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American Morning
Deal Between White House, Israelis and Palestinians
Aired May 23, 2003 - 08:00 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: We want to get to the White House. John King broke the news about 30 minutes ago, there is some sort of deal that has been reached, progress, anyway, between the White House and the Israeli side and Palestinians for Middle East peace -- John, good morning.
What do you have?
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
In just a few moments, the White House will release a very short statement that it hopes presents a dramatic breakthrough in efforts to finally get the Israelis and the Palestinians back in a peace process. CNN is told that the statement will be issued jointly by Colin Powell, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser. In it, the United States government will say that it has received Israel's response to the president's Middle East road map, that Israel has raised significant concerns about that road map and that the United States government recognizes those concerns as "real concerns" and that President Bush is prepared to fight fully and fiercely to address the Israeli concerns if negotiations resume.
Now, why is this so important? By recognizing Israel's concerns and promising to fight for those concerns, the White House in exchange will later, as soon as later today, receive Prime Minister Sharon's blessing of the broad outline of the Middle East peace road map. Prime Minister Sharon has committed to the Bush White House to now seek cabinet approval of that road map as early as this weekend and once Prime Minister Sharon gets that approval, if it comes, and everyone here expects that it will come from the cabinet, at that point the administration will be prepared to go ahead with plans for a three way Middle East summit, perhaps in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt as early as the first week of June -- President Bush, Prime Minister Sharon and the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Bush personally getting involved here in a very deep way, trying to revive the Middle East peace process -- Bill.
HEMMER: John, go back two and a half years, Governor Bush, the candidate for the White House, said many, many times publicly that he was not going to intervene in the Middle East, much like the Clinton administration prior to him did, believing that it was up to the two sides to achieve a middle ground in order to pursue peace.
What has changed right now with the president?
KING: Well, quite a bit has changed. You are absolutely right, on day one of this administration, the president said he would get involved, but only if he was convinced the two parties themselves were prepared to make the tough decisions to get to peace. Mr. Bush then came to the view that Yasser Arafat was not prepared, that Yasser Arafat would never say yes to peace and never do what was necessary to crack down on Palestinian groups.
Now that you have had Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas installed as the Palestinian prime minister, Mr. Bush believes he has a man he can work with.
And this president, of course, also in the wake of the Iraq war, and you cannot discount the importance of this, wants to prove his credibility across the Arab world, wants to prove that he will get involved in this process and that when you have events like this bus bombing today, that he will stay involved and get the parties on the path to peace.
It is a difficult challenge, one his predecessor dedicated countless hours to. This president says he's prepared to dedicate that time, as well.
HEMMER: John King, breaking news from the White House.
John, thanks. We'll talk again a little bit later this hour.
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 23, 2003 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get to the White House. John King broke the news about 30 minutes ago, there is some sort of deal that has been reached, progress, anyway, between the White House and the Israeli side and Palestinians for Middle East peace -- John, good morning.
What do you have?
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.
In just a few moments, the White House will release a very short statement that it hopes presents a dramatic breakthrough in efforts to finally get the Israelis and the Palestinians back in a peace process. CNN is told that the statement will be issued jointly by Colin Powell, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser. In it, the United States government will say that it has received Israel's response to the president's Middle East road map, that Israel has raised significant concerns about that road map and that the United States government recognizes those concerns as "real concerns" and that President Bush is prepared to fight fully and fiercely to address the Israeli concerns if negotiations resume.
Now, why is this so important? By recognizing Israel's concerns and promising to fight for those concerns, the White House in exchange will later, as soon as later today, receive Prime Minister Sharon's blessing of the broad outline of the Middle East peace road map. Prime Minister Sharon has committed to the Bush White House to now seek cabinet approval of that road map as early as this weekend and once Prime Minister Sharon gets that approval, if it comes, and everyone here expects that it will come from the cabinet, at that point the administration will be prepared to go ahead with plans for a three way Middle East summit, perhaps in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt as early as the first week of June -- President Bush, Prime Minister Sharon and the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Bush personally getting involved here in a very deep way, trying to revive the Middle East peace process -- Bill.
HEMMER: John, go back two and a half years, Governor Bush, the candidate for the White House, said many, many times publicly that he was not going to intervene in the Middle East, much like the Clinton administration prior to him did, believing that it was up to the two sides to achieve a middle ground in order to pursue peace.
What has changed right now with the president?
KING: Well, quite a bit has changed. You are absolutely right, on day one of this administration, the president said he would get involved, but only if he was convinced the two parties themselves were prepared to make the tough decisions to get to peace. Mr. Bush then came to the view that Yasser Arafat was not prepared, that Yasser Arafat would never say yes to peace and never do what was necessary to crack down on Palestinian groups.
Now that you have had Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas installed as the Palestinian prime minister, Mr. Bush believes he has a man he can work with.
And this president, of course, also in the wake of the Iraq war, and you cannot discount the importance of this, wants to prove his credibility across the Arab world, wants to prove that he will get involved in this process and that when you have events like this bus bombing today, that he will stay involved and get the parties on the path to peace.
It is a difficult challenge, one his predecessor dedicated countless hours to. This president says he's prepared to dedicate that time, as well.
HEMMER: John King, breaking news from the White House.
John, thanks. We'll talk again a little bit later this hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
