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Bush to Meet Sharon, Abbas Together

Aired May 28, 2003 - 14:10   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In the biggest push for Middle East peace since taking office, President Bush scheduled to take part in a three-way summit with the Palestinian and Israeli prime ministers next week.
CNN's Dana Bash joins us from the White House with details on all this -- hello, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Well, as you said, this has been in the works for a few days, but the White House did confirm that on the heels of the president's visit to the G- 8 summit in France he will go to the Middle East. He will stop in three countries. First, he will go to Egypt for an Arab summit.

Then he will go to Jordan for the key summit. That will be, as you mentioned, the three-way summit with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers.

Following that, he will go to the Qatar to say thank you to U.S. troops there who are a part of U.S. Central Command. But the big, most important meeting will be in Aqaba, Jordan. That is a Red Sea resort. He will meet with the two leaders. It will be his first, really big personal pitch for peace in his two and a half years in office.

The White House says that this is set, conditions permitting. Now what Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman said, was that is that all sides live up to their current responsibilities before getting to that summit, essentially hinting that these are security- related concerns that would throw this off, but he said that this is absolutely on the books right now, and he said that this is a really important time. The window of opportunity is there for the peace process to start, and that is what the president will tell the two leaders when he is there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The message the president will bring to the meeting in the Middle East is the importance of the Israelis and the Palestinians working together to make progress on the road map so that Israel and a new Palestinian state can live side by side in peace and security, so the Israelis can have security in their daily lives, and the Palestinians can have a nation that represents them. And that they, too, can live as neighbors.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Now, the president has been criticized both here and abroad for not being as personally involved in the process as his predecessors have been, but Mr. Bush has said privately to his aides and certainly made clear publicly that he did not feel that it was really helpful to deal with Yasser Arafat, who is the Palestinian leader, the Palestinian president. But now that Abu Mazen is the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, the White House believes that he is somebody who can deal with peace.

And part of the reason, aides say privately that they are going and making a very big public show with Abu Mazen, first in Egypt, he will be in Egypt with the Arab leaders, and then, of course, in Jordan, is because they want to prop him up. They want to make it clear to both his people, the Palestinian people, and to the world that he is the man that is going to be negotiating, and even though Yasser Arafat, in the past few days has been saying that he's the man to negotiate, the U.S. is not having it.

They are saying that this is something that they believe that they can start working out the peace process, to go down the road map, to start that process with the Israeli prime minister, and the Palestinian prime minister -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Dana Bash on the north lawn of the White House -- Kyra.

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 May 28, 2003 - 14:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In the biggest push for Middle East peace since taking office, President Bush scheduled to take part in a three-way summit with the Palestinian and Israeli prime ministers next week.
CNN's Dana Bash joins us from the White House with details on all this -- hello, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Well, as you said, this has been in the works for a few days, but the White House did confirm that on the heels of the president's visit to the G- 8 summit in France he will go to the Middle East. He will stop in three countries. First, he will go to Egypt for an Arab summit.

Then he will go to Jordan for the key summit. That will be, as you mentioned, the three-way summit with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers.

Following that, he will go to the Qatar to say thank you to U.S. troops there who are a part of U.S. Central Command. But the big, most important meeting will be in Aqaba, Jordan. That is a Red Sea resort. He will meet with the two leaders. It will be his first, really big personal pitch for peace in his two and a half years in office.

The White House says that this is set, conditions permitting. Now what Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman said, was that is that all sides live up to their current responsibilities before getting to that summit, essentially hinting that these are security- related concerns that would throw this off, but he said that this is absolutely on the books right now, and he said that this is a really important time. The window of opportunity is there for the peace process to start, and that is what the president will tell the two leaders when he is there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The message the president will bring to the meeting in the Middle East is the importance of the Israelis and the Palestinians working together to make progress on the road map so that Israel and a new Palestinian state can live side by side in peace and security, so the Israelis can have security in their daily lives, and the Palestinians can have a nation that represents them. And that they, too, can live as neighbors.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Now, the president has been criticized both here and abroad for not being as personally involved in the process as his predecessors have been, but Mr. Bush has said privately to his aides and certainly made clear publicly that he did not feel that it was really helpful to deal with Yasser Arafat, who is the Palestinian leader, the Palestinian president. But now that Abu Mazen is the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, the White House believes that he is somebody who can deal with peace.

And part of the reason, aides say privately that they are going and making a very big public show with Abu Mazen, first in Egypt, he will be in Egypt with the Arab leaders, and then, of course, in Jordan, is because they want to prop him up. They want to make it clear to both his people, the Palestinian people, and to the world that he is the man that is going to be negotiating, and even though Yasser Arafat, in the past few days has been saying that he's the man to negotiate, the U.S. is not having it.

They are saying that this is something that they believe that they can start working out the peace process, to go down the road map, to start that process with the Israeli prime minister, and the Palestinian prime minister -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Dana Bash on the north lawn of the White House -- Kyra.

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