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CNN Saturday Morning News
Bush, Aznar Meet at Camp David
Aired May 04, 2002 - 09:06 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: President Bush is meeting this morning with the president of Spain at Camp David. On the agenda, the war on terror in the Middle East.
Our White House correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us from her post, North Lawn of the White House.
Kelly, President Bush has got a meeting also coming up with Israel's prime minister. He's got a lot of important meetings in store. Tell us what's going on.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He certainly does, Miles, really a lot of meetings, big week ahead, as you said. The president meeting with President Aznar of Spain, finishing up a breakfast meeting this morning, and then the president will come to the White House. The two leaders definitely expected to discuss the plans, what Secretary of State Colin Powell announced earlier this week, plans for an international conference on the Middle East sometime this summer.
Also, though, Mr. Bush's planned Tuesday meeting in the Oval Office with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a lot of challenges for that meeting, because Mr. Bush is facing pressure from European leaders and Arab leaders to try and get to political discussions between the Israelis and the Palestinians as quickly as possible.
Mr. Sharon is expected to be bringing his own long-term peace proposal to Washington. The president is also expected, though, Miles, to really put pressure on Mr. Sharon to end the standoff outside the Church of the Nativity and withdraw all Israeli forces from the Palestinian territories they recently reoccupied. Complicating that, though, as we've been saying, House and Senate lawmakers voting just days ago in these overwhelming nonbinding resolutions, fully backing what Israel is doing in the West Bank, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Talk about this planned international confab, if you -- I don't know what to call it, not a -- not necessarily a summit, because it...
WALLACE: Confab might be a...
O'BRIEN: Yes.
WALLACE: ... good word for it.
O'BRIEN: It's a much larger type of meeting than we've seen in the past where breakthroughs have occurred in the Middle East.
I'm curious, what's at work here? Is the administration trying to remove itself somewhat from the stage here and try to get further participation from other parties? IS that what's going on?
WALLACE: Well, I think two things are going on. Number one, the White House definitely was facing some pressure from European leaders and Arab leaders who definitely wanted to see an international conference very, very soon. Secretary Powell's announcement really did come as a bit of a surprise, because the message we were getting really publicly and even privately from U.S. officials was that this was really still an idea, that it really had not been solidified just yet.
So again, there was some pressure from Europeans and Arab leaders, but also just as you said, an opportunity to bring the European leaders, the Arab leaders, the Israelis, the Palestinians, all together.
U.S. officials, though, Miles, are really downplaying expectations, saying, Don't expect a major peace agreement to come out of this. They are saying it's going to be at the ministerial level, meaning foreign ministers, meaning President Bush won't be there, likely Mr. Sharon and Yasser Arafat won't be there as well.
So they're downplaying expectations, but it does appear a way to try and get Arab leaders, European leaders, the parties themselves all together to really pave the way for security and political discussion soon, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All that is well and good, but all you have to do is look at one U.N. Security Council meeting, or for that matter a General Assembly meeting, to realize what happens when all the world representatives get together in one room. Nothing happens. Right?
WALLACE: Well, Miles, you're so pessimistic this morning.
O'BRIEN: Sorry, I'm on a pessimistic roll...
WALLACE: I know, I know.
But no, a very good point, and that's why there are lots of discussions going on right now about who should be there, and a very good point, how many people should be there. As you know, the more people you get in a room, the more difficult it is to get a decision to be made, what the format should be, when it should take place.
And really this conference, U.S. officials say, won't happen until they're confident U.S. officials here that there could be some progress achieved, because if something happened and there was no success, simply failure, everyone here believes that would really be dismal for the Middle East peace process, Miles. O'BRIEN: CNN's Kelly Wallace at the White House, where there is always a great deal of optimism on her face. We appreciate it. Good to see you, thank you...
WALLACE: Tries to have a balance...
O'BRIEN: Fair and balanced, we like that. Kelly Wallace...
WALLACE: OK, sure.
O'BRIEN: ... thank you very much. We'll check in with you a little bit later.
WALLACE: OK.
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