MR. RUBIN: I just wanted to give you a little something to work with while we're all cooling our heels during the meeting. The Secretary will be going, as I understand it, directly to see President Asad and will be riding with Foreign Minister Shara to that meeting. It's hard to know precisely how long the meeting will last, but I would assume that it will last several hours. Some of you asked a little bit about what she is going to do. Is she going to get answers to questions that she might have posed? So let me go as far as I can very quickly to avoid a lot of torturing.

There are four issues, four subjects at issue -- withdrawal, the character of the peace, the timing of the peace and security arrangements. There are a number of questions about all of those. There are questions associated with each one of those issues and what the Secretary has been trying to do is to work with the Israelis and with the Syrians, recognizing that each party has different needs in these different areas. And by raising questions, she hopes to get a better understanding of what would be necessary in each of the areas for us to be able to move quickly to an agreement if negotiations were to resume. So, yes, she has been asking questions and trying to get answers about what some of the minimum needs and concerns of each party is on those four subjects. And based on our interaction to date, we do believe that there is a chance that negotiations could resume and we will continue to work on this project and this exercise so long as we think there is a prospect that success can be achieved.

QUESTION: You said based on what, you said based on what?

MR. RUBIN: Facts and discussions. No I didn't say that. Based on our discussions and contacts to date, we do believe it is possible to get negotiations restarted. We've obviously worked on formulas and will continue to work with Israel and Syria so long as we think that a basis potentially exists but there's not some new thing that we have answers to that makes us more optimistic. I'm just giving you an overall assessment.

QUESTION: Well, you must have answered some questions before…

QUESTION: We've been hearing this now for several months. Is there anything that leads you to believe that they might restart any time soon?

MR. RUBIN: I can't say that we're arriving in Syria optimistic that President Asad is going to give the kind of answers and suggestions that are necessary to move quickly to a successful agreement. On the other hand, as I indicated in response to Matt's question, so long as we think there is a prospect for achieving such an agreement -- it is an extremely important agreement -- we're going to continue working at it. You may have heard this point made for some time and that is because the problem hasn't yet been resolved.

QUESTION: Is Secretary Albright looking for answers that President Clinton posed to Shara in late September? I mean is there a direct kind of connection between that conversation and this one?

MR. RUBIN: I'm not going to get into the forum that questions are posed and answered. I think it is fair to say that we have raised questions in all of these areas and the Israelis and Syrians have questions about the intent, the approach of the other side and we, by asking and answering questions, try to give, to get a better understanding of each side's needs, but also be able to assure the other of what might come. But we're clearly not at a point where the restarting of talks is imminent or an agreement is imminent. This has been a long haul. It's been several years since negotiations were suspended and it's not going to be an easy thing to get them restarted.

QUESTION: No, that was my, well, my question was, surely you must have asked these questions before. Is she going back asking the same questions, hoping that she'll get somewhat different answers?

MR. RUBIN: No, I mean we try not to repeat ourselves. There are always --

QUESTION: But what about the fact (inaudible)

MR. RUBIN: There are always -- I'm describing the subjects within which questions are asked. And there are a lot of nuances that are relevant within each subject.

QUESTION: Do you expect President Asad's son, perhaps, Bashar to participate in any of the discussions?

MR. RUBIN: I don't know who is going to be in there. I'll tell you afterwards.

QUESTION: (inaudible) to go back to President Clinton so he can decide whether he's going to see Asad? Is that the point of all of this -- to set up a Clinton meeting with Asad?

MR. RUBIN: John asked me whether these were answers to Clinton's question.

QUESTION: Yeah, I heard that.

MR. RUBIN: And I said I'm not going to get into the forum. Certainly if peace talks were to resume quickly, this is something the President would be very interested in and is prepared to support. And Secretary Albright obviously works for President Clinton and will be reporting to him on this trip.

QUESTION: I asked you last week about the comments that Patrick Seale made in the West Bank, saying that he believes, based on his discussions with the Syrians, that there will be an announcement early in January of a resumption of talks.

MR. RUBIN: Well, let me say this: Patrick Seale's accounts had many accuracies and many inaccuracies and you should assume that his predictions are equally sound.

QUESTION: Is it fair to say that the questions, in whatever forum they were asked, were passed on from Prime Minister Barak to U.S. officials? And these are their questions that we're looking for the answers.

MR. RUBIN: You shouldn't assume that. It's our job as an intermediary and a mediator to try to develop a basis on which to proceed and sometimes we ask questions that the other side hasn't prompted us to ask, but that we ask in the hopes of developing some common ground, by which one can move forward. So I wouldn't assume that we're just delivering one side's questions to the other.

QUESTION: Do you think there's any supplemental, I say supplemental, not supplanting the American (inaudible), but supplementing it. Perhaps Jacques Chirac of France. Do you see any other or (inaudible). Are there any other factors here that are helping in these last few months in trying to bring the Syrians along? Do you feel that are particularly helpful?

MR. RUBIN: We welcome help from others to encourage the parties to be flexible but I think it's quite apparent to all concerned that it's, right now, and for the foreseeable future, it's the United States that brings with it the credibility of honest broker that both sides trust.