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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bush, Sharon to Meet Today

Aired July 29, 2003 - 06:33   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The next step in the Mideast peace process comes today, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon comes to the White House for meetings with President Bush.
For more on that, live to the White House now and Chris Burns.

Good morning -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The two leaders are to meet this morning, and then be available to the press sometime around noon today. Ariel Sharon will be expressing some of his frustrations about how he says the Palestinians are not dismantling those militant groups that have been attacking Israelis.

On the other hand, he's going to be pressed by President Bush, most likely, on a number of issues that were aired by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, who came last week, saying that the Israelis need to freeze their settlement building at least on the West Bank, they need to freeze or tear down the fence, the security fence that the Israelis are building inside the West Bank in some places that are separating Palestinian towns, dividing them. The Palestinians call it a wall of separation. The Israelis call it a wall, a security fence that prevents militants from crossing into Israel proper.

Now, there have been a couple of gestures made by the Israeli government in recent days -- the promise to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, to lift a number of checkpoints on the West Bank. But that is not nearly placating the Palestinians, who want to see more.

President Bush is looking for some progress on his road map for peace aimed at establishing a Palestinian state by the year 2005. At the moment, both sides are at loggerheads.

COSTELLO: (AUDIO GAP) more about that.

BURNS: Well, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal is here in town. He will be speaking with President Bush today. Now, the Saudis are frustrated that there has been criticism of the Saudi government ever since that 9/11 report came out from last week, where there were sections that were kept secret, kept classified, and there are members of Congress who say that some of those passages have to do with implicating the Saudi government or the Saudis themselves. So, that is a question that the Saudi foreign minister would like to address. He would like to see some of that report declassified. And the Saudi ambassador even said here that you can't argue, you can't respond to blank pages. They want to see those pages out there in the open, so that they can respond to them. Keep in mind that most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi.

Back to you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Definitely so. Chris Burns live from the White House this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired July 29, 2003 - 06:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The next step in the Mideast peace process comes today, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon comes to the White House for meetings with President Bush.
For more on that, live to the White House now and Chris Burns.

Good morning -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The two leaders are to meet this morning, and then be available to the press sometime around noon today. Ariel Sharon will be expressing some of his frustrations about how he says the Palestinians are not dismantling those militant groups that have been attacking Israelis.

On the other hand, he's going to be pressed by President Bush, most likely, on a number of issues that were aired by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, who came last week, saying that the Israelis need to freeze their settlement building at least on the West Bank, they need to freeze or tear down the fence, the security fence that the Israelis are building inside the West Bank in some places that are separating Palestinian towns, dividing them. The Palestinians call it a wall of separation. The Israelis call it a wall, a security fence that prevents militants from crossing into Israel proper.

Now, there have been a couple of gestures made by the Israeli government in recent days -- the promise to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, to lift a number of checkpoints on the West Bank. But that is not nearly placating the Palestinians, who want to see more.

President Bush is looking for some progress on his road map for peace aimed at establishing a Palestinian state by the year 2005. At the moment, both sides are at loggerheads.

COSTELLO: (AUDIO GAP) more about that.

BURNS: Well, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal is here in town. He will be speaking with President Bush today. Now, the Saudis are frustrated that there has been criticism of the Saudi government ever since that 9/11 report came out from last week, where there were sections that were kept secret, kept classified, and there are members of Congress who say that some of those passages have to do with implicating the Saudi government or the Saudis themselves. So, that is a question that the Saudi foreign minister would like to address. He would like to see some of that report declassified. And the Saudi ambassador even said here that you can't argue, you can't respond to blank pages. They want to see those pages out there in the open, so that they can respond to them. Keep in mind that most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi.

Back to you -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Definitely so. Chris Burns live from the White House this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.