[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[November 19, 1999]
[Pages 2111-2113]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Prior to Discussions With Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland and an Exchange With Reporters in Istanbul
November 19, 1999

Northern Ireland Peace Process

    President Clinton. Good morning. Let me say to all of you that I'm 
delighted to have this chance to meet with the Taoiseach and talk about 
the Irish peace process. I want to congratulate Prime Minister Ahern, 
Prime Minister Blair, and clearly, Senator 
Mitchell and the parties for the progress 
that has been made in the last few days. It's obvious that the parties 
have really worked hard to reaffirm their common commitment to the Good 
Friday accord, to hear each other's concerns, and then to develop a 
step-by-step plan to actually consummate this peace agreement. So I'm 
very hopeful, and I want to thank you for what you've done.

[[Page 2112]]

    Prime Minister Ahern. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank the 
President for his interest in Irish matters this last 7 years. For the 
last 5 years, we have developed the Northern Ireland peace process. I 
particularly want to thank him for giving one of his best and trusted 
colleagues to Ireland, Senator George Mitchell. He has almost spent 5 
years with us in one forum or another, and we thank him for that.
    We particularly thank him for this third round of discussions this 
year, 11 weeks of intensive dialog, of comprehensive discussions, which 
he has chaired throughout. And can I add, I think a great part of the 
trust and the confidence which we could not generate earlier this year 
was assisted by the fact that we could use the United States Embassy in 
London which, I think, created a new confidence for the parties, and we 
appreciated that. And it allowed the parties to get away from the 
ordinary, run-of-the-mill activities and to concentrate their minds. So 
that was a great help.
    The reality is now, we're within a week or two of devolution of all 
the things that can bring the Good Friday agreement to reality. I just 
hope that all of the work that's been done by Senator Mitchell concluded 
yesterday successfully. I will now allow it to go forward.
    And from the Irish Government's point of view, working in 
partnership with the British Government, with Tony Blair, working with 
the great assistance with the President, this is an opportunity which 
most people thought we'd never get. We have it now. It's for us to make 
it work. And I believe that the partnership government, working with the 
new institutions, the north-south bodies, it will allow us to go forward 
in peace and confidence and prosperity, and we appreciate that 
opportunity, President.

Decommissioning of Weapons

    Q. Mr. President, the IRA statement yesterday made no mention of an 
actual turnover of weapons. Can there be a real peace until that 
happens?
    President Clinton. Well, that is required by the Good Friday accord, 
and I think the fact that they have committed themselves to a process 
involving General de Chastelain and the 
decommissioning body indicates where this is going.
    My sense is--and maybe Prime Minister Ahern would like to comment, 
he knows more than I do--but my sense is that both sides know what the 
other is going to say and do along this road and that this is the next 
step. And I thought it was an encouraging statement. It's certainly the 
most forthcoming the IRA has been as opposed to Sinn Fein, and so I 
think that we're moving in the right direction.
    Prime Minister Ahern. What the President says is absolutely correct, 
and I think the IRA statement has to be read in conjunction with the 
Sinn Fein statement of the previous day. And the key aspect that people 
should remember is that last July, when Tony Blair and I tried to bring 
this to this stage of completion and did not succeed, it was the actions 
of an IRA statement. And the IRA, at that stage, had not agreed to put 
somebody working directly as an interlocutor with General de Chastelain. 
That has now been achieved.

Ulster Unionists

    Q. Mr. President, Mr. Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party still has 
to convince his party that this agreement with Senator Mitchell is worth 
going ahead with. Do you have any message for the Ulster Unionists?
    President Clinton. Well, I think David Trimble has provided very strong and clear leadership. I don't 
think that he would be doing this if he didn't believe that ultimately 
all the provisions of the Good Friday accord would be honored. And I 
hope his party will stay with him, because he has been absolutely 
pivotal to this. And it's taken a lot of courage for him to take some of 
the decisions that he's taken, but because of that, we're on the verge 
of successful peace. And as I said, I am absolutely confident that he 
would not have agreed to any of this if he didn't think the whole Good 
Friday accord would be honored. And so I hope that he will receive the 
support of his party membership. I think they should stick with them, 
and I hope they will.
    Press Secretary Joe Lockhart. Thank you 
very much.

President's Visit to Greece

    Q. Mr. President, what do you think of the Greek Government's 
decision to ban protests during your visit to Athens?
    President Clinton. I don't know that that's exactly the decision 
they made, so I can't comment until I'm absolutely sure that's what they 
did. I thought what they were trying to do is to do what a lot of 
countries do, which is to

[[Page 2113]]

maintain some sort of distance between the protests and the subject of 
the protests. I don't believe they have banned them all.
    Q. There seem to be some protests brewing there for your arrival, 
sir. What's your reaction to that, and----
    President Clinton. First of all, I'm delighted to be going, and I'm 
not concerned about the protests. Greece and the United States have been 
great allies. They're very important to us. The Greek-American community 
is a very important part of our country, and the country has made 
absolutely astonishing progress over the last 10 years. And I would hope 
that this would be an opportunity for us to talk about what we have in 
common and where we're going.
    I also think that the Greek people and the Government should be 
quite encouraged by this new Cyprus initiative and by the fact that I 
found a receptive ear here on three separate occasions when I spoke in 
Turkey about the necessity of the Turkish people and the Greeks being 
reconciled. So I know that a lot of people in Greece disagree with my 
position on Kosovo, and they have a right to their opinion, and I have a 
right to mine. I believe I was right, and I think that the facts have 
proved that I was right. But I don't mind. Greece is the world's oldest 
democracy. If people want to protest, they ought to have a chance to do 
it.

Situation in Chechnya

    Q. Mr. President, do you think President Yeltsin might be changing 
course now on Chechnya by allowing an OSCE official to go and follow the 
political process?
    President Clinton. Well, I think it's encouraging that the OSCE 
Chairman-in-Office has been invited there. I 
also think it's encouraging that this charter signing, which we're going 
to have in here in a few minutes, will be joined by Russia, because the 
charter specifically says that we do have to be concerned about internal 
affairs in other countries. So this is a significant move by Russia, and 
so these two things are encouraging.
    Obviously, we've got a lot of turns in the road on Chechnya before 
it's resolved, but I would say that, compared to how things were when we 
all got here, those are two things that are hopeful.

Note: The President spoke at 9:47 a.m. at Ciragan Palace. In his 
remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom; 
George J. Mitchell, Special Assistant to the President for Northern 
Ireland; Gen. John de Chastelain, Canadian Defense Forces (Ret.), chair, 
Independent International Commission on Decommissioning; Ulster Unionist 
Party Leader David Trimble; President Boris Yeltsin of Russia; and 
Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek of Norway, Chairman-in-Office, 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of this exchange.