ahead of that visit it appears george mitchell is playing hard ball.ow more on that story from jerusalem. >> reporter: hi. bombshell coming from a u.s. official regarding middle east peace. middle east envoy george mitchell says among the legal options the u.s. has in forcing israel to return to peace talks is withholding aid to the jewish state and freezing loan guarantees. those comments were made during an interview. while mitchell did not say the u.s. is threatening to use that course, he did say it was an option. it's rare that a u.s. administration official would speak publicly about withholding aid. the last time the u.s. threatened to freeze loan guarantees was during president bush senior's administration. mitchell did say he believed progress on talks was being made. however, on the palestinian side, officials say they reject the u.s. call for new middle east peace talks until there is a complete freeze on settlement construction, including in jerusalem. meanwhile, the gaza strip spokesman for the militant group jihad claims israel wants anot

but i think george mitchell at the moment is having some difficulty in formulating the way forward and we're all waiting for that magic set of statements, which will include support by syria arab countries and all the things we all hope for, which have not yet appeared. so, with ease tension and violence in relation to gaza, with the economic drama and gaza with the split between gaza in the west bank, notwithstanding a substantial easing, which i've seen with my own eyes in the west bank recently in terms of movement and activity. and i think you'd have to say that the future is uncertain, though i'm thrilled that the statements are being made that this will again be given high priority. >> jim, since the word used figures both prominently in the name of the initiative that the wolfensohn center is doing and the topic of our discussion this afternoon. would you and then after this will open it up to all of you. would you just reflect a little bit about what your motivation was for wanting to concentrate as much on youth as you have done, both when you were working as a special envoy a

that is why george mitchell is going out first to consult in europe but then in the region and why we have the kinds of meetings here at the state department we have today, to try to assess where the parties are, refine our ideas, evaluate steps that we can take and others can take to move the parties to formal negotiations. that remains our core objectives. >> staying on the middle east, first question, is some sort of reunification between fata and hamas necessary for the peace process to go forward? >> i think we recognize the value of the unity government, but tweet wants to see a negotiation begin as soon as possible, so is a unity government a prerequisite, it is not. >> does that imply any talks say if they were to start tomorrow would be extensively with those who represent fata and not hamas? >> well, we are focused on working with president abbas and recognize his leadership, his historic interest in pursuing merely sfius, his acceptance of the fundamental principles which include israel's right to exist, it's right to security as well as the rights of the palestinians to ha

finally before taking questions, george mitchell of arrived in paris today, had a meeting with foreignminister there and very shortly will leave paris for brussels for meetings with the quartet at the envoy level. >> can you go back on the quartet meeting or individual meetings? >> it is a quartet meeting at the envoy level. >> going back to bill burns travel, moscow and then we're on the 15th? >> madrid. >> that is for e.u. a what's? >> e.u. political director. >> about y? >> staff. >> can you be more specific than stuff? >> it will be -- >> iran focus meeting? >> i would be certain that iran is among the issues that will be discussed but there'll be several months. >> i would not call it and iran meeting. >> is that the primary issue? >> there are a number of important issues. >> and wine, typically discussions of iran who by the political director a per -- occur in plus wine and so clearly the russians and the chinese are not going to be here because he's only been with the european political directors and why not? why not include the partners from russia and china? >> without annou

what george mitchell has been trying to do since the last two and a half years. or, well, actually it's tony blair, was trying to do it. was to intervene in relation to the question of how these issues can be solved. but as the gentleman behind you knows, the quartet's -- the quartet envoy has a very limited mandate. in my case, i thought that the mandate was greater, and for a time people humerd me by pretending that i did in fact have a mandate to go beyond economic development. but if you read carefully the terms of the quartet envoy, it is essentially an economic post. it is not a political post. and to drive that home, to me, i was told by some of my members of the quartet, notably this country, that the furniture was about to be removed and that we should close the office. and in a short period of time, i had a fair well party to the members of my team from the quartet. it was a sad but liquid affair that we had in jerusalem. and we parted. shortly after that, there was the solution to the problem, which was an invasion of gaza, which lasted, as you'll reme

george mitchell met today with president abbas in ramallah. he will meet with palestinian -- the palestinian prime minister tomorrow. he may have additional meetings before coming back to the united states. >> do you mind if we go back to haiti by way of china? >> are we going east or west? >> picking up, the chinese foreign ministry's statement is pointed. last week, senior u.s. officials indicated that a diplomatic demarche against china may be in the works. the indicated the u.s. wanted to see what the chinese said in response to secretary clinton speech. we know thewhat the chinese said. is a demarche still on the cards? >> "the washington post" said that a demarche had been issued. we want to know. >> let's see. we have taken note of the chinese statement. it was a written statement put out by the foreign ministry. in fact, we have had conversations over the past 24 hours with the ambassador here in washington regarding the speech. regarding the issue of the goal -- google situation and broader aspects of our relationship. i would anticip

stalled negotiations between the israelis and the palestinians, ahead of that visit it looks like george mitchellaying his cards on the table. reasonen ninen is live in jerusalem. nice to see you, so, senator mitchell is he coming over with some kind after threat? what do we know? >> well, it's not really meant to have been taken that way, but it's kind of coming off that way. he did an interview with charlie rose and one of the things he said was that one of the options according to u.s. law, withholding aid from israel and he didn't say that was a plan, that the u.s. administration is planning on doing, he did not say that, but at some corners here it's loosely taken as a veiled threat that that may be one of the possibilities he'll be discussing with officials here. he comes to the region tomorrow and when mitchell arrives he's trying to, as you mentioned, push forward peace talks. palestinians says until settlements are completely frozen including in jerusalem they're not coming back to the table. >> rick: we hear back in the states, the tensions are beginning to escalate again between israel

george mitchell will be consulting as he has been a very broadly not only in the region that in europe and elsewhere. we are in constant consultation with our friends and partners in jordan. this is a year of renewed commitment and increased efforts to what we see as an imperative goal in that region of the world. >> good morning both of you. madam secretary, senator mitchell said a two year timeframe and the first nine months concentrating on borders. can you confirm this is the thinking of the administration backs secondary, the palestinians is saying they will not come to the conversations. the israeli ambassador is saying it is about the time frame. how will you approach this? >> what senator mitchell said is he wants to move as quickly as possible. there has to be negotiation on all of the final status issues. as we discussed earlier, resulting borders resolve's step -- settlements. resolving jerusalem resolve's sediments. i think we need to list our sights and said being looking down at the trees will need to look at the forest. where are we headed together? we know what a final

so the three of us at the board governor george mitchell, and i worked out the principles under whichthe federal reserve relinked under these renewed circumstances. and that's what we did. and since that time, what we did was to provide to the reserve banks that they could provide reservists a monetary restraint but they would have to take a risk of missing monies to the individual firms. so what principle did we work out that the board had to find circumstances, that the firm involved with the the segment of the market, which would be disrupted if they were under federal bank assistance. in other federal reserve has made use of that principle on a number of occasions. the most notable one, it was not directly at the federal reserve but at the treasury. during the mexican postwar, at the federal reserve collaboration with treasury used the exchange to legalization to provide support for the peso. and the most important one, of course, in recent times was the long-term capital management. and finally, at the time the federal reserve issued a statement is that the federal reserve is a b

the president took major initiative in his cairo speech and is taking steps through his envoy george mitchellessential that we continue to middle east peace and try to resolve the conflict between israelis and palestinians. that is an important part of what gives fuel to the extremists in the region, as well as many other things. if you look at al-qaeda and usama bin laden, they have a long list of grievances. at the end of the day, we need to not just win the war, in terms of taking an aggressive response, but continuing to win the war of ideas. extremist ideology is not something that should be able to take root around the world. we need to work with our friends and allies to make sure they do not get a foothold in the world. host: laurie on the line for democrats. caller: looking at what is happening in congress, it is these deals that are being made that is entering the democratic base. i am for the public option. it is a light wind and byron dorgan introduced the importation plan of drugs from canada. it seems they do not care about the american people. host: when you say "they," who are

and finally before taking your questions, george mitchell is on his way back from the region.over the weekend he met with prime minister netanyahu and president abbas and also met with king abdallah of jordan, and last night with the foreign minister and intelligence chief and cairo. but he is on its way back to the united states as we speak >> on lebanon, can you be more specific about what the u.s. role will be in this? who is going, if anyone? >> i think normally we would provide assistance to the ntsb. most of our focus right now is what ever we can do. >> what have they asked for? >> i will take the question. the uss rampage has been redeployed to assist in the search and recovery. it has been in the mediterranean at the time. i think we will be involved to the ntsb in helping to investigate the loss of this particular flight. >> did the particular case come up? >> it did not. >> 6 press the willingness to bring it up with senator campbell. cantwell,. >> it is a matter of ongoing legislation. the state department has been contact with the senator. i do not know whether it

george mitchell has arrived in israel having stopped in hysteria and lebanon, and with that i will take your questions. >> of the figures you said you had files on 12,000 -- >> within our crisis database we opened files on 12,000 -- >> does that mean there are 4800 americans missing? >> that means that we've not yet been able to account for 4800 americans. for whom we have information that they were in haiti of the time. >> so they are missing? >> we have not yet confirmed -- >> amine -- you're talking about almost 5,000 people. >> they could be sitting in their living rooms. in other words people in the united states have provided us information to that i've got a loved one, i've got a friend in haiti. the gap may simply be people on the ground in haiti have not seen the need or have been able to contact the united states embassy. so we have not yet accounted for them. i wouldn't necessarily say all of them are missing. >> before the figure for a total number of americans was about 45,000, right? >> right. >> so if you got -- if you evacuated 6,174, they're seems to be a big disconnect

george mitchell will be consulting as he has been very broadly.ot only in the regions but in europe and elsewhere. we are in constant close consultation with friends like our partners in jordan, but this is a year of renewed commitment and increased efforts toward what we see as an imperative rule for the region in the world. >> [inaudible] >> good morning to both of the. senator mitchell talked about a two year timeframe. some of you talked about the first nine months. can you confirm is this the thinking of the administration? the palestinians say they will not and to negotiations give the israeli ambassador is saying they do not believe in time frames. how will you push the gap? >> i think one senator mitchell rightly said is that he wants to move as quickly as possible. there is an urgency. there has to be a negotiation on the a final issues. resolving jerusalem result settlement. i think we need to lift our sights and instead of being looking down at the trees, we need to look at the forests. where are we headed to get there? we know what a f

special envoy george mitchell arrived in beirut today. he'll meet today with the foreign minister and have dinner with prime minister hariri. he meets with the prime minister, the speaker and u.n. special representative of lebanon michael williams. later tomorrow he travels to demascus for meetings with the president and the foreign minister. later tomorrow night he travels to israel where he will have meetings later in the week with israelis and palestinians including prime minister netanyahu and the president. his trip is part of our ongoing efforts to encourage both sides to return to negotiations as soon as possible to secure a lasting comprehensive peace in the region. over the weekend, we congratulate the ukrainian people on the conduct of their january 17 presidential elections which the osce showed significant progress over previous elections. this is another significant demonstration of the development of democracy in the ukraine. the u.s. looks forward to free and fair runoff elections on february 7 and working with whomever the

so george mitchell will be consulting, as he has been very broadly not only in the region but in europe and elsewhere. we are in constant close consultation with friends like our partners in jordan. but this is a year of renewed commitment and increased effort toward what we see as an imperative goal for the region and the world. >> secretary mitchell said yesterday, he talked about a two-year time frame. jordan and the refugees will not discussed late -- will be discussed later. can you confirm that this is the situation? and secondly, the palestinians saying they will not come to the table unless they are -- the ambassador saying -- how will you bridge the gap between the two sides? >> i think what senator mitchell rightly said is that he wants to move as quickly as possible. that will is an urgency that we certainly feel. but there has to be a negotiation on all of the final stat justice issues. and as minister judia and i discussed earlier, resolving borders resolves settlements. resolving jeruslem resolves settlements. so i think we need to lift our sights and instead of being -- l

and as you know president obama, secretary clinton, and special envoy george mitchell are working veryhard to resolve that. but their efforts, peace in the middle east will take plenty of time. and as we know it will not eliminate all of the threat. i was a big policy challenges matter and radicalization, local drivers are also critical in making them vulnerable to al qaeda's ideology and its narrative. we are developing tailored approaches to alter them, to address the issues of education, health care, social welfare, and economic opportunity that create the conditions of marginalization and alienation and proceed to a real deprivation. in recognition of this, my first up is than to build a unit within my office focusing on what we in the government called violent extremism. this will look at local communities that are most prone to radicalization. there's a broad understanding across the governments that we have not done nearly enough to address underlying conditions for at-risk populations and we have also not done enough to improve the ability of moderate to voice their views and s