Jerusalem, 6 January 1998
PM NETANYAHU-U.S. ENVOY ROSS MEETING SUMMARY
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Tuesday), 6.1.98 met with U.S.
envoy Dennis Ross in his office.
At the start of their meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "I am
pleased to welcome back Ambassador Ross. His visits are not one-time
events, but rather part of a chain of activities being taken by Israel,
the United States and the Palestinian Authority in order to advance the
peace process towards a peace agreement between us and the Palestinians.
This government was elected in order to move the process of achieving real
peace forward, a peace with substance and reciprocity. Reciprocity means a
meticulous fulfillment of the Palestinian commitments in the Oslo and
Hebron accords to the United States and Israel. This is the basis that
makes the continued advance of peace possible and we will move forward
with it."
The American envoy said that his meetings in the region are a continuation
of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's recent meetings with Prime
Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, and
are meant to lay the groundwork for the two leaders' upcoming visits to
Washington.
In response to a question by journalists, Prime Minister Netanyahu added,
"The defense minister is a senior member of the government and a senior
member in the effort that we are all making in order to move the peace
process cautiously and responsibly forward. That has been, and will
remain, our policy."