Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
Dick Cheney Arrives in Israel to Lend Support to Peace Effort
Aired March 18, 2002 - 11:00 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this morning, Dick Cheney arrived in Israel a few hours ago to lend his support to the peace effort.
CNN's John King has been traveling with the vice president. He joins us now on the phone.
Hello, John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon, to you.
And the vice president exactly where top aides say he did not want to be, in the negotiations to try to bring about that cease-fire between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Mr. Cheney had hoped to arrive in Jerusalem today to work. A cease-fire deal had been struck. Instead, he is in the middle now of what he himself has called very sensitive delicate negotiations, being led by the president of special envoy, retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, who's been shuttling back and forth between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Some word of some progress this evening, and I know you have Mike Hanna up behind me. He has more details on that. Some indications from U.S. officials that they believe progress is being made toward an Israeli pullout, and perhaps then progress toward a cease fire.
The vice president will have dinner with Prime Minister Sharon tonight. He will try to push the process along there as well, and he has left some time on his schedule tomorrow morning for the possibility, emphasis on possibility, of a meeting with the Palestinian delegation. Senior U.S. officials traveling with him even say he has not ruled out sitting down to talk with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. That would be the huge development. So far, Secretary of State Colin Powell the highest ranking Bush administration to meet with Mr. Arafat.
How that would happen is a great mystery. Mr. Arafat has not been to Jerusalem in decades. He is confined to the occupied territories right now, and it would be a huge security risk for the vice president to go out to Ramallah. So most White House officials believe that will not happen, but they say they are keeping the option open in case, now that the vice president finds himself in the middle of all of this, the White House decides that a meeting with Yasser Arafat would be helpful -- Leon. HARRIS: Well, John, is there any room in the schedule for such a meeting? Do we know if there was a meeting to be arranged at all, when would that happen?
KING: There are about 90 minutes in the schedule tomorrow morning here in Israel time, Tuesday morning time, for a meeting, a potential meeting with a Palestinian delegation. The thought originally was that senior Palestinian delegation would come to the vice president's hotel and meet him, then the Palestinians, who resent the fact that Mr. Arafat has not had a meeting with President Bush yet, said no Arafat, no meeting.
So the negotiations go back and forth, but there is about 90 minutes on the schedule tomorrow, and aids traveling with Cheney have dangled this in front of us the last few hours, saying if he feels the need to stay, if feels that would be helpful, perhaps he would stay in Israel even for a few more hours. He was supposed to head to Turkey around noon time, 1:00 local tomorrow afternoon. But aides say he might extend his stay here if, yet again, he could be helpful in these negotiations. They're hoping to reach a breakthrough overnight, so that by the time the vice president has dinner with the prime minister tonight and wakes up tomorrow morning, the outlook is much more optimistic. They are hopeful. They are also quite frustrated.
HARRIS: John, what I find very curious, though, is the idea that a meeting with Yasser Arafat can still be a question after the meetings that Vice President Cheney had with the Arab leaders that he has been meeting with over the last few days.
It seems as though they have been pressuring him to at least get more involved and perhaps at least look out for the rights or for the concerns of the Palestinians. It would seem to me that to not meet with them at this particular point would almost be turning his back on the meetings he's already had.
KING: That would certainly open the vice president to criticism from the nine Arab nations he just visited. You're exactly right. Look at this as a potential compromise. The vice president was in Kuwait City earlier this morning. The Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Sabasad (ph) said he wanted Mr. Cheney to impress upon the Palestinians that Yasser Arafat should be allowed to travel to Beirut for the Arab summit next week. If there's no meeting with Arafat, from the U.S. side, they would like a commitment from the Israeli government to very much let Mr. Arafat go to that summit. It's a very sensitive issue, because if he goes there, he will be treated like a hero, and that's a picture of public relations coup for the Palestinians, something the Israelis are quite sensitive about.
HARRIS: Yes, exactly. Public relations played a role in every single level on this whole matter. John King, traveling with the vice president, we appreciate that -- Carol.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Just as John was just outlining, the most urgent priority right now is getting both Israelis and Palestinians to agree to a cease-fire at least, and as quickly as possible.
CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna joins us with the current state of the discussions.
Mike, is there any indication from the Israelis that they may make it possible for Yasser Arafat to travel to meet with the vice president?
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well at this stage, no indication whatsoever on that particular subject. In fact, as far as we know, no request has been made by either side that Arafat should travel to meet the vice president. That is an issue that is completely unclear at present, although we heard John King referring to the position of the vice president on the whole matter.
But what we have heard within the last hour is that the talks that Anthony Zinni was presiding over the course of day may have been borne some fruit. Israel has apparently agreed to withdraw its forces from areas its reoccupied in recent weeks, a key Palestinian demand if a cease-fire is to take place.
Palestinians for their part have apparently agreed to guarantee security in these areas to enable the Israeli forces to withdraw. So there are signs, very faint signs at the moment, of some kind of process or progress in the cease-fire negotiations -- Carol.
LIN: Mike, there was another attack this morning somewhere in Israel. Can you tell us a little bit more about that, and whether that attack is going to be affecting the discussions?
HANNA: Well, I have no knowledge of attack in Israel this morning. There were a number of attacks in the course of Sunday, one, an 18-year-old Israeli girl was killed by a Palestinian gunmen at Kafar Savav (ph), north of Tel Aviv. Also, a failed suicide bomb attempt in Jerusalem itself in the course of Sunday.
However, the significant thing about this is that these attacks did not derail the process. A lower-level security meeting went ahead Sunday despite the fact the attacks taken place, and a very high-level security meeting took place today, despite the facts that violence on the ground had been ongoing.
So there are signs that the process at this stage can withstand these outbreaks of violence. The question is, what is the extent of the violence? And at what stage does the process itself get completely battered down by ongoing acts of violence, which is what has happened in the past? But at this stage, it does appear that both sides are continuing to talk through the violence, which is a very critical factor if a truce or a cease-fire is to be achieved -- Carol.
LIN: Thank you very much, Mike Hanna, reporting live from Jerusalem.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
