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CNN Live Today

Bush Weighs Conflicting Pressures on Middle East

Aired April 26, 2002 - 12:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back in this country, President Bush is between a rock and a hard place. He's hearing from Arab leaders, who tell him Israel's actions are damaging U.S. credibility. At the same time, conservative members of Congress are pressuring Mr. Bush to stand firmly behind the Israelis. Major Garrett once again, in Crawford, Texas, standing by live for us to bring us the latest on the White House, and also the Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Apparently, he's sticking around for a few more days. Major, good afternoon.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill. The crown prince is staying in the United States for a couple of more days. He'll be down in Houston and his administration officials, very senior administration officials will remain in close contact with the Crown Prince.

Both nations, Saudi Arabia and the United States, are trying to work out, as well as others, a non-violent resolution to the standoffs in Ramallah and in Bethlehem, at the Church of the Nativity.

One of the few breakthroughs achieved yesterday, when the president met with the Crown Prince Abdullah at his Crawford, Texas ranch is his remarks afterwards. The President said not only should Israel finish, that was his word, finish its military activities in the Palestinian territories, but that the standoffs in Ramallah and at the Church of the Nativity must be resolved in a non-violent way.

That was the president's way of suggesting to the Israelis that, in no way, would the United States countenance or in any way support any sort of military solution to the military solution to the standoffs in either place.

And Crown Prince Abdullah told the president very directly, neither the Saudis or very many others in the Arab world believe the Palestinians can negotiate security with the Israelis or peace with the Israelis, while Yasser Arafat remains under siege at his Ramallah compound.

GARRETT: Those sieges, the Saudis told the president, have to end before there can be any progress, even nominal progress towards achieving a cease-fire or any sort of larger progress toward looking at any sort of long-term peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, possibly even incorporating the Saudis' proposal for the Israelis to withdraw to their 1967 borders in exchange for full the complete diplomatic recognition and acceptance throughout the Arab world -- Bill.

HEMMER: Major, one thing I'm trying to figure out in all this. Once the crown prince does head back to Saudi Arabia, where do these discussions go from there? The president yesterday said he has established this personal relationship at this point. Is that claim of victory at this point between these two men sitting down?

GARRETT: I wouldn't say it's a claim of victory. I think the White House is pretty realistic in assessing what was going to come out of this meeting. They understand the Saudis are very key players, pivotal players, not only with the Israeli-Palestinian situation, but Iraq and world oil supplies, and this personal bond the White House does believe will pay diplomatic dividends later.

But it's a very good question, Bill, and I don't think it's been resolved internally at the White House. Where does the entire process, not a peace process, just a general process of trying to keep the violence down between the Israelis and the Palestinians go from here?

There are a lot of ideas on the table. One of them is an international conference, but the administration said yesterday that's going to need a lot of work and a lot of nations are going to need to sign up to it and sign up to it at a very high level, and it has to be a very specific agenda before it will do any good. So that seems to have lost some of its early momentum.

The administration is reviewing a lot of its plans. Does the Tenet security plan, does the Mitchell political process plan have any relevance any longer with these two sides so bitterly opposed to one another? All those things are being reviewed.

I think a lot of things were learned on a one-to-one basis between the Crown Prince and the President. They may yield some developments later, but right now things are pretty much status quo, the administration searching for new solutions and some new answers -- Bill.

HEMMER: Major, thanks. Major Garrett again in Crawford, Texas.

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