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CNN Live At Daybreak

Cheney Will Meet With Arafat After Tenet Plan in Place

Aired March 19, 2002 - 05:10   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: All right, we have word from overseas that Mike Hanna is ready to go now, so that means let's get back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The two sides may be edging closer towards a cease-fire with the help of the United States. Just a short time ago we brought you live coverage of a joint news conference between Vice President Dick Cheney and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Now let's go live again to Jerusalem and this time we're joined by our Jerusalem bureau chief, Mike Hanna -- good morning, Mike.

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello there, Carol.

Well, the U.S.-led initiative to get a cease-fire on the ground really gaining momentum. In the course of this morning an announcement by the U.S. vice president that he will be prepared to meet the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, at a date and a venue still to be determined after the implementation of the George Tenet cease-fire plan. This is a plan drawn up by CIA Director George Tenet being discussed at the moment by Israelis and Palestinians.

From the Israeli side, the commitment to allow Yasser Arafat to travel to the Arab summit in Beirut next week, this a significant back down by Israel, which had restricted the Palestinian leader to movement in the Palestinian territories.

Well, I'm joined now by senior White House correspondent John King, who has been accompanying the vice president on this journey -- John, it does appear to be a major shift in U.S. policy here.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A dramatic shift from the Bush administration policy of just even a little more than a week ago. The president first said General Zinni would not return to the region until both parties had shown a clear commitment to ending the violence and getting back to the negotiating table. Indeed, General Zinni came back when the violence was at its worst in recent memory.

The administration has said from day one no meeting with Mr. Arafat by the president or the vice president until he meets his commitment to the United States for a "100 percent effort to end the violence." Just last night, a senior U.S. negotiator here saying Arafat is not even close to that. Yet we wake up this morning to where the vice president is prepared to meet with him. There's an if attached to that and that is the big if. Mr. Arafat must get to a truce. Now they're saying truce. That's another shift, not a cease-fire, not a formal agreement. Let's get to a truce and a period of calm and then negotiate under the Tenet plan then on to the so-called Mitchell Plan, a formal cease-fire agreement. But certainly two carrots dangled in front of Mr. Arafat. You can travel to the Arab summit, you can meet the U.S. vice president, but you must get first to a truce. The Bush administration a dramatic strategy shift. I'm certain they will argue if you get to a cease-fire it will be well worth it.

HANNA: Now it did appear before the vice president arrived in the region or in Israel itself that he was expecting or hoping to come to news of a cease-fire. Do you think he's going to be disappointed with what he's leaving with?

KING: I think he will leave confident there is progress being made, perhaps disappointed. And the vice president is a very cautious man. He would never say so publicly. He did say as he prepared to come here that he was prepared to meet with Mr. Arafat then. The presumption was there would be a cease-fire agreement when he landed here on Monday.

There obviously was not so there was no Arafat meeting. That angered the Palestinians. And remember, the vice president came here after visiting nine Arab nations in which he heard consistently you want to talk about Iraq and Saddam Hussein, we believe the Bush administration is lopsided in favor of the Israelis. The Palestinians have tanks in their towns. We want to talk about that.

So this vice president was being watched very closely by Arab leaders who are critical as the war on terrorism advances. There was more anger from the Palestinians when that Arafat meeting did not come about. Now, from the U.S. view, a reasonable compromise. The Israelis did pull out overnight. Prime Minister Sharon has agreed to let Mr. Arafat leave and the vice president says he'll meet with Mr. Arafat as soon as next week. The burden is now on Mr. Arafat, in the view of the United States, to do those things necessary to get the meeting, which is bring about calm, get into a truce and then ultimately and hopefully to a cease-fire.

HANNA: A lot of moving parts here. Vice President Cheney's mission was essentially about gaining Arab support for the wider U.S. war on terror. The Arab, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a small part of that effort. What is the linkage between the two? How important to the wider Cheney mission is a resolution of this crisis here?

KING: A learning process for the vice president. And I lived through this in the Clinton administration. When you are new to this problem, the Israeli-Palestinian problem, you have a lot to learn. And the vice president insisted at the beginning of this trip there was no linkage, that they were two separate issues, Israeli- Palestinian violence, the broader war against terrorism and Saddam Hussein. But he learned as he traveled through the Arab world again, those leaders do not want to talk about Saddam Hussein. They don't view him as the biggest security threat in the region. They view those Israeli tanks in the West Bank and in Bethlehem as the security threat in this region.

It was clear, and the vice president said so himself, the leaders in the region are preoccupied with the Israeli-Palestinian violence. You can't make progress on other issues until you satisfy them that the United States is fully engaged with that.

So I think a learning process for the vice president. Certainly now he hopes he'll have his meeting with Mr. Arafat. There will be a cease-fire. And as the consultation continue, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is coming to the United States. There will be other conversations, as well, that they will be able to say we delivered. Now listen to us when we want to talk about Saddam Hussein.

HANNA: John King, senior White House correspondent, thank you for joining us.

John on his way now to another country with the U.S. vice president, that of Turkey. The vice president leaving this particular area perhaps with the knowledge of some progress, not, though, with a cease-fire in his pocket -- Carol.

COSTELLO: But closer.

Thank you.

Mike Hanna reporting live for us from Jerusalem. And our thanks, too, to John King.

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