Statement by Prime Minister Barak at Joint Press Conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
Alexandria, July 29, 1999
PM BARAK: I had a good working meeting with the President. We have covered
a wide range of Middle Eastern issues that are on the table. I truly
updated the President about my contacts in Washington and then about my
meeting with Chairman Arafat.
I reiterated our commitment to the Wye Agreement and our intention to
fully implement it. We had raised certain ideas with Chairman Arafat about
ways, means and timing about the implementation of the Wye Agreement
within the context of how to move forward toward a permanent status
agreement, and I found the discussion with the President very constructive
and important.
I really hope that the beginning that we have announced yesterday with
Chairman Arafat, appointing one individual on each side to sit together
and try to report to the Chairman and myself within two weeks about their
suggestions on the question of how to move forward - I believe that it
will be fruitful, we will able to do that. And I am really optimistic that
we are launching and continuing from here, from Egypt, that was the place
where the cornerstone for the comprehensive process in the Middle East was
established that we are launching once again an effort that will be
ultimately successful and will change the future of the peoples of the
Middle East, to make a secure Israel living in good neighborly relations
with all its neighbors.
Thank you very much.
Q: Mr. Barak, I'd like to ask you about the Syrian track, because there
are reports that King Abdullah of Jordan is acting as mediator these days,
and he's been transfering message between yourself and the Syrian
leadership.
PM BARAK: As I already stated, we are determined to leave no stone
unturned on the road to peace. In order to make Israel more secure we
suggest to open on all tracks, without any preference or priority. We are
ready to open the Palestinian track, the Syrian track, the Lebanese track,
and even the multilateral track. As to the content of the discussion, I
think it is more appropriate to run the dialogue if and when the time
comes with the representatives of President Assad, not on camera.
Q: I have a question about the U.S. role. While in Washington, news
reports noted that you want Washington to step back from its role of
negotiating and supervising the peace process - something that the United
States has been doing for a long time, since the peace process started. A
Palestinian official then suggested that you want to have a wrestling
match without a referee. Don't you think that the U.S. role has been
instrumental and pivotal so far, and it's very difficult at this point, at
this stage, just to put it on the sidelines?
PM BARAK: The United States has a major role in providing what has been
achieved until now in the peace process between us and the Palestinians. I
don't think in terms of wrestling match, but in terms constructing a
bridge. It should be first of all negotiated by the two sides that sit on
the two sides of the gap and have to build the bridge in order to use it.
Here, in this country, under the leadership of the late President Sadat
and continued by the strong leadership of President Mubarak, the
cornerstone of this bridge had been laid. Now we are about to put the
keystone - an agreement with the Palestinians, an agreement with the
Syrians. As long as we don't have the keystone, there is no comprehensive
peace. We cannot put aside the scaffold, we cannot put weight on the
bridge. And we want to complete what has been established here so
skillfully and so daringly more than 20 years ago.
We are determined to do whatever we can to put an end to the conflict in
the Middle East. In this context, we want the Americans to be able to
provide their good services, but they cannot replace either Chairman
Arafat or myself in dealing with our responsibilities as leaders of the
Israeli people and the Palestinian people, respectively. America can and
will provide not just the facilitator role, but ultimately the political
umbrella, [...] security, and in a way a financial safety net for the
whole process. I believe that it will happen and should happen.
Q: Prime Minister, having been elected on a promise to accelerate
peacemaking, you might be expected to carry out Wye already. What is it
about the agreement that you want to change? Is it the isolation of
settlements you don't like? Whatever changes you make, what's in it for
the Palestinians as you go through with it?
PM BARAK: I feel that we have to go forward, but I never pretended to have
magic solutions to solve a conflict of 100 years in three weeks or three
months. We are looking forward together. I am committed to Wye; we are
going to implement Wye. We suggested certain ideas about how and in what
ways and along what kind of timing to implement it. It is only if we will
agree upon it with Chairman Arafat that we will insert these
modifications. If not, we will continue. But, once again, we, the leaders,
are going to be responsible. If we choose a kind of bumpy road instead of
a main road, we cannot ask ourselves in retrospect why we are moving on
bumps. We choose the bumpy road - we will have bumps; we choose the main
road - we will move smoothly.
Q: What must preferably be done by both co-sponsors, the United States as
well as Russia, to accelerate the process on three tracks: Syrian,
Lebanese and Palestinian? And what do you expect will be done in the next
two weeks by the United States and Russia?
PM BARAK: I am going to visit Russia next week. I exchanged views about it
with the President. I think that Russia was a co-host of the Madrid
process and they should be respected. They are a great power quite close
to this region, and I think that it is appropriate that we will update
them about the process, what's going on, and consult with them what ways
they think they could contribute to moving forward in this process. In
fact, let me tell you frankly that all the leaders of the free world that
I meet these days, myself and Foreign Ministry Levy who is here with me -
whoever we meet among world leaders, we ask them to look around, to see
how they can contribute to move forward toward a Middle East where a
secure Israel can live side by side with all its neighbors in peace. And
whoever can contribute, we congratulate them.