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CNN Saturday Morning News

Bush Meets Mubarak

Aired June 08, 2002 - 09:01   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: And we begin this hour now, though, with the meeting between President Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is hoping Mr. Bush will develop a plan to move Middle East peace efforts forward.

CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace now joins us live from Washington.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about what the White House is saying about these sessions, the goal of these meetings between himself and Mubarak.

WALLACE: The goal, Kyra, is to listen, President Bush saying he wants to hear what Egyptian President Mubarak has to say, but also, as we know, Monday he sits down with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The goal might be to listen, but also this administration's facing a lot of pressure to come up with some plan or some framework or some outline about how to move forward from here. And we heard President Bush saying yesterday, Kyra, that after these meetings, he will go before the country in some way, shape, and form and talk about his ideas about how to move forward, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So Kelly, you said these two met back in March, I think, is what you told me. What is going to be different between that meeting and this meeting? And is Mubarak going to put much more pressure on Bush to do something that he wants him to do?

WALLACE: Well, a big difference, exactly, is President Mubarak is coming here with some pressure. He's going to press Mr. Bush to set a timeline for negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and a timeline for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Mr. Mubarak has been making the rounds around Washington, appearing on various television programs, saying that it's important. The only way, Mr. Mubarak will say, to bring an end to the suicide bombings is to give the Palestinian people some hope, and that is the creation of a Palestinian state at some point, maybe next year or a couple of years thereafter. U.S. officials, Kyra, refuse to rule out or rule in whether Mr. Bush will in fact propose a timeline. But clearly he'll face some pressure from Egyptian President Mubarak to put forward one soon, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And then he has Ariel Sharon scheduled to come to Washington on Sunday. I guess they're getting together Monday. What will be the president's focus at this meeting? Obviously whatever he talks to Mubarak about, right?

WALLACE: Exactly. But also, you know, this -- the White House pressure of another sort from the Israelis, because the Israelis want much more of an incremental approach as opposed to putting together some detailed timeline for political discussions. They also have said that until the violence comes to an end, they really don't believe there should be detailed political discussions about the creation of a Palestinian state.

So you'll get some pressure from the Israeli leader, Mr. Sharon, also not to negotiate with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. President Mubarak saying Arafat must be dealt with.

So again, you're watching this White House kind of maneuver through. As to where it comes out at the end, my sources are telling me, don't look for the president to put together a whole game plan here. More likely he'll define the rules of the game -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, this international conference that's been talked about, what are the hopes of this? What would happen? How will it take place?

WALLACE: Well, we're told that there's no set date or all the details of this conference really haven't been worked out yet. The thinking is, it could happen potentially as early as next month. It could take place in Turkey. U.S. officials saying they really would like to have one sooner rather than later.

And what looks like we'll see happen is, after these meetings this weekend, more consultations possibly after that, the president then likely to come forward with again his approach about how they move forward with political, security, economic discussions, and then after that you'd have this international conference, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Our Kelly Wallace live at the White House there, and Kelly, I know you're going to stick around. We've got more with you coming up in this hour.

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