Press encounter with Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Maher, (unofficial transcript)

FM: Welcome, Mr. Secretary, I must thank you because I've never seen so much press for any of my talks. It's a great pleasure and an honor to have you here. The Secretary-General has honored us with a visit at the beginning of a tour of the region. He has met with the President this morning and we had a talk between him and myself right now. We of course talked about the situation in the Middle East and the efforts to achieve peace. We are very happy to see the United Nations involved in this process. This has been our position all along and we learned [unintelligible]. We also talked about the situation in other parts of the Middle East and of the necessity to continue to keep in touch in order to conjugate our efforts towards the goal that we are both seeking. I want to say that the talks with the President were excellent. They took place in a very friendly atmosphere. It was very comprehensive. They talked about many many problems. And you know how much we appreciate the Secretary-General, how much we appreciate all the efforts he has been exerting not only in our part of the world but all over the world. And I expressed our hope to see the Secretary-General continue serving in this position for another mandate. So, the Secretary-General may take some questions if he wants.

SG: Thank you very much. Yes I think we should because we have very little time.

Q: [unintelligible] It is known that the Palestinian Authority is very much interested in having a cease-fire. What about if another movement against the peace comes out with a terrorist attack, will they take responsibility for the break up of the cease-fire?

SG: My attitude is that since both Parties have accepted the recommendations of the Mitchell commission and taken the first important step of cease-fire, we should really move ahead with the diplomatic effort and get the political discussion going, after the confidence building measure and all this. And I think once you've made a strategic choice for peace, you need to stay the course and to stick with it, and at the same time find a way of dealing with the terrorists. That is, if you allow the terrorist to dictate the pace of talks to determine when you continue your peace discussions then you are not going to move very far. And I also believe that is when the killing is going on one needs to talk. That's one more urgent reason to persevere and find peace. And so I would hope the Parties will stay the course and not allow a bomb here or there disturb the process.

Q: Secretary-General, the United States has traditionally been the main player in the peace process. What practical role can the United Nations play to complement the US role?

SG: The UN, let me put it this way, has been involved in the Middle East right from the beginning. And yesterday I had the chance to say, not only do we have troops in Lebanon and Syria, we are also the organization that has been giving considerable assistance to the Palestinian refugees right from the beginning. And we must not forget that even if today the Security Council is not actively seized, quite a lot of the resolutions on which these discussions are based are the framework for the discussions, whether it's land for peace, and all that came out of the UN and I think that's a valuable contribution. Today, I'm working in very close cooperation with the leaders of this region, the American administration, the EU and Russian Federation. I think there is emerging a real international alliance for peace to work with the Parties and move the process forward. And I think that is a very useful thing.

Q: But Israel views the role of the UN [unintelligible]

SG: Well, I've been dealing with them and I hope my efforts in the process will continue. I talked to the Israeli leadership. I am in touch with them as I am with President Arafat and I am going to continue to do that. And I think that is a step in the right direction.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, do we expect now that the Palestinian request for having international peace keeper or observers will be considered by the Security Council and would it this time have a chance to be passed?

SG: Well, I am not sure that the Security Council is ready to take it up again at this time. But if they do take it up, I think they should make sure it is successful because we wouldn't want to go through what we went through. I have no indication that the Council is prepared to take it up again.

Q: Just a follow-up. Isn't it a complementary role for the agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis and could it be considered a guarantee [unintelligible]

SG: I think whatever agreement is made as part of the efforts on the ground, whether it's a cease-fire or the implementation of the Mitchell report, will have to be a package. You can have a situation where you discuss a cease-fire on the ground with Mr. Tenet and ask the Security Council to take a complementary role. I think we need to have a focused and structured process which is good. I am not saying that I disagree with the intent behind your question. (the Foreign Minister then took a number of questions in Arabic, which he answered in Arabic). *****