09/07/2001: Daily Press Briefing Excerpts

MR. BOUCHER: Sure.

QUESTION: Well, while we're in the Middle East -- (laughter) -- because we know all terror originates in the Middle East. Evidently, that Arafat Paris meeting hasn't gelled yet, and I wondered if the US is trying to -- you spoke yesterday of the Secretary making calls, several of them.

Is the US trying to help bring about this meeting, and has he done anything more in that regard since we spoke yesterday?

MR. BOUCHER: I think I would have to say that we have always encouraged direct contacts between the parties. The Secretary has been discussing with the parties, with Foreign Minister Peres and Chairman Arafat, the past few days how a meeting, direct discussions between the parties, could help recreate a measure of trust and confidence and start to change the situation on the ground, get us into the implementation of the Mitchell Report.

Any specific decisions or details regarding their meetings obviously would have to come from the parties themselves, though. We have been in close contact with them. We want to try to help them as they look towards such a meeting, or the possibility of such a meeting. We want to try to help them make such a meeting helpful and productive.

QUESTION: Let me pursue this in a way that's gets a little bit, I know, tedious, but the Palestinian position is, first, the Israelis said there is a meeting. Peres jubilantly announced, with his customary enthusiasm in Italy, that there will be a meeting. And then the Palestinians, with their customary reserve, said that it has to be well prepared; they don't want a meeting just for the sake of meeting; they want to make sure it's productive, have results -- pretty much what you said you hope the meeting would do yesterday.

So is the US of the view that more preparation is needed or if there isn't either/or here, or is the US of the view, for heaven's sake, maybe they ought to sit down and talk, that's the most important thing, and let them take it from there; they know the problems?

MR. BOUCHER: As usual, I will take Option C.

QUESTION: Which is?

MR. BOUCHER: The US view is that meetings are useful if meetings can be made useful, that the meetings need to be well prepared, they need to be helpful to the process, they need to be productive, and we think we can help them do that. With that said, we encourage them to have direct discussions and contacts because we think that that is the best way to start making progress back to better security for both sides, and then implementation of the Mitchell Report and the path that that leads to.

So in terms of actually deciding to meet when, where, how; is it well enough prepared for me today, or for him tomorrow? That's for the parties to decide. We will keep working with them to try to make meetings useful and productive.

QUESTION: Are the days of quiet -- the seven days of quiet -- is that still applicable at this point?

MR. BOUCHER: I think the basic framework of the Mitchell Committee recommendations and how to get there certainly remains applicable, and as we all know, the Mitchell Committee recommendations begin with cessation of violence, and we hope in the end will result in the restart of talks based on 242, 338, land-for-peace. And in between that, there's a whole lot of steps that need to be taken to restore confidence.

But that basic framework is still there, and it begins with the cessation of violence. What we have been working on, what others have been working on, what we have been encouraging the parties to do is to get to that point where there is calm, quiet, cessation of violence so that we can really start implementing the Mitchell Committee recommendations, so they can really start implementing the Mitchell Committee recommendations in full.

QUESTION: Just to follow up, have we had a couple days of quiet?

MR. BOUCHER: I haven't heard anybody around here counting at this point.

QUESTION: Okay.

QUESTION: Richard, I assume you would have said something if the Secretary had made calls, but just to make sure, were there any further contacts between either of the two sides post -- what's today, Friday?

MR. BOUCHER: Let's see, Wednesday he spoke to Foreign Minister Peres, twice actually, Chairman Arafat, also Javier Solana. Yesterday, no. He talked to some others.

QUESTION: Non-Middle East related.

MR. BOUCHER: Non-Middle Easterns, yes.

QUESTION: Wait, wait. I want to go back to it.

MR. BOUCHER: He talked to Foreign Minister Jagland of Norway, he talked to Foreign Minister Ivanov as well yesterday. I'm sure they must have discussed the Middle East in some respects, but I think the purpose of the phone calls was a little bit different.

QUESTION: Okay. But on the Middle East, and I'm kind of on Barry's question, is it fair to say that you are encouraging those two sides to have a meeting?

MR. BOUCHER: I think I would say --

QUESTION: You said, "We have always encouraged --

MR. BOUCHER: We have always supported the idea of direct discussions. We have always felt that was important and useful. But we also as we talk to them now, as they themselves are considering the prospects of meetings, they themselves are discussing the idea of meetings, they themselves are looking to when they can meet. And what we have been talking to them about in that context is how to make it a useful and productive --

QUESTION: But you would like to see them have this meeting, if all the sides are --

MR. BOUCHER: We have always supported the idea of their having direct contacts, and we do today.

QUESTION: Another subject? Northern Ireland. Richard Haas' trip. Could you confirm first of all the dates, and who he is going to meet, and the purpose of the trip? And just for the record, is it in any way a response to the recent violence, or is it in any way a new initiative?