The President. I want to welcome all of you here to the White House, young people from all across the Middle East. We have here Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Jordanian young people coming together to our country as ambassadors of peace for an entire generation.
A year ago, almost to the day, we had the signing of the Israeli-PLO accord here. And there were young people from Seeds of Peace here. And when they were here, I saw them and asked that all present dedicate themselves to peace for the next generation. Since then we have seen an agreement between Israel and Jordan. We have seen further peace on the other Middle East fronts, further progress on the other Middle East peace fronts. And we have seen just last week Morocco and Israel take the first step toward establishing diplomatic relations.
But ahead of all that is the simple magic of the person-to-person relationships that you are building and a future you are building for yourselves. I hope so much that by the time all of you are my age the problems of the Middle East will be a distant memory, and all of you will celebrate the unity and strength, the harmony and prosperity of a region of people working together just as you have sung together today and come together in the United States.
This is a time of peace as well as trouble in the world. We see progress in the Middle East. We see progress in Ireland. We see democracy taking root in Russia. There is a great deal to hope for and a great deal of work to do. I think it is fair to say that for me and for all of us who have seen you here in the United States, the image of your smiling together, of you singing together, of you being together will spur us on to try to make sure that the future that you share will be a future you share together.
Thank you very much.
[At this point, John Wallach, president, Seeds of Peace, and Tamer Nagy Mohamed, an Egyptian participant in the program, made brief remarks and presented gifts to the President.]
The President. Thank you. [Applause] That's terrific. Good luck to you. Thank you.
Mr. Mohamed. Thank you very much.
The President. Let's give him another hand. Didn't he do a good job? Thank you. Thank you.
NOTE: The President spoke at 8 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White House, prior to his departure for New Orleans, LA.
William J. Clinton, Remarks to the 1994 Seeds of Peace Representatives Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/218537
