*EPF101 10/23/00
White House Report, Monday, October 23, 2000
(Middle East, North Korea, Peru) (890)

White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert briefed.

WHITE HOUSE URGES END TO BLOODSHED IN MIDDLE EAST

The United States will use every diplomatic initiative that it can to find a way to end the fighting in the Middle East, White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert told reporters October 23.

"Our priority, our focus now, is on ending the bloodshed," he said.

President Clinton has spent a lot of time on the phone on this since his participation in the Middle East Summit earlier this month at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and he will continue to consult with the Israelis and the Palestinians, with United States Special Envoy for the Middle East Dennis Ross, with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and others on this, Siewert said.

"We think it's important" for both the Israelis and the Palestinians "to implement the security provisions of Sharm el-Sheikh. That's the only real way to end the violence there," he said.

"That's the point the President made in his phone calls over the weekend" to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, "and that's the message we will continue to deliver as we consult with parties in the region over the next couple days," Siewert said.

"In the end, it's important that they find a pathway back to the political process and to the peace process. That's what they agreed to at Sharm. And finally, the only solution is going to be one that's reached at the negotiating table, through a political process and not through violence."

The situation in the Middle East is "very difficult," Siewert said, but both parties did tell the President this week that they remain committed to the peace process.

"And we just think it's important for both of them to take the concrete steps that were agreed to" at Sharm el-Sheikh, "particularly the security provisions there that could cool tensions, cool the violence in the region."

"In the final analysis, the parties, themselves, need to take the action to implement those agreements," Siewert said. "We've said that from the beginning. We said that before we went to Sharm, we said that since then, that they have the responsibility for taking the steps, they have the authority, the influence to carry out the actions that are necessary to reduce violence and reduce the level of tension there.

"But the President has a great deal of persuasive ability, we have a great deal of influence in the region; he's continued to consult with both parties and with leaders in the region and we'll continue to do all the diplomatic work that we can to try to get the parties to agree to move forward on the agreement we reached in Egypt."

Asked whether the Arab Summit in Cairo over the weekend turned out better than expected, Siewert said:

"The language of the communique was harsh and unhelpful, but at the same time it did reaffirm the necessity for a peaceful solution. So I think I'll leave it at that."

ALBRIGHT HOLDS "SUBSTANTIVE AND USEFUL DISCUSSIONS" IN NORTH KOREA

Asked to comment on Secretary Albright's ongoing trip to North Korea, Siewert said "she had substantive and useful discussions with the Chairman in Pyongyang, and we expect her to be back at the end of the week and we'll get a full update from her at that point. But at this point, we've simply heard that she had a good three-hour meeting with Chairman Kim and we expect that we'll get a full report when she returns.

"Those discussions began earlier than we had expected. They were not expected to meet until tomorrow. But she is expected to have more meetings tomorrow and then we'll hear back from her. She's due back in Washington on Thursday (October 26) and I expect we'll get a report sometime after she returns to Washington."

Siewert said once Albright returns, the White House will make a decision on whether President Clinton will visit North Korea.

"We haven't set a time line for making that decision. We will make a judgment on the merits, whether we think it's useful in advancing the concerns we have about what's going on in North Korea, whether it would further the sunshine policy that President Kim Dae Jung initiated and we'll wait to hear back from her and make a decision after we've had a chance to look at what the substance of the discussions were over there."

U.S. EXPECTS PERU'S PRESIDENT TO STEP DOWN AND HOLD ELECTIONS

The White House is concerned about reports that Vladimoro Montesinos, the former intelligence chief of Peru, has returned to Peru, Siewert said.

"We don't know exactly why he's returning and we're not clear what his motivations are. It's probably a little too early to speculate on that. But the military said it will respect the constitutional order and we've made clear that any move to disrupt the constitutional order would lead to Peru's isolation."

"We continue to expect that President Fujimori will abide by the commitment that he made to step down and hold elections and that the OAS process continues."

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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