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CNN Sunday Morning

No Official Reaction On U.S. Plan to End Siege

Aired April 28, 2002 - 10:02   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: The U.S. plan to end the siege outside Yasser Arafat's compound. Senior White House correspondent John King joining us live from near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas with details on that. Hello, John.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles. I wish we had more details. As you noted, no official reaction from the Palestinians yet. No official reaction as yet either from the Bush White House.

We've tried to reach out to several senior administration officials this morning. Most unavailable to us. One official did confirm the president did put a number of ideas to resolve the Ramallah standoff on the table, in conversations with the Israeli prime minister. The big question now, if the Palestinians accept this plan just approved by the Israeli cabinet, how would it work?

As described by the Israelis, it would involve either U.S. or British troops taking custody or protecting those Palestinian suspects. The question would be, how, when and where, in the sense that this president has been steadfast in saying he does not want to send U.S. military personnel in the region. He would send observers, nonarmed observers into the region, but any proposal by President Bush to send military personnel in, even in a limited way to act as jailers or protective personnel, could be the beginning of what administration officials have said the president does not want -- a slippery slope of greater U.S. involvement with military personnel in the region, so the key question over the next several hours is exactly what type of U.S. personnel would this involve, where would the jailing take place, and just what exactly President Bush has committed himself to here -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, well keeping tracking that for us. John King, we appreciate it. As details become available, we'll bring them to you.

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