Bill Clinton: “Well, I'm neither optimistic, nor pessimistic because I have something better now. We have now a verification system, so…”

“Well, I'm neither optimistic, nor pessimistic because I have something better now. We have now a verification system, so we're not dependent upon our hopes. We have a verification system. There will be facts--facts on the ground which will tell us whether or not the compliance is there. And I certainly would hope that this NATO position will, in effect, be maintained until all the conditions are fully met. And I expect that it will be. So I cannot--I would like to say again what I said last night--I'm very appreciative to Mr. Holbrooke, but also to Secretary General Solana and General Clark and all of our NATO Allies, as well as to the Secretary of State and Mr. Berger and our people who have worked for the better part of 3 months to try to bring about these developments. So I'm very pleased about where we are today, because we're not dependent on hope. We can just look at the facts and see what he does. It is a very good agreement. It is completely in accord with the United Nations resolution, and it gives us the chance to save an awful lot of innocent people from starvation or freezing this winter and to remove yet another very dangerous source of instability in Europe.”