay out, clarify the issues, look for possible areas of agreement and therefore to have some meetings in advance of the leaders' arrival with the negotiators. But clearly in the context of the summit, because that does change the dynamic to some extent.

Question: What has Chairman Arafat told U.S. officials regarding his determination to declare a Palestinian state? Now that he's agreed to the summit, has he told the President or other officials that he'll hold off on that declaration until he sees the outcome? What is the current status of that?

Mr. Boucher: I don't know. I don't have anything new on that that I can share.

Question: Then also if I could just follow up on something the Secretary said I think last week, which was, a lot of people are questioning whether or not this has more to do with the President's timing rather than the timing in the Middle East and the Secretary was quoted as having said that the timing--one of the dates that we're looking at for the timing in the Middle East is January 20th, which would be Inauguration Day for the new U.S. president. So does she consider this to be something that is both driven by U.S. presidential timing as well as Mid East issues?

Mr. Boucher: I think the Secretary's context was to say that she has until January 20th that she can work on this. The timing is really based on the substance and the substance has been brought to the point where we believe that much has been done, but as much as can be done has been done at the negotiator level and through the Secretary's trips. The issues are there. As the President said, we have an idea of what the deal is, what the options are. And we've worked this at every level. And the only way to get the final agreement is to bring them together at the higher level, at the summit level, and to make the tough decisions that relate to the core issues of permanent status. So the timing is based on the substance and the work that needs to be done and how best to accomplish it and at this moment it's the President's view and the consensus of the leaders in the region, as the President said he talked to them, that the work that needs to be done next has to be done at the summit level.

Question: Could you talk a little bit about--the President had said that this was much harder than the original Camp David Summit. Could you kind of compare how much more difficult the issues are and also what you think it is about Camp David and the atmospherics of it that might lead to the leaders feeling comfortable?

Mr. Boucher: I appreciate the two questions and I would love to give a long and historical exposition but I really do think the President answered both of those questions and I don't have anything to add to what he said.

Question: Let me go back to Rebecca's question for a moment and ask has--one, has the Secretary of State come completely around to the view that the President has about having the summit in Camp David, number one? And was that something that was based on--I believe you said it was a few minutes ago--based on what's happened since her trip to the Middle East, since she said that the summit was--there was not a mature enough negotiation for the summit yet and the time since she's been back? Can you explain if that time period has in fact changed everybody's mind about this?

Mr. Boucher: It goes without saying--and I didn't say it--but obviously this is a decision that was made by the President with full concurrence and discussion with the Secretary. He, himself, noted that he had made this decision based on the report that the Secretary gave him and his discussions over the past few days with the leaders and the Secretary obviously was part of those discussions as well. So clearly this is a decision that the Administration made, that the President makes as the head of the Administration but in close consultation with the Secretary and his other senior advisors.

As far as why now, I think the chief consideration is what the President laid out, and that is that the work that has been done in other levels has been useful in achieving some progress in laying out the issues. But the real decisions that have to be made now have to be made at the summit level and therefore it's time to go to that level and try to reach those agreements.

Question: Just to clarify if I might, please, some terminology. I understand and I think everyone understands that a final agreement is the desired goal. But is the desired goal for the summit which will start next week a final agreement or a framework agreement, just to be clear?

Mr. Boucher: The agreement that we're seeking at the summit is an agreement that would deal with all the core issues of permanent status between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I think that's the best way to describe it. It is really the fundamental agreement on the core issues of the permanent status.

Question: Richard, as far as the Middle East peace is concerned, how much do you think the global oil supply is affected from this, not having the peace in the Middle East? And also how much support the US or the peace process has from the Asian and the Arab countries, in Asia like India or China and others?

Mr. Boucher: I think the first question, if I were to attempt some kind of answer on that, I would be breaking Rule Number 1, which is don't say anything that can move markets. But I think on your second question, how much support is there, the Secretary has been calling, talking on the telephone with leaders in the region. She's talked so far with King Abdullah in Jordan, with Foreign Minister Saud in Saudi Arabia. She talked to President Mubarak of Egypt and she'll be talking to other leaders in the region.

And I think first of all, we can say that they've been very supportive. These have been extremely positive phone calls and they see very clearly the importance of moving to the summit level now and trying to reach agreement on these issues now. So, so far in the phone calls that she's made, she's found a very strong and positive reinforcement to this decision and support for this decision from leaders in the region.

Question: Do you think this time we will have peace in the Middle East, once and forever?

Mr. Boucher: Let us hope so.

Question: What about Syria? Is there any sign that they would be supportive and, if not, would you be able to make the deal without them?

Mr. Boucher: I don't think we have anything new on Syria. The President addressed that briefly in his press conference, I think. I'm getting fuzzy here in the head. But, no, we don't have anything new on Syria at this moment.

[end of excerpt]

Full transcript of Daily Press Briefing on 7/5/00

Peace Process | Near Eastern Affairs | Department of State | Secretary of State