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CNN Live Today

Bombing Will Not Upset Israel Negotiations

Aired March 20, 2002 - 10:02   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: First this morning on CNN, the Middle East peace efforts and the collateral damage of a suicide bombing. At least eight people are dead and at least 30 are wounded by this explosion aboard a bus in northern Israel. The attack comes amid recent momentum towards a cease-fire, and at last word, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators say that they will still meet today as scheduled.

Our Jerusalem bureau chief is Mike Hanna. He joins with us now with the latest.

Hello -- Mike.

MIKE HANNA, JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Leon.

This latest attack putting (UNINTELLIGIBLE) process on the cease- fire process that has been underway now for a number of days, as seven Israelis were killed in that attack, including four Israeli soldiers. A man trying to board the bus traveling between Tel Aviv and Nazareth, to the north, and detonated that explosive device attached to his body. As many as 30 people were injured in the attack, at least 10 of them in serious condition.

The Palestinian Authority has condemned the attack. So too has the Israeli government, but an Israeli government spokesman saying this attack is evidence that Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority are not doing enough to prevent suicide attacks or any form of terror attack against Israeli targets.

But despite the attack, the ongoing cease-fire negotiations remain at this stage unaffected. Within the next few hours, chief negotiators, security negotiators, from each side, are due to be meeting together with special U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni. They are going to be talking about a cease-fire plan drawn up by the director of the CIA, George Tenet, last year, and they are going to attempt to get an agreement on how to put this plan in place.

Sources tell CNN that the negotiators are going to keep on talking until they come out of the meeting with news of a cease-fire. That's going to be very difficult, given the pressures put on the process by ongoing acts of violence. Israel has said that despite the Palestinian attack, which claimed those seven lives, it is not going to respond. It is, says one Israeli spokesman, giving Yasser Arafat a window of opportunity to make good his commitment in terms of ending terror attacks against Israeli targets -- Leon.

HARRIS: And coming up in a just minute, we will be talking with an expert about all that.

Thanks very much, Mike Hanna, in Jerusalem.

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