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CNN Live At Daybreak
Middle East Violence Casts Shadow Over Cheney Visit
Aired March 13, 2002 - 06:01 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The violence in the Middle East is casting a shadow over U.S. efforts to gain support for widening the terror war.
CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King is traveling in the region with Vice President Dick Cheney and joins us now live on the phone.
Good morning.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the resort town along the Red Sea. At this hour Vice President Cheney is having lunch with some of the American peacekeeping troops here. Some 20 years after Egypt and Israel signed their peace treaty, there are still U.S. troops involved in the peacekeeping effort.
And in visiting them this morning, Mr. Cheney served notice that despite some objections, very public objections here in the Arab world, the United States will continue to push for a tough posture against Saddam Hussein and the government of Iraq, perhaps even a military option.
The vice president in a brief speech to those troops saying that the United States has a duty and a responsibility, says the United States will not permit the forces of terror to gain the tools of genocide. So the vice president continuing with his tough rhetoric, but a senior administration official traveling with him recessed just a short time ago and said yes, it is quite obvious that the concerns of these Arab leaders about the ongoing Middle East violence are overshadowing some of the trip, making it much more complicated for the vice president to make his case about Iraq. But the vice president says he will treat them as two separate issues.
He will continue his diplomacy and that senior official, Carol, almost sarcastically saying the Israelis did not coordinate their military action with the vice president's visit to the region, a clear sign from the U.S. government that it is not happy with the Israeli military response believing that makes the vice president's diplomacy all the more complicated here in the Arab world -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes it doesn't sound, John, like Mr. Cheney is having much luck, at all. KING: Well what senior officials tell us to be careful. They say these Arab leaders, of course, there's great resentment in the streets in the Arab world more than 10 years after the end of the Gulf War. The sanctions have punished the Iraqi people, but Saddam Hussein is still in power, so what senior officials say is don't believe everything that the Arab leaders say in public about U.S. posture toward Iraq, it's what they say in private. They believe the leaders here just simply can not be out verging the United States to get involved in a military action, but if and when such a scenario came about, that in private they are much more understanding of the U.S. position and indeed would welcome a regime change in Baghdad.
They're just worried about a lengthy U.S. military campaign in Iraq again. And the vice president dismisses the linkage, but it is very clear as he travels, first yesterday in Jordan, now today here in Egypt, that the leaders want progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front first and foremost, then maybe they'll get to talking about future parts of the war on terrorism.
COSTELLO: All right, John King reporting for us from Egypt this morning.
We want to talk about the violence in Israel, and it's the largest Israeli military deployment in two decades, comes word of a western journalist killed in the West Bank. CNN's Sheila MacVicar joins us again live from Jerusalem.
Good morning Sheila.
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. Well there is no good news from here for the vice president as he makes his way around the Middle East. We have word just a few moments ago sources telling CNN that Israeli tanks have now entered into Jabaliya village in the Gaza Strip, not Jabaliya refugee camp where they were yesterday, but Jabaliya village. That's ongoing, we'll keep you updated that.
There has been more violence in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the major commercial and, indeed, at the moment political center for Palestinian life here. You will remember, Carol, that Israeli tanks first went into Ramallah in massive numbers more than 24 hours ago. There have been repeated gunfights through the night, the day, killing a number of people there. This morning, an Italian still photographer, Raffaele Ciriello, working on an assignment for the Italian Daily Corriere della Sera, was killed.
People with him -- an Italian colleague who was with him, has described how they were coming through the town. They got to a center of town. They had been following at some distance some Palestinian gunmen. This colleague says that there were no reports -- they did not hear any exchanges of gunfire. They got to this open plaza and according to this colleague, an Israeli tank suddenly appeared around the corner, the machine gunner on that tank opened fire without warning, striking Ciriello with six bullets in the abdomen. He was taken to a Palestinian hospital where he has died. Also this morning in Ramallah, a French still photographer has been reported wounded. So the situation in Ramallah is still very unstable -- a lot of tension, a lot of fighting and we are told another 24 hours, at least, until the U.S. president's envoy General Zinni arrives here -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Thank you. Sheila MacVicar reporting live for us from Jerusalem this morning.
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