Visit of Secretary of State Albright to the Middle East

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I am very pleased to be back in Damascus to meet with President Asad and Foreign Minister Shara whose hospitality I appreciate very deeply. The United States and Syria maintain an active dialogue on a number of issues, including the need for a comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East. The question we face today is whether leaders in the region will be able to find a basis for resuming negotiations between Israel and Syria, and Israel and Lebanon, and I believe that with sufficient flexibility and political will, such a basis can be found. Clearly this would be to the benefit of every nation in the region. A comprehensive peace based on the principle of land for peace would resolve old grievances, ease security concerns, clarify sovereignty issues, facilitate solutions to regional problems and spur economic growth.

Today I am meeting with Syrian leaders to explore the prospects for moving towards such an agreement. In each case I am emphasizing America's willingness to support the parties should they decide to resume negotiations, as we hope they will. I am also discussing the importance of restoring and maintaining calm in Southern Lebanon. This is an area where incidents of violence tend to feed each other. It is essential that all sides act with maximum restraint and that there be strong backing for the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group. A comprehensive settlement has been the goal of peacemakers in this region for more than two decades. It has been the hope of the vast majority of people who live in the region -- Arabs and Israelis -- for even longer than that and I hope that today's visit to Damascus will help us to move in the right direction. Thank you.

Foreign Minister Shara: All I want to say at the outset is that we had good talks. The talks here were constructive, positive and frank. We discussed the peace process on all the tracks, especially on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks, and also we discussed another bilateral aspect of the talks. That's to deal with the improvement of relations between Syria and the United States. I can stress that the Syrian position as far as the peace process is concerned has not changed. We would like to resume the peace talks and we are ready to do so from the point where they left off and to endorse the commitments which were made by Prime Minister Rabin in 1994 and that the resumption of the peace talks should take place from where they stopped in 1996.

Q: My question is to Mrs. Albright. Do you expect any breakthrough on the Syrian track during your visit to Damascus?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I didn't hear the first part...
Q: Do you expect any breakthrough?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well let me say that I would hope very much that I would have productive meetings with President Asad. I expect that. And that we would make an assessment of where the situation is. I came here in order to listen and in order to assess how to move the peace process forward as rapidly as possible because I believe that we truly do have a window of opportunity here and that the light that came from yesterday's agreement should also allow us to illuminate the whole region. That the light that comes from peace doesn't just, isn't just directed at one part.

Q: Mrs. Albright I have a question for you and for Mr. Shara. Syria speaks about a pledge made by late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Can you tell us more about that pledge? And to Mr. Shara, did Mrs. Albright bring you any fresh proposals from the Israeli officials so that the peace talks could resume soon? Thank you.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I have come here basically, I spoke with, obviously with Prime Minister Barak when I was in Israel and I have his assessment, his views. I am looking forward to hearing President Asad's views and we will put those ideas together and hope very much that we can move the process forward.

Q: Madame Secretary, what is your position on (inaudible)?

PRIME MINISTER SHARA: Well we expected that Secretary Madeleine Albright will bring us some good news after visiting Israel, in order to resume the peace talks. But we are still hopeful that the good news will come later. As I said earlier, the Syrian position is clear. We believe in a just and comprehensive peace. We think that peace can be achieved within months if there is a good intention by both sides.

Q: Madame Secretary, is it the U.S. position too that talks should resume where they left off? Mr. Shara, now that Israel is backpedaling on one front, giving up land, does that encourage you that they are more disposed, this new government, to give up land on your front as well? The backpedaling, the retreat on the West Bank, does that enhance, you think, prospects of pulling back on your front?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I would just like to say we obviously would like to see the talks resume, it's very important that this track is activated fully and we are going to be having a discussion with President Asad and as I said taking stock of where things are and we look forward very much to being helpful in this process.

PRIME MINISTER SHARA: As far as Syria's position is concerned, we believe that Prime Minister Barak, whose position was clarified during the election campaign, that he belongs to the school of Rabin and that he considers Rabin as his mentor and if he's going to follow his steps, we have the feeling that he is going to endorse what Rabin has deposited with President Clinton and when he does so, we hope that he will do so, Syria will be ready to resume the talks from where they left off.

Q: Madame Secretary have you brought with you a draft which records the historical memory of the United States which was present at all of these talks, which were, as the Foreign Minister said, deposited with you, deposited with the United States and do you see this as a basis for moving forward and has Barak seen such a document and agreed to it?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I have brought some assessments that we have made and my conversations with Prime Minister Barak, my conversations with President Clinton, but I'm not going to go into details of what my discussions with President Asad are going to include. I believe that it is very important for this track to be activated. We have a window of opportunity and I plan to make those arguments to President Asad.

Q: (inaudible) is the position the same as that of Israel? That the concessions Israel made on territory were hypothetical and based on Syria agreeing to all of its conditions on security.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I am not going to go into details here. I have not had my meeting with President Asad yet and I want to be able to have a meeting in which we are able to discuss a variety of options.