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Bush Rules Out talks, Demands Osama
U.S. President George W Bush ruled out negotiations with the Taliban on Friday, demanding anew they turn over Osama bin Laden and his followers and destroy their "terrorist camps".
Courting Islamic support for his "war on terrorism" during a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah, the first Arab head of state to visit the White House since the September 11 attacks, Bush said Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation "don't represent Islam ... they represent evil."
"There is no negotiation with the Taliban," Bush told reporters before talks with Abdullah. "They heard what I said, now they can act." "It's not just Mr bin Laden that we expect to see and brought to justice. It's everybody associated with his organisation that's in Afghanistan and not only those directly associated with Mr bin Laden, but any terrorist that's housed and fed in Afghanistan needs to be handed over. And finally, we expect there to be complete destruction of terrorist camps. That's what I told them. That's what I mean," he said.
Declining to respond to media reports that US special forces had been operating inside Afghanistan in the past few days or to discuss military operations in general, Bush said that he was aware of how hard it would be "to fight a guerrilla war with conventional forces". But he added: "Make no mistake about it, we're in hot pursuit."
Jordan, one of Washington's strongest allies in the Middle East, has voiced caution in formulating a response and joined other Arab leaders in saying that an important component must be resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"I have assured His Majesty that our war is against evil, not against Islam," Bush told reporters with Abdullah by his side in the Oval Office. "The al-Qaeda people don't represent Islam as far as America is concerned," Bush said. "They represent evil. They're evil people and that's not the Muslim faith that I know and understand, nor is it the Muslim faith of millions of Americans who are proud and devout Muslims." Abdullah assured Bush he had Jordan's "full, unequivocal support" and said most Arabs and Muslims would join the battle "to put an end to this horrible scourge of international terrorism."
"As the president so well put it, what these people stand for is completely against all the principles that Arab Muslims believe in," he said. "And so, on those principles alone, I think it'll be very, very easy for people to stand together."
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