James Rubin Work Quotations

I don't want to be in a position to discuss all the options, except to say that we of course would want the strongest possible action by the (Security) Council to back up the important work of the U.N. special commission.

With respect to the security work plan we believe that the Palestinians have met their responsibilities. There are other issues that we're aware of that we're working on.

We think it's appropriate to have ambassadors (there) to try to work with the governments involved, so that the decisions they take in the coming days and weeks will turn around the troublesome, dangerous trend that we've seen in recent weeks.

The ball is not in the Palestinian court. The ball is in the court of the Israelis to try to work with the Palestinians and work with us to come to a second 'yes,'

Clearly, both sides have a lot of work to do if we're going to get the peace process back on track.

The secretary is always hopeful but thinks significant gaps remain between the Israeli and Palestinian positions. She will work to overcome those gaps but at this time has no reason to believe we're in a position to bridge those gaps. She is nether optimistic nor pessimistic but believes the process cannot go on indefinitely.

People are dressed rather informally. It does appear that there is a better and more constructive and more pragmatic atmosphere to work on these problems than there had been in the past.

The work on Iraq, the work on the Middle East peace process and on the Asian financial crisis continues with no effect.