*EPF201 01/04/00
White House Report, Tuesday, January 4, 2000
(Israel-Syria talks in Shepherdstown) (550)

CLINTON: ISRAEL-SYRIA PEACE PROCESS DIFFICULT, BUT LEADERS WANT AGREEMENT

President Clinton says "it was partly" his decision that the United States, Israel and Syria did not hold a scheduled trilateral meeting January 3 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, where leaders of the three countries are meeting to discuss ways to move forward the Israeli-Syrian peace process.

"We just had a lot of other work to do," Clinton told reporters. He said Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syria's Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara are "both very serious, I think they both want an agreement."

Asked about prospects for peace, Clinton said, "Well, we just started, but all the issues are on the table. And it's a pretty full table, as you might imagine."

"There are difficult issues," Clinton said, "and we'll just have to hope that we work it out."

The President spoke with reporters at the White House January 4, during an event in which he nominated Alan Greenspan to a fourth four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Clinton returned to Washington from Shepherdstown late January 3. He went back to Shepherdstown following the Greenspan event midday January 4.

"When we finish here, I have to go back to Shepherdstown," he said. "I wish I could have so much success in the Middle East peace talks -- I just ask them and they say yes, the way Mr. Greenspan did -- it would be quite a joy."

Asked about about potential U.S. financial commitments in any Israeli-Syrian peace agreement, Clinton said, "I think there will be some cost associated with the security rearrangements. And then, obviously, over the long run, as I have made clear, we need to make a contribution, as do our friends in Europe and hopefully some in Asia, to the long-term economic development of a regional Middle East economy. So there will be some costs involved there -- over a period of years, not just in one year."

"We're attempting to ascertain what the general outlines of the costs would be, over how many years those costs can be spread, and then I will have to do some serious consultation with the congressional leadership," he said.

"What we're working on now up in West Virginia is sort of figuring out what the process for the next few days is going to be. And then we have to start working on that, and figuring out what the specific jobs are that we would be asked to help finance, whether we could get any others to help, and over how many years it would have to be done. Then I'll have to go talk to the Congress. And I'm just not in a position yet to say what dollar amount I would ask our Congress for.

"We want to have a high probability of success, and I believe that in America, Americans of all political parties and all stripes desperately want us to see a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, and understand that in the next three or four months we have an unparalleled opportunity that we have to seize. So I'm quite hopeful about that," Clinton said

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)
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