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20 August 2003

Bush Discusses Israel, Iraq Terrorist Attacks with Top Advisors

White House Report, August 20: Also talks with several world leaders

President Bush the morning of August 20 discussed the August 19 terrorist bombings in Iraq and Israel with his National Security Council via a video conference call from his Texas ranch, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters in Crawford, Texas.

Ambassador Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and General John Abazaid, Commander of the U.S. Central Command, both participated in the video conference call, McClellan said.

Bush began the day with a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to offer his condolences to the families of those killed in the August 19 bus bombing in Jerusalem, McClellan said. Bush "strongly condemns the vicious attack on innocent civilians," the press secretary said.

Bush and Sharon discussed how the attack reinforced the pressing need to crack down on terrorists and terrorist infrastructure. "They agreed that the way forward to peace is through the dismantlement of terrorist organizations," McClellan said.

He added that Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice have "been on the phone with both parties" in the Middle East, and said that Powell August 19 sent U.S. Ambassador John Wolf back to the region to meet with Palestinian and Israeli leaders. Wolf is the U.S. Coordinator for implementation of the road map to peace in the Middle East.

On August 19, McClellan said, Bush spoke by phone with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula to express his sincerest condolences at the death of Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Mello, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, was killed in the August 19 terrorist bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

Bush also spoke on the phone August 19 with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair about the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. The two leaders discussed "how this attack showed the true nature of terrorism and the true nature of terrorists," said McClellan.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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