Middle East peace process – Remarks by President Bush and SecGen after meeting at the Oval Office – White House press release/Non-UN document (excerpts)

President Bush Meets with United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon
Oval Office

2:16 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Secretary General, welcome; thanks for coming. We've just had a wide-ranging and full discussion on a lot of issues. First, Mr. Secretary General, I appreciate you, one, taking on this job; two, working extremely hard; and, three, doing a fine job. I admire the values you hold dear to your heart and I appreciate the chance to share some thoughts with you.

We discussed a lot of issues. We have discussed Darfur. We discussed proliferation. We discussed the potential trial for — about Hariri. The Secretary General and I talked about the speech I gave yesterday on the Middle East. We have talked about Afghanistan and Iraq.

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So Mr. Secretary General, I'm proud to have you here and thank you for your leadership.

SECRETARY GENERAL BAN KI-MOON: Thank you very much, Mr. President. This is my second time for meeting with you in this Oval Office. I appreciate your strong support and active participation of the United States in the United Nations. And I'm very much grateful for all the strong support for peacekeeping operations.

In addition to what President Bush has just mentioned on the issues we have covered, I'd like to mention just a few important, from my perspective.

First of all, I welcome the interest which you have announced yesterday for the comprehensive Middle East peace process. As a member of the Quartet, I am prepared to work very closely to see expedited peace process in the Middle East.

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PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir. Thank you all.