Stakeout with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
White House driveway
Thursday, May 3, 2001
Min. Peres: We have had a very rewarding discussion with the
President. We found him totally devoted to the peace process;
informed, decisive, and I think we see eye-to-eye how to handle the
situation in the future. The President and the United States will
lead the battle against terror, which is global and exists in the
most unexpected quarters. And without it, nobody will have security
and nobody will be able to make peace.
When it comes to the peace process itself, I think we prefer to
negotiate face-to-face and have the United States as the facilitator
whenever we shall encounter problems or we shall see needs for it --
and the President said he will do it gladly. He doesn't want to
impose; he wants to help. He thinks in foreign affairs goals should
decide more than leaders, and the goals are clear, in the global and
immediate.
We had a discussion about really how to develop the Middle East in
the future, handling some of the most crucial issues, like modern
economy, like solving the water problem, and I am leaving the Oval
Room reassured and with the sense that we can move ahead in the
direction of peace to achieve a complete peace over all the places.
And we are going to work together harmoniously, fully informed by
both sides.
And while the situation right now is demanding, it is not the end of
the story. It is just the beginning of it. We did not lose hope, and
we are not going to save any effort to achieve peace. Our enemies are
not people; our problems are violence and, for the good of all
people, we shall overcome it and return to the track negotiations.
Q: Mr. Foreign Minister, the impression is you are using one language
and the prime minister is using another language. What's the Israeli
policy right now, vis-a-vis the Palestinians?
Min. Peres: We have a government with a collective responsibility,
and the Prime Minister is first among all. I don't see where we use a
different language. I mean, we are a democracy, and we don't get
orders every morning which words to use. But the government is based
on a common policy with a common goal.
Q: Mr. Foreign Minister, while you were talking about the resuming of
negotiations, 18 houses were demolished in Gaza. How do you explain
that?
Min. Peres: I don't know if 18 houses were demolished in Gaza. I
think there were some buildings, not even houses, that terrorists
used them as a basis to fire mortar shells against kibbutzim and
settlements in daylight against civilian population. And we didn't
want that those buildings will serve as a shelter for attacking
innocent people and endangering civil life.
By the way, I told the President, and he appreciated it very much,
that Israel has decided unilaterally and unconditionally to improve
the economy and the social conditions in the West Bank and Gaza. We
started already three days ago. We increased the number of permits
for Palestinian workers to come and work. We have lifted restrictions
on trade, on exports, on imports. We suggested to the Palestinians to
build a power plant on their land and of their jurisdiction; we shall
buy from them electricity. The same with desalination plant; we shall
buy from them water.
And our intention is to live in peace with the Palestinians. We don't
fight the Palestinians, we fight the enemies of peace, which in my
judgment, and in final analysis, are also the enemies of the
Palestinian people.
Q: Mr. Prime Minister, just to clarify, you said that President Bush
will act as a facilitator. Did he actually promise to work towards
forging a cease-fire, or what exactly did he say he would do?
Min. Peres: He will work for the end of terror, and I said in terms
of the future. I can say it in terms of the past; the United States
has started already to bring together the commanders of the two sides
to try to introduce a real cease-fire, not a theoretic one.
And it goes on, and Americans played a key role in doing so and I
believe they will continue to do so.
Q: Mr. Foreign Minister, can I try a quick one? We're used to a
President who got involved in details, meaning Mr. Clinton. When you
saw the President today, did he, for instance, ask you to do anything
particularly about remitting the taxes, to stop expanding
settlements, or did he speak in general terms? How -- you say he
knows the issues.
Min. Peres: I found the president fully informed. And, you know, for
me it's, I don't know, the eighth or ninth president that I am
meeting. I was here for the first time back in 1961 when President
Kennedy was in the Oval room. I saw the table -- the desk that he
used. It was, for me, a moving occasion. But I found the president
straight to the point without any attempt to flower his expression.
But I felt that he's informed and well inclined.
Q: Can you tell us about the meeting with the Qatari foreign minister
last night?
Min. Peres: The foreign minister of Qatar says that he suggests Doha
as place of a meeting, maybe, to end the violence. And says Doha is a
beautiful place.