[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[September 29, 1995]
[Pages 1518-1520]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With President Hosni 
Mubarak of Egypt
September 29, 1995

    President Clinton. I thought it was great. I thought your talk was 
great, what you said. There were some unusual things said yesterday, 
even more so in some ways than the last time when they were here. What 
you said and--we've got a transcript we haven't made up our mind about--
[laughter].
    Good morning, everyone.
    Vice President Gore. Your picture is all over the United States 
today in the morning newspapers.
    President Clinton. Yes. I thought it was interesting. The picture 
that most of them showed was the one in the New York Times today. Most--
[inaudible]--showed us, the five of us, you know--have you seen it? 
[Inaudible]--every time. That's the picture that was mostly in the 
country.
    President Mubarak. Yes.
    President Clinton. That was great.
    Good morning.

Jerusalem

    Q. Mr. President, what do you think is going to happen to Jerusalem 
when there is a final settlement?
    President Clinton. Are you addressing me or President Mubarak? 
[Laughter]
    Q. First Mubarak, then you.
    President Clinton. That's good. [Laughter]
    Q. Or vice-versa. I think you heard Chairman Arafat say something 
about a joint cornerstone.
    President Mubarak. I think, as Chairman Arafat mentioned yesterday, 
there should be access of the holy places for all the religions in 
Eastern Jerusalem. And we know beforehand that Jerusalem will be very 
difficult to be divided. So any kind of arrangement for Jerusalem, east 
and west, without dividing it, I think, may have a problem.
    Q. Well, that would be the Israeli position, wouldn't it?
    President Mubarak. Look, it's--we should listen to all of the 
statements coming here and there, but this will be decided during the 
negotiations. All of us are going to act in that direction, with the 
help of President Clinton and the administration.
    Q. Mr. President, do you want to elaborate on that?
    President Clinton. You know what our position is, that the less we 
say about this at this moment, the better, because the parties have 
agreed themselves to make this a part of the final status talks. And 
what we want to do is to create the maximum chance that they will 
actually reach a good-faith agreement, because if they actually reach a 
good-faith agreement, then the chances are much greater that it will 
then be accepted by all the people in the area.

[[Page 1519]]

    I think everyone expects that because of the importance of Jerusalem 
to Muslims, to Jews, and to Christians, that all of us believers from 
all over the world will be able to show up there and have access to our 
holy sites. But I think that it's very important that we not prejudge 
exactly what the structure be. We should let the negotiators work. They 
have done a marvelous job. I mean, look at yesterday, Prime Minister 
Rabin and Chairman Arafat initialed 26 maps in here. There were 
thousands and thousands and thousands of excruciatingly detailed 
decisions made by those negotiators. That is good evidence that they can 
actually work through these things. And I believe in the end, they will 
reach whatever they believe is a fair and livable accommodation on 
Jerusalem, and I want to see them have a chance to do it.

 Foreign Policy

    Q.  Do you think, Mr. President, that your foreign policy, foreign 
policy in general is beginning to fall into place as you see some of the 
problems that you've had over the past 2\1/2\ years get resolved?
    President Clinton. Well, I thought we had a pretty good year last 
year as well. I think what's happening is that these two events of this 
week show that the announcement in the Middle East in 1993 was not a 
fluke, not an aberration, that there really is a process unfolding in 
the Middle East and that we have a chance to go all the way. And of 
course, President Mubarak and I will be talking about that today. Until 
we finish these agreements between the Palestinians and the Israelis and 
until we have an agreement between Syria and Lebanon and Israel, we 
won't be able to go all the way, but I think there is a sense of that.
    And in Bosnia, I think there is at least a sense that what has been 
our thorniest and most difficult problem, we may be able to work 
through. Now, we're a long way from getting there, but we are making 
progress. And I'm hopeful and--these things will make the American 
people more secure and more prosperous. And they'll live in a world that 
they feel better about. And I'm happy for our people, but I'm 
particularly pleased for the people in the affected areas.

Bosnia

    Q. Are you bringing to the leaders today a specific price tag for 
Bosnia when a peace settlement is reached? What is it you will be asking 
them?
    President Clinton. No, because we have no way of knowing that. We 
have to see whether there is a peace agreement reached and what the map 
looks like and what the conditions are and what we're asked to do as a 
world community. So we have no way of knowing that right now.
    Q. But you're still committed to sending U.S. troops to implement 
the peace?
    President Clinton. I believe the United States should be a part of 
implementing the peace process. I have said that for almost 3 years. I 
don't see how, as the leader of NATO and basically the leader of the 
West, we can walk away from that. And I think the American people, once 
I explain it to them, will be supportive. And I believe the Congress 
will.
    Q. How many?
    President Clinton. I'll have more to say about that in the 
congressional meeting. You can ask more Bosnia questions in there 
because we're going to talk about that.

Continuing Resolution

    Q. Are you going to sign a CR today?
    President Clinton. I'll talk about that at the congressional meeting 
as well.
    Q. Got to have something later.
    President Clinton. Never satisfied. [Laughter]
    Thank you all.
    Q. Nothing ventured. [Laughter]

[At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group 
entered.]

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President Mubarak, can we ask what main issues will be 
discussed with President Clinton?
    President Mubarak. We have various issues to be discussed--
implementation of the peace process; we'll speak on Bosnia; we'll speak 
of cooperation in the area; about the economic summit in Jordan. We have 
so many issues to discuss.
    Q. President Clinton, actually, I have two questions. I wanted to 
ask you about what you plan to do in the next stage on bilateral ties 
with Egypt in order to boost investment, American investment in Egypt. 
And also, the other question is, we've been talking to many Palestinians 
about good intentions on the part of the Israelis in order to implement 
the peace process,

[[Page 1520]]

and good intentions are the key for the implementation of the peace 
process----
    President Clinton. Well, let me answer--I'll try to answer both of 
them. First of all, our bilateral relations are important with Egypt, 
but one of the things that is shaping our bilateral relations is the 
leadership that Egypt is showing in the region and throughout the Arab 
world as a force for peace and the strong stand taken against terrorism, 
which we want to cooperate with and support. I believe that that is very 
important not only for the strong tourism industry in Egypt but for 
getting investment and growth into the country and over the long run.
    Secondly, I think Egypt's role as a regional leader will help us to 
strengthen our bilateral relationship. For example, if we can locate the 
Middle Eastern development bank there, that's not just to develop things 
for the Palestinians, that's for the whole region. What we want to do is 
to bring in a huge influx of capital into the Middle East to bring the 
benefits of peace to all the people who have fought for it. And since 
Egypt was the first nation to make peace and since President Mubarak has 
been a leading, consistent, unwavering force for the peace process, I 
think Egypt would benefit dramatically from that. So we will work on 
that.
    Now secondly, with regard to the intentions of the Israelis, I 
believe that the Prime Minister and his government are completely 
committed to this. And I saw yesterday these maps that were signed in 
here that are the annexes to the words of the agreement. They signed--
Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Rabin signed 26 maps that had 
literally thousands and thousands of decisions on them. So they know 
exactly what they're getting into. They have made very, very detailed 
commitments to one another.
    And just as I believe that Chairman Arafat is going to do his best 
to try to diminish terror, I believe that the Prime Minister will do 
everything he can to fulfill both the letter and the spirit of the 
agreement. And that is one of the things that the United States has been 
able to do with the leadership of the Secretary of State and Mr. Ross. 
And our whole team is to try to work with the parties to make sure that 
their relationship ripens.
    And I will say this: I would urge you to go back and carefully 
review the text of the statements made not only yesterday at the 
ceremony but last night at the reception by both Prime Minister Rabin 
and Chairman Arafat. They said some remarkable things, some things that 
they certainly didn't say here 2 years ago, which, to me, showed that 
they are kind of opening up to one another and that the level of trust 
is growing.
    Now, we all know that none of us have total control over people who 
are, in theory, within our dominion. Here in the United States we have 
crimes committed every day that the President cannot stop. But I think 
they are proceeding in good faith, and I think that the people in the 
Middle East will have a high level of confidence in the way the Israelis 
proceed now.

Note: The exchange began at 11:20 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of this 
exchange.