Bill Clinton: “I believe there is. I believe that basically what the Russians would like to do is to have an influence in a critical…”

“I believe there is. I believe that basically what the Russians would like to do is to have an influence in a critical region of the world. And they have been, after all, cosponsors of the peace process with the United States since a period before I became President. It goes back to the first Madrid Conference in '92. Will we always agree with every position they take? No, we won't. But the Russians have pledged to cooperate with us to minimize and hopefully eliminate weapons transfers and component part transfers and things like that that should not go into explosive environments in the Middle East, and we are going to keep working with them to see that we achieve that goal. Now, in terms of the London conference, I hope that after Secretary Albright meets with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Arafat that we will have the elements of an agreement which will get the parties into final status talks. You all pretty well know what the parameters are. There is still no agreement on how much of a redeployment should be undertaken by the Israelis from the West Bank in this next phase. But they are much closer than they were just a couple of weeks ago--much, much closer. And there are some other issues that may be able to be worked out around that that might still enable us to make an agreement. I think what both of them are going to have to decide is whether or not they believe that they're better off waiting or each side giving a little more to get to a final status talks. Now, keep in mind, this is not a final peace agreement. We are arguing over the dimensions of a step which is part of the Oslo agreement designed to get the parties in the final status talks which are supposed to be over a year from now--I think May of '99 is when they're supposed to end. So what the parties have got to make up their mind about is do they want to roll the dice--because, believe me, in the nature of all these agreements, the most principled compromise will leave both sides dissatisfied, by definition. That's the way--if peace agreements were easy they'd all be done already. So the most principled compromise will leave both sides dissatisfied. What they have to decide is, do they want to roll the dice--do they really want to gamble on 6 more months of basically everything in suspended animation? Do they really believe it will be better then? Do they really believe it will be better in another year? What happens when the timetable runs out on the Oslo Accord? Will we be closer to peace? I think the answer is manifestly no. And so I'm hoping and praying that we'll be able to get something positive out of the London accords. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Stock Market”