Return to the Wye River Talks Page!
Return to Transcripts and Statements from the TalksPeace Process archived documents and textsPhotographs of the Wye Talks
WHITE HOUSE REPORT, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1998
Wye peace talks
Press Secretary Joe Lockhart briefed at morning and afternoon sessions at the White House October 21.
BERGER UPDATES CLINTON THROUGH ALBRIGHT ON THE WYE PEACE TALKS
Lockhart said President Clinton received an update on the Wye peace talks October 21 from National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. Berger is now conferring again with Secretary of State Albright who is out at Wye River and who will be speaking by phone with the President later this afternoon. There has been no decision yet on whether or not Clinton will return to Wye later October 21. "The President will look to a recommendation from his team and will travel there if he thinks it will be productive for him to travel," Lockhart said.
In response to rumors that the Israelis had said they were willing to leave Wye the afternoon of October 21 without an agreement, Lockhart said, "there is nobody that is there that is being held there or that is there against their will. We are working on important issues, but as we've said, the parties themselves need to make some tough decisions to move the peace process forward."
There is a "US text on the areas and the subjects that we need to address in order to move, to reach an agreement in the interim phase, to move forward to final status talks," said Lockhart about the text now circulating between the two parties. "I think that if you look at the last 4, 5, 6 days," Lockhart added, "the President has been very closely and personally engaged in trying to build an atmosphere where the parties can make the tough choices they need to make to move forward. I think with the circulation of a text, the parties need to work through the issues that remain, the obstacles that still remain," he said. The text, Lockhart later added, is "a working document that moves toward what would be a deal or an agreement."
The fact that the President is not present at the talks does not mean that they are falling apart, Lockhart said. "I think it should be interpreted as there are different kinds of work that are going on there. Right now the focus, rightly, is on the text and working through the issues. The text will codify some agreements that have been reached and focus attention on the significant gaps that remain.
"There is reason to be discouraged," Lockhart said, "there is reason to be encouraged. The President is determined. He has invested a lot of time and effort in this because it's important for the people of Israel, it's important for the Palestinians, it's important for America that we do what we can to move forward, to make these tough choices, to put this process back on track," the Press Secretary said. He later added that "we are looking at this day by day, meeting by meeting."
"The President has said and told you from the outset that his commitment is doing what he can to move this process forward," Lockhart said. "And he will continue to work in a way that is productive. And we'll continue to work on that as long as we believe that both sides are serious about reaching agreement, and we still believe that," the Press Secretary said.