[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 40 (Monday, October 7, 1996)]
[Pages 1939-1941]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to Discussions With Middle East Leaders and an Exchange 
With Reporters

October 1, 1996

Middle East Summit

    The President. Wait, wait. Relax, everybody. We came here to end the 
violence, not aggravate it. [Laughter] Let's get everybody in. Is 
everyone in? Let me say first that I am delighted to have King Hussein, 
Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Chairman Arafat here. I thank them for 
coming.
    We have had some good conversations already. This is our first 
meeting, all four of us, together. But I think, with their presence 
here, it clearly symbolizes our commitment to end the violence and to 
get the peace process going again. We've come a long way in the last 3 
years. No one wants to turn back. And I'm personally quite gratified by 
this opportunity to have the chance to visit with them, and I thank them 
for coming.
    Q. Mr. Prime Minister, are you ready to abide by your previous 
promise to abide by the peace agreements already made by Israel?
    Prime Minister Netanyahu. Absolutely. And our commitment to peace is 
also evident in the fact that we took up the President's kind offer, 
important offer, to come here and to try to put the peace process back 
on track. This is what we're doing together.
    Q. Mr. Prime Minister, is there any prospect at all of your 
accepting some sort of international commission of experts, 
archaeologists, religious leaders, to take a look at what you've done by 
opening up this tunnel, to simply reassure everyone that there is no 
potential violation of Muslim holy places?
    Prime Minister Netanyahu. You know our position, and I don't think 
it would be wise to open up a discussion here. But I have a question for 
you: Don't you have questions for the other----
    Q. Yes. Mr. President----
    The President. We don't want to do a whole press conference here, 
we're just trying to----
    Q. Mr. President, have you had a chance to consider the King's 
suggestion of an independent commission to look at this problem and 
possibly cool tempers that way and come up with some sort of a bridging 
proposal?
    The President. Let me say again, this is our first opportunity to 
all meet together, and one of the things that I have learned over the 
last several years is that anything any of us say publicly could 
undermine our ability to make progress, which is the ultimate objective 
of this meeting. So I don't want to make any premature comments here 
until we have a chance to visit with each other and do some more work. 
We're going to work today, we're going to work tomorrow, and then I'll 
be glad to answer any questions that you may have.
    Q. Thank you, Mr. President.

[[Page 1940]]

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

    The President. Let's get everyone in. Is everyone in? Let me begin 
by saying that I am delighted to have His Majesty King Hussein, Prime 
Minister Netanyahu, Chairman Arafat here. I thank them for coming to 
Washington on short notice. I think it shows a common commitment to end 
the violence and get the peace process back on track. We are committed 
to that. We have been working this morning, but this is our first 
opportunity to be together, the four of us. And we'll be working the 
rest of the day and tomorrow, and then we'll have a statement to make 
and questions to answer.
    But I'm very gratified that they have come here, and we are all 
committed to moving forward now.
    Q. Mr. President, with your permission I'm going to ask a question 
in Arabic.
[Following the question, Chairman Arafat answered in Arabic and a 
translation was not provided.]
    Q. Mr. President, do you agree with His Majesty's proposal, which--
that establishing an international committee for Jerusalem?
    The President. Well, His Majesty and I had a chance to speak about 
this very briefly, and we will be talking about it more. But as a matter 
of policy, I think I should not comment on anything relating to what we 
might be discussing today and tomorrow until we have finished, because I 
don't want to say anything that, even by accident, might make our task 
more difficult. I want to make our task easier.
    The United States here--after all, our role is to try to help people 
get together and to move forward. The substantive decisions are 
decisions which have to be made by the people who live in the Middle 
East and who will share its future.
    Q. Mr. President, how do you assess the first round?

[One group of reporters left the room, and another group entered.]

    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. Let everyone get in. Tell me when everyone is here.
    Let me begin by saying that I am very pleased and honored to have 
His Majesty King Hussein and Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman 
Arafat here. I compliment them all for coming. I think it's evidence of 
their shared commitment to end violence, restore order, and invigorate 
the peace process and keep moving in the right direction.
    We have been working this morning, but this is our first chance, all 
four of us, to be together. And I look forward to the rest of today and 
to tomorrow and to making some real progress here. I thank them for 
coming, and we're going to do our very best.
    Q. Mr. President, Senator Dole and Speaker Gingrich are calling you 
not to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu. Is pressure really needed 
today for you to move these leaders ahead in the track of peace?
    The President. What the United States has done since I have been 
President is not to pressure anyone but to get the parties together and 
to explore alternatives and to see what could be done to find common 
interests and shared values. And I think our approach has been 
reasonably successful, although ultimately all the credit for the 
progress that has been made goes to the people who are living in the 
region; it is their future.
    Our role is to try to help bring people together and create the 
conditions in which a successful resolution of these matters can occur. 
And that is what we will try to do.
    Q. Mr. President, are you expecting from this meeting a schedule for 
the implementation of the interim agreement, including, of course, the 
redeployment in Hebron?
    The President. First of all, as a matter of policy I do not comment 
on meetings before they occur. We are going to work together. I don't 
want to say anything. I don't want anyone in our administration to say 
anything that will make our difficult task even harder. So what we're 
going to do is go to work, see how far we can go, see what we can 
produce and then we'll make a comment tomorrow and then answer questions 
about it. But I don't want to comment about it now. Nothing I say could 
do anything to help move forward what we're trying to do.

Note: The President spoke at 1:10 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House, prior to a meeting with King Hussein I of Jordan, Prime Minister

[[Page 1941]]

Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel, and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser 
Arafat. A tape was not available for verification of the content of 
these remarks.