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CNN Live Today

Interview With Alon Pinkas

Aired April 04, 2002 - 13:18   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.
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: As we await formal reaction from Israeli and Palestinian leaders abroad, we are hearing from some Palestinian and Israeli interests here in the United States. Let's begin on Israel from Alon Pinkas, who is in New York. He is the consul general to Israel. He joins us now. Good to see you again.

ALON PINKAS, ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL: Good to see you too, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: Well, President Bush does an about face and implores Israel to begin pulling out of Palestinian territories and makes an offer to send Secretary of State Colin Powell abroad next week. How is this news being received thus far?

PINKAS: I wouldn't go as far as to say that this is a departure from previous policy or that it constitutes an about face. I think it's consistent with -- it is really consistent with what President Bush and Secretary Powell have been saying for the last 10 days or the last week, and that in itself is consistent with what we've been saying, which is that we don't intend to stay there for long. We intend to do something that has to be done. We intend to reach political negotiations after we complete the military objectives, and we cannot seriously reach any political negotiations or a resumption of a political process to follow a cease-fire.

WHITFIELD: However, Mr. Pinkas, you have to agree that the Bush administration has received an awful lot of criticism in recent days because President Bush had directly put the onus on Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians, and had not put much of the responsibility on the Israeli, and hadn't, until now, said anything about withdrawing from Palestinian territories.

PINKAS: I think that if you look carefully at the speech itself, at the text of what President Bush said, you will see that the responsibility lies squarely on the Palestinians. The president indicates unequivocally that there was progress made by General Zinni, and that progress was marred by the violence and by the suicidal maniacs who blew themselves up in several cities and several cafes and in a Passover dinner.

You're right that the president is asking Israel to withdraw. But, again, I'm really not trying to dodge the issue. The way we read it is, No. 1, it is consistent what we've told the president we would do... WHITFIELD: OK. So when is the withdrawal going to be taking place? What are you hearing?

PINKAS: I don't know. I think what I'm hearing in the last two hours that it's about on tactical military decision making that needs to be done. On the ground -- I will not go into the hair-splitting questions of did he say immediate or not? We got the message. It is understood. I think the president has spoke with a moral clarity that he spoke about terrorism in the last several months ever since 9/11.

WHITFIELD: OK...

PINKAS: And I think that the prime minister, the foreign minister, the defense minister in Israel are seriously looking into exactly what the president has asked Israel to do. And I'm absolutely certain that we will comply. Having said that, Fredericka, we will comply once we achieve what we set to achieve, and that again is congruent with everything that the president said in the initial two- thirds of his speech, and that is that terrorism needs to be destroyed, that the Palestinian leadership did not just betray the idea of a Palestinian state, they betrayed the entire peace process.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alon Pinkas, Israeli consul general, thanks very much for joining us from New York.

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