*EPF301 04/24/2002
Transcript: White House Daily Briefing, April 24
(Saudi Crown Prince Abudllah's April 25 meeting with Bush at the ranch, Israel/Jenin, Saudi Arabia/Israel relations, Iraq, terrorism) (1640)

A Senior Administration official briefed on Air Force One en route Sioux Falls, South Dakota. President Bush will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at the Bush ranch April 25 in Crawford, Texas.

Following is the White House transcript:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
April 24, 2002

PRESS GAGGLE WITH A SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL

Aboard Air Force One

En Route Sioux Falls, South Dakota

1:25 P.M. EDT

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, shall we talk about meeting tomorrow? And I'm happy to take questions. Let me just say the President's really looking forward to this opportunity the meet the Crown Prince for the first time. They have talked several times on the phone; they've exchanged letters under a number of occasions. This is -- Saudi Arabia is one of America's oldest and best friends in the region, longstanding relationship with a lot of different aspects.

They'll obviously talk about the Middle East; they'll talk about other regional issues. But I want to emphasize that this is a broad relationship, and they'll also talk about economic issues. The Saudis, in particular, have made known their desire to accede to the WTO and that's something that the United States supports and is going to try to find ways to help the Saudis, as we have others, get ready for that accession. Because, ultimately, for the whole region, economic development and trade is extremely important, not just to the people, but to stability in the region.

As to the Middle East, the President is really looking forward to, first of all, personally thanking the Crown Prince for the steps that he's taken, for going out with an initiative on the Middle East. And he is looking forward to talking with him about ways to expand on that initiative and to press forward with it to get to the conclusion of a number of principles that he knows they both share.

They both share a desire to see two states in the region living in peace. The Crown Prince's view that under the right circumstances, normal relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel would be on the table. That's an extremely important statement for the Saudi Crown Prince to make. The President will want to explore that.

But he believes very strongly that this could open -- it has opened a new portal through which you might pursue peace, because the engagement of Israel's neighbors, the engagement of the Arab states in this way would give not just new impetus, but a really -- a new way to deal with the peace process issues between Israel and the Palestinians.

So they'll talk about that. The President has had a week in which he has been engaging and talking with Arab leaders quite a lot. He had the Prime Minister of Lebanon here a couple of days ago. Of course, on Tuesday he was with the King of Morocco. And I think there is broad support for a number of the principles that the President outlined in the April 4th speech, and now it's a matter of trying to move forward and act on those principles and the responsibilities that all of the parties have to bring peace to the region.

So that's what they'll do.

QUESTION: Do you expect the President and the Crown Prince to discuss the situation in Jenin, and more specifically, the Israeli insistence that military must be involved in the investigation into whether or not something might have happened there?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, the American position on this has been clear -- that we think there needs to be full transparency, there needs to be fact-finding, and the exact composition of the fact-finding mission and how it gets carried out we'll leave to the Israelis and to Kofi Annan. But we all need to know the facts of what happened in Jenin. I don't think that there will be very much more known by tomorrow when they talk.

Q: Do you think Israel has business dictating or attempting to dictate the composition of the fact-finding --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This is a matter between the Secretary General and Israel. He's expressed his willingness to talk with the Israelis about it, and I think that's a good start.

Q: How much is Iraq on the agenda, and the next phase of the war on terrorism -- Saddam Hussein?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, clearly, strategic issues will be on the agenda, and Iraq is one of those issues. But the President and the Crown Prince will undoubtedly talk, as well, about weapons of mass destruction and about some of the concerns that the President has about those weapons falling into the hands of states and regions -- it's a part of the war on terrorism. Saudi has been a real partner in the war on terrorism. I'm sure they'll spend some time talking about the things that the Saudis have done to help on terrorist financing -- Paul O'Neill was just there not too long ago; they had a pretty in-depth discussion about how to help on that piece of it.

And so, yes, I'm sure they'll talk about next phase in the war on terrorism, but also they'll have some discussion of Iraq.

Q: -- help that they provided in the Gulf War, Saudi Arabia, as an actual staging ground for military operations. Can the United States launch an offensive against Saddam Hussein without Saudi Arabia this time around?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It's premature, way premature to start talking about what we would do against Iraq. I mean, the President has made clear that Saddam Hussein is a problem, the status quo isn't acceptable. Sure, he's going to want to talk to the Crown Prince about that. But since we've made not decisions, the President has made no decisions about what it is he is going to do about Iraq, this is a good time for consultations with regional leaders like the Crown Prince about how they see dealing with the threat posed by Iraq. But it's way premature to talk about staging or anything of that kind.

Q: Do you anticipate hearing criticism from the Crown Prince as far as how the U.S. has handled what's going on in the Middle East, sort of the stuff we heard on the Sunday talk shows, other things coming out of Saudi Arabia?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: What I expect is that these two longtime allies will have a chance to sit down and talk about the common principles they share, which are many, and how to move it forward, how to get forward.

Q: Do you think they will talk about --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Eventually, there will have to be, for all parties, an opportunity to talk about anything on which there's disagreement. But we have broad agreement with the Saudis. And the one reason the Crown Prince's initiative was so welcome is that it started from a premise that the United States believes is right at the center, which is that Israel and the Palestinians and her neighbors -- most importantly, her neighbors -- have to be able to live in peace and security with normal relations. And I think that's an awfully good starting point from which to design a common approach.

Q: Can you talk just a little bit about how complicated the relationship is? On the one hand, they were very helpful with the peace plan, made the statement this week that they definitely won't use oil as a political tool, which is big for gasoline prices here. But on the other hand, you have people writing poems lauding the Palestinian suicide bomber, you had this fundraiser, which we can interpret whatever we want, but it seemed to be a fundraiser for terrorists. And also 15 of the terrorists on the planes were Saudis.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The Saudis have been very constructive in the war on terrorism, and very constructive in general, as a partner. When it comes to some of the things, like, for instance, some of the things that get printed in the Saudi press, we've raised them with the Saudis. When that one story came up in al-Riyadh about Jews drinking the blood of Christians and Muslims at Tyre, we raised it immediately with the Saudis. There was a retraction the next day.

I think that they recognize that this is a problem, too. And so the -- yes, you can print, -- was trying to hold on as -- (laughter.)

Q: Senior administration official.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: A senior administration official using every bit of skill she had from figure skating to hold her balance. (Laughter.)

So we think the Saudis have been very constructive on the war on terrorism, very constructive in dealing with -- as the President has said, that he thinks all the parties in the region have to be constructive also as to the environment that nobody is encouraging terrorism. And so we can discuss that, as well.

Q: When the President has leaders to the ranch, it's usually a personal dimension. I mean, is this all business, or does he plan a tour, or is there a special lunch?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You can bet he'll get the tour, the Crown Prince will get the tour. I think that the President really enjoys having leaders here because it is personal. The Crown Prince, we know, is somebody who has an enormous farm, himself, likes the land, finds the land important, and I think the President will enjoy sharing that.

I've got to sit down before we all fall down. (Laughter.)

Q: Thank you very much.

END 1:36 P.M. EDT

(end White House transcript)

(end transcript)

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