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UN Envoy Discusses Middle East Hostilities

Aired April 02, 2002 - 13:04   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: But the cease-fire talks, are they going anywhere?

Let's talk about that right now with Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy to the Middle East, who is our guest here this evening.

Good evening to you.

Give us an indication here is there any talk right now at any level between you, possibly Anthony Zinni, that includes the Israelis and the Palestinians?

TERJE ROED-LARSEN, UN SPECIAL COORDINATOR FOR THE MIDDLE EAST: There are talks going on, absolutely, all the time. There is a very close coordination between the four key envoys here, the Russian envoy, the european envoy, Gen. Zinni, and myself. Then we are talking constantly with both sides. Unfortunately, there is no talk between the parties, and there are no negotiations going on, But communication is ongoing, but it's a sad fact that there are no negotiations going on. And I cannot see any diplomatic solution for the very near future.

HEMMER: You don't see a diplomatic solution right now.

ROED-LARSEN: There is currently a threefold crisis developing here, one potential and two ongoing. First, there is a humanitarian crisis. There are now about 500,000 Palestinians being provided with food from the United Nations, from UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinian refugees here. We have a situation where about 50 percent of the population is living below the poverty level. We have about a similar rate of unemployment in Gaza.

We are trying to address these humanitarian issues, also bringing medicine and ambulances into particularly Ramallah. This is what we are concentrating on today.

Then, of course, there is the ongoing military crisis, which has changed in many ways here over the last week particuarly.

HEMMER: How so? Clearly, over the past week.

ROED-LARSEN: Because now I think the conflict is driven by existnetial fears on both sides. I think particularly the awful suicide bombing in Netanya on Passover has produced hot white anger in Israel in all walks of life. But it is also fueled by an existential fear that the state of Israel might be wiped out. This might be realistic or unrealistic, but it's there. These emotions are important to take into consideration when you evaluate the situation.

On the other hand, the Palestinians are also outraged by the massive military operations and the civilian casualties, and also by the leader, who is the prime national smybol, Yasser Arafat, being de facto in prisoned in his office in Ramallah.

So this is a new dimension to the conflict and makes it even more dangerous.

HEMMER: Back up just a little bit, if you could, to the point that you were making about no contact between the two sides, Israelis and Palestinians. This past weekend, it was told to me through certain Israeli sources do not rule out the possibility that Yasser Arafat does indeed have contact with someone on the Israeli side. Are you saying that is not a possibility?

ROED-LARSEN: Well, I am not aware of it. We are speaking to Yasser Arafat, we the key diplomats in the international community here. We are also speaking to all of his closest associates. But I am not aware of any, and I would doubt it very much, that there are serious negotiations between Palestinian high-level interlocutors and high-level Israeli interlocutors.

HEMMER: You are for us and our audience painting a very grim picture of the situation here. I made the comment last hour that the brakes appear to be off in terms of stopping or halting or pausing the military movement. You apparently agree with that.

ROED-LARSEN: I agree fully with that. We are in a totally new situation, unfortunately, and it is very dangerous.

There's another dimension which makes this a threefold crisis, a potential threefold crisis, and that is that there's been action along the so-called blue line, that is the border between Israel and Lebanon earlier today, with Katushas going into Israel, and this is now forming a pattern of hostilities along the blue line in the north, which also has a potential for a new conflict which, again, even more than a Palestinian-Israeli conflict could be destabilize the region.

Terje Roed-Larsen, here in the Middle East, a UN envoy to the Middle East. Certainly, your work is important, given the current conflict. We appreciate your sharing your thoughts with us. I wish you could have brought us better news, but we can't change the reality on the ground.

Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

ROED-LARSEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Glad to be here.

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