Press Conference by British Prime Minister Tony Blair
and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak
London, July 21, 1999
PM BLAIR: First of all can I say how delighted and honoured we are to have
Prime Minister Barak here. He is a good friend and colleague of mine and I
just wanted to put on record my admiration for what he has achieved so far
as Prime Minister of Israel and my 101% support for all that he is doing,
and for Israel and the Middle East peace process.
We are obviously at a very important and critical juncture, but someone of
Prime Minister Barak's leadership and vision is precisely the person that
can take this peace process forward. And so far as Britain is concerned,
we will play any constructive part we can and any supportive role we can
in bringing about lasting peace in the region, a peace of justice and a
peace also of security. Because we know how much has been invested by so
many people in this process and we want to see it succeed, not just for
Israel and for the Middle East but for all the world. So Ehud, welcome, we
are delighted to have you here.
PM BARAK: Thank you. I came here to meet a leader and a friend and a
future partner to the international support of the highly important Middle
East peace process. We shared views about the situation in the Middle East
and what could be done in order to promote seizing the opportunity and
strengthening and securing the long term position in Israel, so putting an
end to a conflict of 100 years in our region.
I believe that Britain can have a leading role within the European Union
in supporting this peace process, the same way that Britain under the
leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair played a unique role in deciding
the Kosovo crisis. I think that the Kosovo crisis and the way it was led
by President Clinton and Tony Blair provide us with an excellent example
of how free world leadership should act on the global arena - namely put a
clear line beyond which when a regional despot crosses it, the free world
can and will be translated into an effective operation that will put any
despot at bay. I believe that it is important for the backyard of Europe
and the Balkans, but it is maybe more important as a signal for any
potential future despot anywhere around the world about what expects him
if he will try to defy the will of the leading democracies of the free
world.
On behalf of us, the people of Israel and I believe billions of others
around the world, I would like to thank you personally for this personal
example of personal leadership.
Q: You must have exchanged ideas with Prime Minister Barak, what do you
think about his idea to combine the Wye Memorandum with final status
talks? And concerning Syria, do you think that it is necessary to have a
formula in order to resolve the negotiations which can just begin and just
resume like that without any formula?
PM BLAIR: I think these are questions really for the Prime Minister of
Israel to take forward. And I regard our part in this is to give full
support for it, and I have no doubt at all - indeed I think he has
impressed people right around the world, as you have seen earlier in
Washington, with his desire to make progress and to make progress as
swiftly as is possible, but recognising that this is a man who believes
deeply in his country and in the security of Israel and wants to move the
process forward in a way consistent with that. And I think we have a
tremendous opportunity. There are a whole set of circumstances that have
come together, not least with the election of the new government in
Israel, that allow us to move it forward. But I think the way that it is
done and the details of that I think really are a matter for the Prime
Minister.
PM BARAK: May I add to it that I believe that the role of Europe, with
Great Britain as a central player in it, could be to create an atmosphere
of support that will include our Arab partners and Israel in an
environment where any advancement is somehow well accepted by the world
community and to help the European Union donors to keep supporting the
peace effort politically as well as financially. And it is up to us,
together with our neighbours, to sit around the table and try to solve the
concrete problems that are out there on the table between us.
SELECTED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS BY PM BARAK:
Q: Re news of possible Syrian moves towards peace.
PM BARAK: I do highly appreciate the positive signals that are reaching us
and the external world from Syria. I think that the time is ripe for
achieving the 'peace of the brave' between Israel and all its neighbors
including Syria. It might take another few weeks for us to draw the map to
finalize the preliminary assessments of the situation, then nominate teams
on any track and begin a simultaneous move on all tracks - Syrian,
Lebanon, Palestinian - without preference to any track, in order to make
sure that we know whether we can or cannot achieve peace in the Middle
East within 15 months.
Q: Re time limits, can you deliver and when?
PM BARAK: Of course I think that I can deliver, and time is of essence for
the whole process. We cannot just sit idle and wait for problems to be
solved somehow, magically. But let me make it clear, by setting a time
frame of 15 months, I do not intend to have any kind of formal legal
contract with you or the public. I would not ask for a medal if it will
take only nine months, and I am not going to jump from any tower in the
Middle East if it takes 24 months. It just means to signal that we mean
business, we do not have magic solutions in our pockets that will end the
whole thing in three weeks, but we are not ready to drag it along three or
five years.
Q: Re speed of the Syrian track as against speed on Palestinian track.
PM BARAK: We will play bona fide with all the players on each track. We
are ready to implement the Wye Agreement. I think that we have to discuss
with Chairman Arafat the possibility of combining the implementation of
the last stages of Wye with the permanent status, but only if it is
mutually agreed that it will be run this way, and we have a lot of other
confidence-building measures from both sides on the way, while are are
moving forward.
Q: Re Britain's closer relations with Iran, what issues discussed, did it
include the fate of 13 Iranian Jews?
PM BARAK: The issue of the 13 arrested Jews in Iran, I believe should be
treated out of the public sight in order to maximize the chances that it
will be treated appropriately.
I exchanged views with Prime Minister Blair as well as with President
Clinton and leading members of his government and the Congress about the
worry that we have of leaking of missile technology and nuclear knowhow
into Iran. We strongly believe that everything that could be done in order
to slow down, contain or put an end to this process will be important for
the stability of the whole region, for the prospect of free flow of oil
from the Middle East and for the sake of the security of Israel.