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PRESS BRIEFING EXCERPT WITH JOE LOCKHART

The Briefing Room

October 20, 1998

10:53 A.M. EDT

MR. LOCKHART: I wanted to come in before we went off, because I haven't been here in a couple of days. Let me make a couple of event and travel announcements and then I'll get to today.

On Friday, this Friday, October 23, the President will host a roundtable event in the East Room to discuss retirement security for women.

On Thursday, October 29, the President will travel to Florida. The President will travel to Cape Canaveral to attend the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center. The President is attending the launch to recognize Senator Glenn's historic return to space and to recognize the importance of our nation's space program and the hard work of the men and women that make that program possible.

He will also attend a reception for Congressman Peter Deutsch and Lt. Governor Buddy MacKay in West Palm Beach that day, and return late that evening.

Friday, October 30, the President will travel to New York City to attend an event for Chuck Schumer. The times on that are still TBD.

Q Is he going to California at all?

MR. LOCKHART: We are working to reschedule the events that needed to be postponed today and tomorrow. I expect we will reschedule those and that may come as early as this weekend.

Q There are no surrogates doing this, those events are--

MR. LOCKHART: No, I think our focus right now is to try to reschedule. But we are working with the candidates now.

Q The President may travel this weekend?

MR. LOCKHART: He may.

Now, to today. The President will be in the Rose Garden at 11:30 a.m., where he will make a personnel announcement. I then expect him to leave at about 12:45 p.m. to return to the Wye Conference Center for the Middle East peace talks.

Q To meet King Hussein?

MR. LOCKHART: My understanding is King Hussein will be arriving on the Eastern Shore shortly after noon today. We asked the King to come--he's been in the area for the last several days--to come to the talks. We believe he can play a constructive role in the process there. As you know, the King enjoys enormous respect in the region and has played an important role in the peace process.

Q So what time do you think he'll get there?

MR. LOCKHART: King Hussein? I think sometime probably between 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m.

Q Does his arrival signal a turn in negotiations in any way? Does it brighten prospects for an agreement?

MR. LOCKHART: I wouldn't try to read any conclusion into his arrival and his participation.

Q What are the prospects?

MR. LOCKHART: I'd say, obviously, that there is seriously work that's going on. The President was there again last night until late in the evening. Meetings have already begun there this morning with the Secretary of State and the delegations. But there are significant gaps between the parties, and the President is determined and focused on helping the parties make the tough choices they need to make to move the peace process forward.

Q The President has invested a lot of time, Joe. How is he helping the talks along? What is he doing with all of this time?

MR. LOCKHART: Well, I think, without getting into the specifics of the talks, we have said to you that the President and the U.S. plays a unique role in helping the parties understand each other's position, helping them make the tough choices that need to be made. And I think the President enjoys a reservoir of goodwill and trust between the leaders and can help them in that respect.

Q But he's been at it for more than 40 hours and does not seem to have gotten anything out of it.

MR. LOCKHART: Well, Scott, I'd suggest that this peace process--the President's been working on this since the day he came into his. There are difficult issues here, and I don't know that we can measure--we should measure progress by hours spent.

Q What's the outlook for success?

MR. LOCKHART: I think I just answered that as best as I could.

Q Joe, is today the last day, or will it bleed into tomorrow?

MR. LOCKHART: Well, we are taking this, as Mr. Rubin said yesterday, day by day and meeting by meeting. So the only thing I can tell you is the President will go out there this afternoon.

Q There are reports from Maryland--

Q You really have had a blackout on the news at Wye.

MR. LOCKHART: That's correct. That's correct.

Q And there's been no sense of where the talks are going, so where are they going?

MR. LOCKHART: Well, that's why we have the blackout. (Laughter.) I'm not trying to be-

Q What good does it do you? I mean--

MR. LOCKHART: We believe that the important work should be done at the negotiating table and shouldn't be influenced one way or the other by a report by a significant--

Q By the people involved?

MR. LOCKHART: By reporting or play-by-play of where things are.

Q You have had a blackout, but the Palestinian and Israeli delegations there have leaked like sieves to all news organizations and they both say they think there's going to be a signing ceremony here tomorrow morning.

MR. LOCKHART: Well, let me repeat what I said. There's obviously important work going on, but there is significant gaps between the parties.

Q Where are the gaps?

MR. LOCKHART: The President will return this afternoon to remain engaged--

Q But you don't rule out a signing ceremony, do you?

MR. LOCKHART: I'm not ruling anything in or out.

Q The President will return this afternoon?

MR. LOCKHART: Yes, the President will return to Wye this afternoon.

Q Joe, can you give us any fuller characterization of King Hussein's role? Will he be sitting down with the President and Netanyahu and Arafat at the same time? Will he be meeting individually with the various--

MR. LOCKHART: I can't give you a specific sense of what he'll be doing other than that we felt he could play a constructive role in the talks today and we thought it was important for him to come out to Wye.

Q Did the President ask him, or did he ask whether he could come?

MR. LOCKHART: I believe the invitation, the formal invitation came from the Secretary of State.

Q How's his health, Joe?

MR. LOCKHART: I don't have any recent update. As you know, he's just come from Minnesota, from the clinic, and has been in the Washington area for the last few days.

Q Joe, is a complete interim agreement still within reach, or are we now to a point where you're trying to pick and choose items where an agreement can be brought?

MR. LOCKHART: I think, without getting into the substance of what's being talked about, our objective remains the same, which is to reach an agreement on the interim issues so we can move to final status talks.

Q All of the interim issues?

MR. LOCKHART: That remains our objective.

Q Oftentimes it comes to a point where negotiators might just throw up their hands and say, we can't reach agreement. Do you see any point along the way or any deadline that you might want to set?

MR. LOCKHART: Oftentimes negotiators reach that point. We have not reached that point.

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