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American Morning

Bush to Meet with Arab Leaders Today

Aired July 18, 2002 - 08:01   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, President Bush will meet today with Arab leaders after two days of terror in the Middle East. The meeting was scheduled before yesterday's suicide bombings in Tel Aviv, which, as you probably know by now, killed three civilians.

Will the latest violence create still another problem for the peace process?

John King joins us now live from the White House -- good morning, John.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.

The White House view is yes, certainly, more violence means more difficulty when it comes to diplomacy. But also the White House, from the president on down, making clear that they also believe this latest violence only reinforces the view here at the White House that there need to be dramatic changers in the Palestinian Authority beginning with security improvements.

The bombing yesterday in Tel Aviv came as the president prepared for this afternoon's meeting with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Those are the three closest U.S. allies in the region, the three governments working most closely with the president and Secretary of State Colin Powell as the president tries to take some slow steps toward progress after months and months of deadly violence.

Those governments, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, agree with the United States that there need to be significant reforms in the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Bush making clear yesterday he wants a new constitution, he wants power divided among several positions in a new Palestinian government. But where Mr. Bush disagrees with these foreign ministers he will meet with today, and he made clear just yet again yesterday, Mr. Bush says in one breath this is not just about Yasser Arafat, but in the next breath he also says in his view for there to be progress and ultimately peace, Mr. Arafat must be pushed to the sidelines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is an issue much bigger than a single person. Mr. Arafat would like the whole issue to be about him. That's the way it's been in the past, except when you analyze his record, he has failed the Palestinian people. He just has. And that's reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: One intriguing possibility, though, and Mr. Bush did not answer the question directly when asked yesterday, one proposal on the table in these private discussions is having Mr. Arafat continue as the president of the Palestinian Authority but making that under a new constitution much more of a symbolic position so that the true day to day management would be in the hands of other officials.

Secretary of State Powell has talked about that as a possibility. Mr. Bush has not been willing to talk about it directly. That will be one of the subjects, though, on the table today as the president sits down once again firsthand stepping forward, hoping in the wake of even more violence to bring about some progress toward diplomacy in the Middle East -- Paula.

ZAHN: John, as much as the president wanted to talk about all that, he was peppered with a lot of pointed questions about his Harken Energy background and questions swirling around his vice president and Halliburton Oil. What's the new strategy from the White House along those lines?

KING: Well, the White House hopes these questions go away. But obviously they are not just yet. What they hope here at the White House is when Congress finishes its work on a corporate responsibility bill, a measure designed to fight corporate corruption, the president will have a big bipartisan Rose Garden ceremony and this issue will go away.

In the meantime, though, the president a bit annoyed at the questions about why he won't ask the SEC to release the entire file into the investigation of insider trading more than a decade ago. Mr. Bush says he was cleared of any wrongdoing and that the relevant documents are out there.

And for the first time yesterday he said he was confident that Dick Cheney did nothing wrong when he was the CEO of a company called Halliburton. Mr. Cheney has said nothing about an ongoing SEC investigation into Halliburton's accounting practices, the Cheney team saying he will be exonerated, in their view, in the end. But they say it would be inappropriate for him to speak out in the middle of an investigation.

All of this causing political back and forth. The Democrats say the vice president should come forward. His staff simply says he can't right now.

ZAHN: John King, thanks so much. Appreciate that update.

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