THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT BEGINNING OF TRILATERAL MEETING
WITH ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER
NETANYAHU
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRESIDENT
ABBAS
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
THE PRESIDENT: Please be seated, members of the delegations.
I have just concluded frank and productive bilateral meetings with both Prime
Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas. And I want to thank them both for
appearing here today. I am now looking forward to this opportunity to
hold the first meeting among the three of us since we took office.
As I said throughout my campaign and at the beginning of my administration, the
That is why my Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and my Special Envoy George
Mitchell have worked tirelessly to create the context for permanent status
negotiations. And we have made progress since I took office in January
and since Israelis --
Palestinians
have strengthened their efforts on security, but they need to do more to stop
incitement and to move forward with negotiations. Israelis have
facilitated greater freedom of movement for the Palestinians and have discussed
important steps to restrain settlement activity. But they need to translate
these discussions into real action on this and other issues. And it
remains important for the Arab states to take concrete steps to promote peace.
Simply put it is past time to talk about starting negotiations -- it is time to
move forward. It is time to show the flexibility and common sense and
sense of compromise that's necessary to achieve our goals. Permanent
status negotiations must begin and begin soon. And more importantly, we
must give those negotiations the opportunity to succeed.
And so my message to these two leaders is clear. Despite all the
obstacles, despite all the history, despite all the mistrust, we have to find a
way forward. We have to summon the will to break the deadlock that has trapped
generations of Israelis and Palestinians in an endless cycle of conflict and
suffering. We cannot continue the same pattern of taking tentative steps
forward and then stepping back. Success depends on all sides acting with
a sense of urgency. And that is why I have asked Secretary Clinton and
Senator Mitchell to carry forward the work that we do here today.
Senator Mitchell will meet with the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators next
week. I've asked the Prime Minister and the President to continue these intensive
discussions by sending their teams back to
All of us know this will not be easy. But we are here today because it is
the right thing to do. I look forward to speaking with my
colleagues. I'm committed to pressing ahead in the weeks and months and
years to come, because it is absolutely critical that we get this issue
resolved. It's not just critical for the Israelis and the Palestinians,
it's critical for the world, it is in the interests of the
END
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