No Davos Summit Planned

(Communicated by Prime Minister's Media Advisor)
Jerusalem, 26 January, 2000

In light of reports and statements made by a number of Palestinian officials, the Prime Minister's Bureau wishes to make clear that no tripartite summit was planned at Davos at any time. No such meeting could have occurred due to scheduling conflicts and the fact that President Clinton is expected to spend only a short time at Davos on Saturday, when Prime Minister Ehud Barak does not work.

The Prime Minister's Bureau also wishes to clarify that statements made in response to the Prime Minister's apparent intention to cancel the Davos trip do not reflect the seriousness necessary for the negotiations to succeed. In any event, the complicated problems of the Middle East can only be resolved in the region and not on the ski slopes of Switzerland. It is therefore recommended that our Palestinian interlocutors focus on the essential and complex discussions that lie before us in order to meet the challenges of real problems and to solve them.