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CNN Live At Daybreak

Cheney Could Meet Arafat in Egypt

Aired March 20, 2002 - 05:02   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Vice President Dick Cheney is leaving Turkey at this hour for the United States. And that caps a 12 nation, 10 day Middle East trip.

CNN's John King is traveling with the vice president.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: CNN has learned that if there is a meeting between the U.S. vice president, Dick Cheney, and the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, it will be held in Egypt and it could come as early as just before next week's Arab summit in Beirut. Another possibility is just after the summit. The calculation of U.S. officials being that with the prospect of a one- on-one meeting with the vice president at hand, Mr. Arafat will closely watch his language if he attends that summit and not say anything that might incite violence against the Israelis back in and around the Palestinian territories.

High stakes negotiations led to the idea that Mr. Cheney would put the prospect of a meeting on the table. It was done after consultations not only with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, but a direct meeting between General Anthony Zinni, President Bush's special envoy in the region, and Mr. Arafat, at which Mr. Arafat promised to quickly implement the so-called Tenet Plan, increasing security cooperation and bringing about eventually a truce between the Israelis and Palestinians.

At one point the Palestinians wanted the meeting to be in Ramallah, but U.S. officials decided that would be inappropriate, not only because of security concerns, because they believed the meeting should be held on neutral ground so not as to embarrass the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

Why Egypt? U.S. officials say it was chosen because it is a neutral site, because it has been the past site of Mideast summit talks and out of respect for the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, who has assorted himself in recent weeks, as well, trying to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Still no set date for the meeting, but the vice president is prepared to leave Washington early next week if it comes before the Arab summit. The big if, of course, is whether General Zinni believes over the next several days that Mr. Arafat has kept his commitment to implement a truce agreement and implement other security cooperation details included in that so-called Tenet plan. John King, CNN, Ankara, Turkey.

COSTELLO: But, of course, there has been more violence in the Middle East. We're going to go live to Jerusalem in a minute or two.

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