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Middle East Diplomacy Chief Goal of White House

Aired April 09, 2002 - 10:01   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: First up it hour, we focus on the crisis in the Middle East, and an American consensus behind the White House. Let's check out a new CNN-USA Today Gallup Poll showing nearly 7 of 10 Americans favoring President Bush's handling of the situation in the Middle East.

More than 1,000 adult Americans were interviewed over the weekend. Our White House -- actually senior White House correspondent, John King, has more on the Middle East peace efforts through the eyes of the Bush administration -- John, good morning to you.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

The administration certainly wishing that the news from the ground, if you will, in the Middle East, especially Secretary of State Powell's Middle East diplomatic mission, were as encouraging as those poll numbers. Israel last night committed to pulling back its troops from two towns in the West Bank, but we are told Secretary of State Colin Powell from Cairo, Egypt this morning placed a phone call to the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, one of several contacts between the Bush administration and the Israeli government, in which the administration made clear that that is in the president's view not enough. That Israel must completely withdraw its military forces from the Palestinian territories, if there is to be any hope during this Powell mission now under way in the Middle East or in the near future even beyond the Powell mission of bringing about a cease-fire between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

We also are told this morning that as Secretary Powell continues his trip, and again he is in Cairo meeting with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, today, it is not yet officially on his schedule, but we are now told plans are in the works for a meeting near the end of the trip with the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. Some U.S. officials want to see more strong actions from Mr. Arafat to crack down on terror before publicly committing to that meeting, but Mr. Powell has been told by the Arab leaders he has met with over the past two days that they would view this trip as a disaster, if he went to Jerusalem and went and met with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, but did not meet with the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

President Bush out of the White House today, up in Connecticut, some domestic political travel. As he flew there, though, the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, underscoring that the Israeli pullback from those two towns last night not enough in the White House view. Mr. Fleischer saying -- quote: "All parties have a responsibility. Israel's is to withdraw and to do so now." So a sense of frustration along with the anticipation as the president monitors events from here at home, and Secretary Powell continues his high-stakes trip in the region -- Daryn.

KAGAN: John, one thing we know that Mr. Bush and Mr. Sharon have in common and that is their distrust of Yasser Arafat as a peacemaker. But other than that, what kind of insight can you give us into the relationship between Bush and Sharon?

KING: Well, Bush and Sharon have been close friends and close allies. And remember, this president faced a great deal of criticism from the Palestinians and across the Arab world, because he has met several times, a handful of times now, with the Israeli prime minister. Never has George W. Bush sat down face to face with Yasser Arafat. So they are two men, who have been strong allies. President Bush says he recognizes Prime Minister Sharon's right to fight terrorism and to defend his people.

But right now, the president is under a great deal of international pressure to bring about at a minimum a cease-fire. He has asked his friend, the prime minister, to do much more. So there is some tension in the relationship right now, U.S. officials say, fundamentally. It is one of the strongest alliances in the world, the United States and Israel, but a great deal of tension between these two leaders right now, because the president has asked the Israeli prime minister to pull out the troops. And essentially, if you boil it all down, the prime minister's answer is no.

KAGAN: John King at the White House -- John, thank you I have much. Given John's comments, you can tell the pressure is on Secretary of State Colin Powell. Once again, we are standing by waiting for the secretary of state to hold a news conference. He is he in Cairo, as John mentioned, and he will be giving this news conference with the Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Maher. And when that does begin in Cairo, you will see it happening live here on CNN.

And while we wait for that news conference to begin, let's get the latest on those diplomatic maneuvering s and military movements in the region, and check in with John Vause, who is in Jerusalem -- John, hello.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Daryn. A lot of diplomatic maneuverings here over the last few hours in Jerusalem, some speculation that some Palestinian officials, who were to meet with the U.S. envoy in this region, Anthony Zinni, they were to meet with him sometime today, but they were demanding a meeting with Yasser Arafat. The Israelis not allowing that to happen, certainly not at this stage, so the Palestinian officials will not meet with Anthony Zinni until they get to meet with Yasser Arafat.

Also it seems as if the Israelis say they will not stand in the way of a meeting between the secretary of state, Colin Powell, and Yasser Arafat, if the secretary of state wants that meeting. But as you say, this Operation Defensive Shield, as the Israelis call it, continues overnight. The tanks and the troops rolled into the small town, the small West Bank town of Dura, not far from Hebron. The tanks moved in, supported by helicopters gunships. There was the sound of gunfire in the town. They moved in. Those battles were continuing, although, who was firing and what the actual situation was, is still very unclear on the ground at the moment.

A spokesman for the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force, says the mission in Dura is to apprehend suspects, terrorist suspects, as well as searching for weapons. That's basically the line which they have used throughout this operation. And they say that the search for terrorists and the search for weapons have concluded in two towns, one of them being Tulkarem and the other being Qalqilya. The tanks and the troops withdrew from those two towns, as speculation that they withdraw as some kind of measure to appease the U.S. president, as he pressures the Israeli prime minister to withdraw from all the Palestinian towns. However, the tanks and the troops did pull out last night.

There was extensive damage to these two towns caused by the fighting. They moved in there about a week ago. They stayed there for six days, as you can see, some of the damage left behind. Even though the reports on the ground that there wasn't that much resistance put up by the Palestinians; however, the pictures which are coming from that region of the West Bank do, in fact, show extensive of damage to homes and businesses.

Now, what we are being told by the Israeli defense minister is that the troops, although they may have pulled out, they will maintain a cordon around those two towns, part of these buffer zones, we guess, that the Israeli prime minister mentioned the other day in his speech.

So right now, as the pressure grows on the Israeli prime minister to stand down, to pull his troops out of Palestinian towns, there are still troops in five Palestinian cities, Dura, the most recent, but also Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and also that standoff in Bethlehem -- Daryn.

KAGAN: John Vause in Jerusalem -- John, thank you very much.

Once again, we are trying to fit in as much news as can right now, while we stand by for Secretary of State Colin Powell just about set to begin his news conference in Cairo. And we'll go there live when the secretary of state begins to speak.

Meanwhile, let's take a little bit of time to check in with our Rula Amin, who has been following the attack on Jenin, that Palestinian refugee camp and wasn't able to get inside the refugee camp yesterday. Rula, where do we find you today?

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, today we are in a village called Romanes (ph), about 12 miles east of Jenin, and the reason we came here is that there are about 300 residents off the Jenin refugee camp now in this village. The reason they are here is that they were arrested earlier on during Israel's operation in the camp. After being arrested for two or three days, they were released. Nothing was proven on them, and they are here now inside this village. Most of them are staying in the mosque that we will try to show you now very close to us. Many of them are staying in this mosque now. They have been giving us very disturbing accounts of what happened to them and of what they saw in Jenin refugee camp.

Now, they say they were asked to take off all their clothes when they were arrested. They said that they were beaten up, that they were put in the cold, and that then they were released, still naked, with only a blanket to cover them.

One of the people we spoke to them, an old man whose name is Omar Ali Arras (ph), he told us he was naked for 36 hours. He said he left his house, with his five sons, his wife, and his two stepdaughters, after their house was knocked down and shelled. He said they lost their home, so they went on the streets with a white flag. After they got to the soldiers, they were separated from the women. He was arrested with his five sons and then was beaten up naked. Now, he is released. He is here, and he knows his family is OK outside the camp, but he has lost his home.

We are hearing other accounts from other eyewitness who told us they saw people turning themselves into the soldiers, raising their arms in the air and then they were shot. Now of course, it is very hard for us to verify all of this information. Israel won't allow anyone to go into the camp, including the journalists. So what we are hearing is consistent accounts, very, very disturbing accounts of very fierce fighting going on, and the consequences, the civilians, it seems, are bearing the brunt of it. They are telling us that many houses have been knocked down, and many houses have been demolished. They said the soldiers were going from one house to another by knocking down the walls between the houses, and that many of them have lost their homes -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Rula, explain to us to the difference between where you were not allowed access today and where you are today -- were not allowed access yesterday and where you are today.

AMIN: Well, yesterday we were still in Israeli. We were in an Israel-Arab village overlooking Jenin refugee camp just about three miles away. Today, we took a lot of back routes -- roads in toward get back into the West Bank. This is a West Bank village, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, away from Jenin. It is further away from Jenin. But as I said, we came here because the soldiers, when they released those prisoners, they told them they have to come here.

So we came here in order to get first-hand accounts from those people who went in the camp to give us an idea of what is happening there, because this is the first time, actually, we are in contact with those people. Before, we have been seeing the pictures from far away. This morning, we went into the same place we were yesterday overlooking the camp, and we saw more shelling. There were more helicopter gunships sending missiles on the camp. And we could hear explosives and residents in the camp and the Palestinian militants who are there were telling us that they were heavy, very heavy fierce gun battles still raging in that small camp. It's a camp 15,000 people live there. It's spread on less than a mile square.

And just as we were talking to and hearing reports that there is more -- there is a larger number now of prisoners who are just being released, and they are just getting to this town -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Rula Amin reporting to us from the West Bank -- Rula, thank you very much.

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