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James P. Rubin, Assistant Secretary Telephone Read-out to the Press Chesapeake College, Wye Mills, Maryland October 22, 1998

(3:10 P.M.)

MR. RUBIN: This is on the record, in light of the size of the room. Where we are now is that following separate bilaterals with the Prime Minister and the Secretary, the room was set up--the large room, the main dining room--in such a way that there were two large tables.

What happened was the President asked the two delegations to think about some of the suggestions he made. Then the U.S. team retired to the executive dining room, and people were sort of eating standing up and sitting down. State Department team members were working on ideas in the upstairs attic, which, believe it or not, I dubbed the Cobweb Room, because there were huge, decorative cobwebs everywhere--trying to get a little color in for you.

The two delegations were at separate tables eating their lunch off buffets. I hope somebody has given you that menu.

Basically what happened was when we came back in the room, we noticed that there were a lot more talking to each other. Then about an hour ago, the Prime Minister and the Chairman sat down alone on one of the couches with pads out and began to talk for an extensive discussion. I would say it must have lasted about 20 minutes or so.

Then they went back to their separate tables, presumably to talk about what the two leaders had talked about. Then the President asked the Secretary, after about 15 minutes of that, to go in. The Secretary asked them to get a group of three on each side and sit down together. They just began that about 10 minutes ago.

As far as substance is concerned and progress is concerned, I don't think anybody knows which way this is going to go at this time. Nobody has made plans for any agreement, because we're in the midst of seeing whether some of these key decisions the President asked the parties to make can be made. There is no answer to that question now.

Q: What do you mean by three on each side, Jamie?

MR. RUBIN: I think it was ministers and--the foreign minister and the defense minister on the Israeli side and Abu Allah* and Abu Mazen on the Palestinian side.

By the way, the third gentleman who was in that original meeting for the Palestinian side whose name I didn't have before was Yasser Abid Rabo*.

Q: Jamie, the President asked both sides to make tough decisions, and he's been here for some hours. Are you suggesting that none of those tough decisions have been made yet?

MR. RUBIN: I'm not going to report the snapshot of what substantive decisions have been made. We're obviously still working here, and the good news is that they're working directly together--which is key if we're going to overcome some of these important issues.

Let's rephrase that--overcome some of these important obstacles.

Q: Have some important obstacles been overcome?

MR. RUBIN: I just am not going to get into the play-by-play on that. They're still working, so obviously all the obstacles have not been overcome.

Q: Have you seen any change in the mood today as opposed to previous days?

MR. RUBIN: Again, I know that early on we talked a lot about mood and atmosphere, and I think that was important to create the right environment for the progress that I've indicated earlier was made. But at the end of the day today--let me not use "at the end of the day."

Right now, one sees serious work being done. But whether that work yields the decisions necessary to reach agreement is uncertain at this time.

Q: How's the interplay between Arafat and Netanyahu? I mean, did they sort of break the ice with a joke or something, or did you see they were all serious-faced and--

MR. RUBIN: I wasn't in a position to know everything that happened. I've reported to you what I observed because I thought it was significant that the two leaders were talking directly together by themselves as a result of that. And the Secretary asked them after a break to go into a slightly larger group.

Q: Was the conversation on the couch animated; could you tell?

MR. RUBIN: Well, I know that the Prime Minister had a pad out. I know the Chairman's translator and aide had a pad out. I didn't see anything that was out of the ordinary, other than serious business being done.

Q: King Hussein's involvement?

MR. RUBIN: King Hussein is here on the premises. He's at the Carmichael Farm, I understand; but I don't know what the plan is at this time. He hasn't been involved so far, at least in person.

Q: Jamie, you mentioned a translator. Was the Chairman speaking Arabic? And also, can you say the name of the facility they were in at the time?

MR. RUBIN: Yes, the Wye Woods Conference Center, right? That facility is called Wye Woods. Wye Woods Conference Center dining room. The big picture window overlooks the river. They were on a couch right in front of that window.

One of the things I noticed--there was a kind of a cluster period where the President and the Secretary and others were in small clusters and tending to go back and forth and talk to each other. That was before the lunch period.

So the idea is it's one big room in which the Israeli delegation and the Palestinian delegation can be at the same time. To encourage the maximum chances of making some of these key decisions, that setting is conducive to it.

But again, the obstacles have not been overcome.

Q: Jamie, was Arafat speaking Arabic; and was it Saeb Erakat interpreting for him or someone else?

MR. RUBIN: Someone else. It wasn't Saeb Erakat; I know him. I just don't know the gentleman's name; I've seen him before.

If you've been on our trips, he tends to stand next to him on our trips.

On the Arabic--when serious business is done, the Chairman tends to speak Arabic, is my understanding.

Q: Jamie, at the risk of beating a dead horse, is George Tenet here today; and has he been involved in any of these other issues?

MR. RUBIN: Look, I hope that this answer will satisfy you and then we can leave it at that. Yes, George is here. He and his people are here to work as professionals, to use their professional expertise to facilitate efforts to combat terrorism and to promote cooperation necessary through that facilitation to increase the chances of being able to combat terrorism.

That kind of facilitation and cooperation has been going on for some years.

Q: How big a delegation or group does he have?

MR. RUBIN: That's the most I can offer you. I just wanted to put that thing to bed. I can't offer you any more detail on that.

Q: Jamie, earlier you said that security issues would not be dealt with today. Would it be safe to say that the things that are being--the tough decisions being taken today do not include security issues?

MR. RUBIN: Again, I was choosing my words, I hope, more carefully than that earlier. I said the focus of the discussions was not security, given the major movement on that in the last couple of days.

Q: What are the main topics being discussed? Where is the focus on--

MR. RUBIN: I didn't hear you.

Q: What are the main topics being discussed; what is the focus?

MR. RUBIN: I don't want to be more specific, other than to say they're issues of deep concern to both sides that are related to the subjects at hand.

Q: The meeting with the two three-person groups--was that with Albright?

MR. RUBIN: It was organized by Secretary Albright, but then she, after making sure it got started constructively, she left the room.

Q: So it's just Israelis and Palestinians?

MR. RUBIN: Correct.

Q: You've said in the past, you've distinguished between times when they were sort of reading talking points at each other and rebutting each other and times when they were making serious efforts to bridge--

MR. RUBIN: Serious business is being conducted. The time for repeating existing and well-known positions is behind us we hope.

Q: What is the President doing now?

MR. RUBIN: I would have to ask Joe about that.

Q: Well, is he staying here?

MR. RUBIN: I know the U.S. delegation, including the President, the Secretary, Mr. Berger and others, are in the adjacent--well, it's the same building but an adjacent part of the building. Obviously, what has been going on during the course of the day is to try to encourage this kind of direct discussion to maximize the chance of them overcoming the issues of concern to each side.

Q: Is there an American proposal to the sides now to sign in principle today and to go on with some of the details later next week?

MR. RUBIN: That would be premature to make that judgment.

Q: Jamie, on a logistical front, have you gotten any better understanding--or any understanding at all--from the Israelis as to what their time frame is?

MR. RUBIN: I mean, they have obvious concerns that I described earlier. There's no way to answer that question. They have obvious issues that come up with the arrival of the Sabbath; but what that would mean for these discussions, I don't know.

Q: Have you been notified of any plans for Arafat to travel to Vienna?

MR. RUBIN: Where?

Q: Vienna, Austria.

MR. RUBIN: No.

Q: It's on the wires.

Q: How about anywhere?

MR. RUBIN: I haven't heard that.

Q: Is there any possibility that if a signing ceremony were to take place, it would not necessarily be at the White House?

MR. RUBIN: I don't think anyone is giving serious thought to that at this time.

Q: Jamie, in the past you've said this--how big, about, are each of the three delegations: Palestinian, Israeli and U.S.?

MR. RUBIN: Well, the original plenary was about 20 on a side. I think today they brought roughly ten or so each.

Q: Are there side groups dealing with each of the other issues, like safe passage, the seaport, airport, et cetera?

MR. RUBIN: I think those discussions--there are several tracks, as I indicated earlier, going on. I believe that people are talking about other issues in other parts of the facility. And I know that there is a parallel process of people working on the text.

Q: And to what extent are these now being conducted between the two parties, besides just these three-on-three, elsewhere?

MR. RUBIN: I don't know the answer to that.

As to the President's whereabouts, Mr. Joe Lockhart just walked by my room here and told me that after working with the team for some period during this impromptu feeding session where the U.S. folks were eating outside the main dining room area, he has left the team and is by--he's doing some other business at one of the other locations.

(Laughter.)

Q: Jamie, have the legal experts--

MR. RUBIN: What I mean by that--he's not working on this directly right now, and I wouldn't read anything else into what I said. He will be back shortly.

Q: Jamie, are the legal experts working in one, two or three languages?

MR. RUBIN: I don't know the answer to that.

Q: What about the idea of the third phase being shelved into a committee that will be given a limited time frame to come up with a solution?

MR. RUBIN: With regard to the third phase, that is one of the issues being discussed. All I can say on that is what the U.S. view is--that is, we want to find a way, the best way, to avoid the possibility that the same kind of situation that arose with the first and second redeployments would arise with the third, in light of the urgency of moving on with the permanent status talks. That's our view. I don't want to be more specific than that.

Q: Is that a central issue?

MR. RUBIN: It's one of the issues.

Q: Does this mean that you are trying to defer it still? Is this going to be delayed or it's going to be dealt with this time?

MR. RUBIN: I just can't be more specific than I just was.

Q: Jamie, anything else you can tell us about the President's involvement--whether it's anecdotal, color, informal comments, gifts exchanged, remarks made?

MR. RUBIN: I'll just have to ask Joe to do that. I just don't have the normal ability to know what he's doing at all times the way I know what the Secretary is up to. So I'll ask him to do that for his people and get it to you.

Q: How about any color on Albright--the same sorts of questions?

MR. RUBIN: Well, I can tell you this, just as one thing that's happened in the past few days since we raised the subject of the President's dog.

The last time the President was here, during one of the breaks, he and the Secretary took a walk to a nearby, I guess it was a farm, where they were selling Golden Retriever puppies. And apparently, they spent quite some time looking at the puppies there. Secretary Albright threatened to buy one for me; and I told her only if she could assure me that I would be able to be home every night to take care of it.

(Groaning and laughter.)

Q: Speaking of which, how are the delegations holding up? I know that you had to send out for new shirts. Is that a pretty common problem?

MR. RUBIN: I think everyone is--we've made some jokes about clothing and other things, but it's really a minor detail given what's going on right now. I think everyone is focused like a laser beam on trying to see whether we can overcome these obstacles.

Q: Focused like a laser beam, nice.

Q: One more question--you said that all the people are in a big conference center. Are people taking side walks, as they have been, along the river?

MR. RUBIN: Right, people tend to take side walks. I know that Saeb Erakat and Dennis Ross took such a walk. The Secretary took aside some of--oh, here's another piece of color. When they first arrived, the Palestinians asked to get their picture taken with the Secretary. She was with Abu Allah* and Abu Mazen. Someone said, when they got the picture taken, that it ought to be a rock group, Madeleine and The Two Abus.

(Laughter.)

Q: CNN has quoted an Israeli source as saying if there is an agreement, it should be today. How accurate is that?

MR. RUBIN: Again, we're focused on trying to complete the work. Whether we can complete it today is the $64,000 question for which there is no answer at this time.

Q: Do you anticipate the possibility that they can go beyond the weekend?

MR. RUBIN: I just don't want to speculate about tomorrow. I've tried not to do that each day until the day is over.

Q: Is King Hussein completely out of the picture or have either of the parties sent people out to see him?

MR. RUBIN: I just don't know the answer to that. I know he's here; I know he's available. I am sure he's on the phone. I just don't know what other specific actions have been taken with regard to the King.

Q: Are you going to brief again, Jamie?

MR. RUBIN: Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to do it when I think I have something new to tell you. I thought the direct contact was new and interesting, and that's why I called.

Q: Thank you.

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