President Clinton Says Mideast Peace Closer Than Ever
LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: Now back to the subject of the Middle East. President Clinton is not giving up his effort to get the parties in the Middle East together before his time is up. Joining us now from the White House, CNN's Major Garrett. What's the latest, Major?</s>MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Lou. Well, the president is certainly not giving up, but today, in very strong language he told both sides in his words, it's time to close this; meaning it's time for the both -- the Palestinians and the Israelis to accept his blueprint for peace and come to the table once and for all to work out these excruciating compromises that they have known, in the president's words, for seven years they would have to make. The time of reckoning has come; and the president said, based on all the conversations he and his top advisers have had, the two sides have never been closer to an ultimate deal.</s>WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you just look at the last two months, it's the best argument for going ahead and finishing this. It's not going to get any easier. So this is, by far, the closest we have ever been. We are much closer than we were at Camp David, but there are still differences and, you know, we're just waiting.</s>GARRETT: What the president is waiting for is a green light from the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that he will, in fact, accept the president's blueprint. The Israelis have already signaled that they will; and all the president wants is a green light from Mr. Arafat. Then he will invite him and Mr. Barak, the Israeli leader, here to the White House for more talks that could lead to a second, Camp-David style summit. It would be there, Lou, that a comprehensive peace deal creating a Palestinian state and providing security for Israel would be hammered out.</s>WATERS: The president indicated today, Major, that Barak didn't make it to Sharm el-Sheikh for a meeting with Arafat because of the violence in the Middle East.</s>GARRETT: Actually, Lou, that was a bit of a misstatement on the part of the president. One the White House corrected very soon after he came to the White House briefing room. The president had been briefed earlier this morning that there had been these two explosion, one in Tel Aviv, one in Gaza, and he sort of communicated or thought to himself that those were the things that had prevented Mr. Barak from going to that planned summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. In fact, the sequence of events is exactly the opposite. He decided not to go to Sharm el-Sheikh for that summit, then the bombs went off. So the president was little bit of off his facts of that. What the White House has said since then is what really caused Mr. Barak not to go to Sharm el-Sheikh for that summit was this continued reluctance on the Palestinian's part to accept this blueprint for peace. Mr. Barak doesn't want to go to see Mr. Arafat unless he has a green light that, in fact, this blueprint has been accepted -- Lou.</s>WATERS: All right; Major Garrett at the White House, on the Middle East.