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CNN Saturday Morning News
Sharon to Meet With Bush Next Week
Aired May 04, 2002 - 08:03 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 CORRESPONDENT: The Israeli Army says it shot and killed an armed Palestinian emerging from the stand-off at the Church of the Nativity. Meanwhile, the army is investigating an explosion this morning near the site of the church. Several Palestinians have been holed up there for about a month now.
The latest round of violence comes as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepares to head to Washington. He is expected to meet with President Bush next week.
We have a preview now from CNN's Kelly Wallace.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.
Well, this meeting really another challenge for the Bush administration as it continues to step up its engagement in the Middle East, something it really sought to avoid last year.
Now, President Bush is enjoying a few more hours at the presidential retreat at Camp David before he's expected to return back here to the White House this afternoon. The president is expected to really try to impress upon Prime Minister Sharon the need to start talking about political issues, to bring about some final agreement some time in the future.
The prime minister, we understand, will be coming here with his own plan for resolving issues with the Palestinians.
The president is also expected, though, to press Mr. Sharon to fully withdraw from those Palestinian territories, the Israelis recently reoccupied. But, Miles, complicating that, movement by the House and the Senate last week. Law makers passing non-binding resolutions expressing solidarity with Israel in its crackdown against terror.
Another challenge, though, facing this administration, this international conference on the Middle East, what format should it take, who should be invited. Miles, what we're seeing is the administration seems to be trying to play down expectations for what will come out of this meeting. Just listen to how the president talked about it during a meeting yesterday with Prime Minister Aznar of Spain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Secretary of State Powell talked about a ministerial meeting, just a series of ongoing discussions to help solidify the visions that have been expressed by not only the United States, but the Europeans, but more importantly the visions expressed by Israel, the Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. So there's going to be a lot of discussions and a lot of meetings and I've had a lot already and I'm going to have more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And, Miles, one interesting note, you know, this administration really feels that during the Camp David peace talks back in 2000 that one, perhaps, mistake by the Clinton administration not getting Arab leaders more involved to put more pressure on Yasser Arafat to convince him to accept the deal that was presented to him. And so Mr. Bush and his aides are reaching out as much as possible, they say, to Arab leaders and that is why the president will meet with Prime Minister Sharon on Tuesday, but King Abdullah of Jordan on Wednesday -- Miles, back to you.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Kelly Wallace on the north lawn of the White House, thank you very much.
Later this morning, please join us for a reporter's notebook discussion of the crisis in the Middle East. Our distinguished group includes our own Matthew Chance in Ramallah, Tony Karon of TIME.com and Michael Hirsh of "Newsweek" magazine. We stand ready to take your e-mail questions and your comments. We invite you to send them now to us at wam@cnn.com. Questions will be answered 9:30 a.m. Eastern time.
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