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CNN Sunday Morning

Bush Returns from Camp David for Emergency Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

Aired December 02, 2001 - 10:08   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: As violence thundered across the Middle East, diplomatic machinery lurched into gear in the Untied States. President Bush is traveling back to the White House this morning from Camp David for an emergency meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett has more on that. Hi Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Kyra. As Jerrold pointed out the Israeli prime minister requested that the president move up the scheduled meeting that was supposed to occur tomorrow because of the crisis back in his country. The president, of course, accommodated the request from the Israeli prime minister. That meeting will occur here at the White House at noon today. President due back from Camp David about 11:30 this morning.

And senior administration officials have surveyed the carnage and hype of this morning. They have only amplified their sense of revulsion and underscored the president's sentiment in a statement released, Saturday, from Camp David responding to the suicide bombing attacks in Jerusalem. In that statement, the president put the onus, as Jerrold Kessel indicated, directly on the Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat.

Let me read directly from that presidential statement, "Now more than ever," President Bush said, "Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must demonstrate through their actions and not merely their words their commitment to fight terror." Specifically, the president said that "Chairman Arafat must find and arrest those responsible for these hideous murders;" those are President Bush's words, "and act swiftly and decisively against those organizations that support them."

Now, earlier this morning the Secretary Of State Colin Powell sat down with CNN's Wolf Blitzer for a pre-tapping of interview that will be shown later today on "Late Edition." Wolf Blitzer asked Mr. Powell about the Palestinian authorities announcement this morning that had imposed a state of emergency and would in fact arrest those directly and indirectly responsible for these latest terrorist attacks. Here's what the secretary had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: A good statement. Now, we need to see action. Statements aren't enough any longer, words aren't enough any longer. I spoke to Chairman Arafat last night right after the first bombing in Jerusalem but before Haifa. And made it clear to him that he had to act because not only was this a terrible attack against innocent Israelis, a terrible act of terror, but it was also an attack against him. It was an attack against his authority. It was an attack against Palestinian leadership, and it was an attack that he could not overlook.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: It's a crucial point that the secretary of state was making. And it's really the central question on the minds of top Bush administration advisers. Is this, in fact, an act within the Palestinian movement against the authority of Chairman Arafat, and if so, what would be the proper U.S.-Israel international community response to that?

is unknown, and the administration is going to watch very closely to see in the coming hours what exactly Chairman Arafat does, and how successful he is in targeting and arresting those he believes responsible for this latest wave of terrorist attack. It's worth pointing out that the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has just arrived at Camp David.

We have videotape of him exiting his airplane en route. There you see him exiting the airplane getting ready to board his limousine to come here to Blair House just outside the White House compound. He will stay there and wait President Bush's arrival here in the South Lawn. That due for 11:30 this morning. The two scheduled to meet about noon. We're not told yet by White House officials exactly how long that meeting will in fact...

How long that meeting will last but afterwards we'll be -- we will be briefed by a senior administration officials about the contents and direction of that meeting -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett thank you very much.

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