08/22/2001: Daily Press Briefing Excerpts
QUESTION: Phil, have you guys been enlightened any more about what Foreign Minister Fischer managed to get arranged -- apparently get arranged -- yesterday? And has there been any senior-level people here in this building, or perhaps on vacation, who are speaking with anyone, with either the Europeans or with the UN or -- MR. REEKER: As we talked about yesterday, Secretary Powell spoke with Foreign Minister Fischer right about the time we were going through this exercise yesterday. As we have said many times before, we support direct contacts between the parties. We will support both sides in these efforts as much as possible. The facilitation we have been carrying out is something we talk about often. I am not aware of anything that has been scheduled, but we would certainly be supportive, as I just said, of direct contacts between the parties. Foreign Minister Fischer, and the Germans in general, are trusted friends and close NATO allies of ours. We welcome their constructive efforts with the parties as we have welcomed the efforts of others in the international community and other co-sponsors of the peace process -- the Russians of course, Norway, those countries in the region that have played a valuable role. QUESTION: When you say you are not aware of anything scheduled, you have been told, however, by the three parties -- the Palestinians, the Israelis and the Germans -- that such a meeting is going to happen? MR. REEKER: I am not aware of any particular meeting that is scheduled. QUESTION: But you have not been told that they intend to meet? MR. REEKER: I am not aware of any meeting that has been scheduled, and I would refer you to the Israelis or the Palestinians to speak for themselves in terms of any meetings that they are able to schedule together. As I said, we support direct contacts with them and we will do as much as we can to support those efforts. QUESTION: How about, is it your understanding that Foreign Minister Fischer did, indeed, get the agreement of both the Israelis and the Palestinians for a meeting sometime in -- for a meeting between Chairman Arafat and Foreign Minister Peres? MR. REEKER: I have not seen anything to that effect, no. QUESTION: I suppose if you haven't heard that, you wouldn't know whether they have been in touch, say, to ask your opinion about whether you would send somebody along to such a meeting? MR. REEKER: I think we are just way ahead of things here. We will do whatever we can to facilitate whatever the two parties can do in terms of direct contacts between the parties. At this point, I am not aware of anything that is scheduled on that matter, but obviously we continue to be in close touch, deeply engaged in the process, and working with others in the international community to try to find bridges to cross the divides that have for so long divided the Israelis and the Palestinians. QUESTION: There was a report that the seven-day cooling-off period has been abandoned by Prime Minister Sharon under US pressure. Could you comment on that? MR. REEKER: No, I would refer you to Prime Minister Sharon. I don't even know what report you are referring to. Our goal remains getting the violence down, using the Tenet work plan and whatever other security steps the two parties can take to reduce the violence, end the cycle of violence, and move into implementation of the Mitchell Committee Report. QUESTION: Has that seven-day thing been an impediment to getting talks under way? MR. REEKER: They need to get the violence down. We have talked about this last week. That hasn't happened. We haven't seen the maximum efforts that are necessary to make that happen. And we continue to call, as we have in days before, for the Palestinians to make those efforts. The same calls for restraint on the Israeli side in terms of their actions. And so I don't have anything particularly new to add on that. |
 | |||
|
