Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Violence Continues Despite Ongoing Talks

Aired March 18, 2002 - 12:02   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As we mentioned, let's go first to the Middle East this afternoon. Vice President Dick Cheney is there. U.S. envoy, Anthony Zinni, convened another round of talks today between both sides. Mike Hanna in Jerusalem with us live now to bring us up to date on what is happening there -- Mike, good evening.

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Bill, rapid developments in this ongoing situation. Talks of cease-fire, but at the same time, ongoing violence. The U.S. vice president, Dick Cheney, arrived in the region, and among those to welcome him at the airport was U.S. Special Envoy Anthony Zinni, and Zinni joined the vice president in his car for the drive to Jerusalem to brief him on the latest developments in the efforts to get a cease-fire in place on the ground. And there has been some movement in those efforts.

Senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials met in the course of the day, a meeting attended by Anthony Zinni, and it was decided at that meeting, sources tell CNN, that there would be a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian controlled areas they had reoccupied in recent weeks. This a major stumbling block from the Palestinian side to the implementation of a truce. The Israelis had said that the Palestinians must provide security guarantees that their forces would effectively police these area when Israel withdraws, to prevent attacks by militants on Israeli targets.

While, in the midst of all of this, yet more violence. We have confirmed that two homemade Qassam-2 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip on a Israeli town, the town of Ashkelon. Now, these rockets fell in an empty field, nobody was injured. But in the past, Israel has said the use of these rockets is a massive escalation, and there has been heavy Israeli reaction to the deployment of these homemade rockets in the past.

So, this a major test of the ongoing process to get a truce in place on the ground while the leaders are talking about getting a cease-fire in place, these ongoing incidents of violence, a major throat to whatever developments there have been in a getting a cease fire going -- Bill.

HEMMER: Mike, what reaction do you gauge now that Dick Cheney, the vice president of United States, is there, in the Middle East, on the soil, there to talk not only with Zinni but possibly members from both sides as well. What do people say about his visit upon there? HANNA: Well, certainly there is an awareness that this is a coordinated and very pressurized by the U.S. in particular, to get the sides to agree to a cease-fire, and to get them to the negotiating table. The presence in the region of the U.S. vice president lending immense weight, lending immense U.S. influence to the process. So, certainly, it is recognized by Israelis and Palestinians, that presence of Cheney as well as U.S. Special Envoy Anthony Zinni does signal a greater U.S. involvement in developments here.

From the Palestinian side, though, a degree of skepticism about Cheney's visit, some saying that the reason for his visit involves more garnering wide Arab for the U.S. war on terror than dealing directly with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The two are linked, obviously, some kind of resolution to this conflicts would make it a lot easier for Cheney to get wider Arab support for whatever the U.S. decides to do next in its wider war on terror.

But generally, it is perceived here that the presence of the U.S. vice president in the region is a very strong signal from the U.S. that it wants to get a cease-fire in place on the ground, that it wants a truce, and it is prepared to use a lot of pressure to achieve that.

HEMMER: Mike, thank you. Mike Hanna reporting 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