*EPF301 02/09/00
White House Report, Wednesday, February 9, 2000
(Lebanon, Pakistan, Northern Ireland) (500)

U.S. WANTS MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS TO GET BACK ON TRACK

Asked about Israel's bombing of Lebanon, President Clinton told reporters February 9 that "we are doing our best to get the peace process back on track."

He said "it is clear that the bombing is a reaction to the deaths in two separate instances of Israeli soldiers. And what we need to do is to stop the violence and start the peace process again, and we're doing our best to get it started, and we're working very, very hard on it."

Clinton made his comments in remarks to reporters as he left the White House for a trip to Texas.

ITINERARY FOR PRESIDENT'S SOUTH ASIA TRIP NOT YET FINALIZED

On another topic, Clinton was asked if he has decided whether to stop in Pakistan on his trip in March to India and Bangladesh.

He responded: "We haven't made a decision on the final itinerary yet. I want to make a trip which maximizes the possibilities not only for constructive partnerships for the United States in the years ahead, but even more urgently, for peace in that troubled part of the world. That has enormous implications for people in the United States and throughout the world, more, I suspect, than most people know. And I hope in the time that I have here that we can make some progress, because it is something that I remain profoundly concerned about for years and years into the future."

U.S. WORKING HARD ON NORTHERN IRELAND PEACE PROCESS

Clinton was also asked to give an update on the administration's work on moving the Northern Ireland peace process forward.

"We are working very hard on it," he said. "And I have some hope that we may find a way through this which would enable every aspect of the Good Friday accord to be realized -- that's, after all, what the people of Northern Ireland voted for overwhelmingly -- and that could achieve that objective without interrupting the progress so far.

"But I have nothing else to report to you except to say that I am working very hard, as the British and Irish governments are and I think the leaders of all the political factions are. I think everyone understands that we're at a very important moment and that we're trying to keep it going, and we have a chance. And I just hope everyone will belly up to the bar and do their part so that we don't have any kind of back-sliding or reversal here. We've come too far.

"I was quite encouraged that there was universal condemnation of the explosion in Northern Ireland last week. That's a good first step, and we just need to keep at it."

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