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CNN Live Today
Interview With Tony Karon
Aired April 09, 2002 - 13:37 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Colin Powell today says he intends to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Right now, Powell is on his way to Spain, the next leg in his Mideast cease- fire mission. There, he will meet with European leaders as well as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
His meetings with Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will come later in the week. Joining us now to discuss the challenges Powell faces in this region, Tony Karon of "Time" magazine and world editor of time.com. Hi, Tony.
TONY KARON, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good afternoon, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, first reaction to Colin Powell coming out and saying he does intend to meet with Arafat.
KARON: Well, I think there's no surprise there really because there really is no alternative. There is no other Palestinian address. And if the object here is the cease-fire, it requires Yasser Arafat (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in order to get anything going.
PHILLIPS: There are still, though, so many people that do not want a cease-fire, suicide bombers out there. It is still going to happen. How do you address that?
KARON: Well, I think Powell is facing a major problem in this region in brokering a cease-fire for a number of reasons. Clearly, the Israelis aren't expecting success on his part. They are clearly -- they don't want to be seen to be the ones who made him fail. But they are certainly putting in contingency plans, as you described it earlier, to deal with ongoing violence.
On the Palestinian side, obviously the big question is how much of the Palestinian Authority has actually survived. Any cease-fire really depends on the ability of the PA's security structures to enforce it. And, frankly, many of the accounts from the ground suggest very little of the PA security capability has survived the onslaught, which would really leave something of a power vacuum there, and that really puts a cloud over the cease-fire prospects.
PHILLIPS: And how do you come to an understanding also, Tony, without rewarding terrorism?
KARON: Well, I think that rewarding terrorism thing is something of a self-defeating argument sometimes because really in that sense, anything could be construed as rewarding terrorism that responds to it in a political way. Yet, most analysts who have been dealing with this problem for a long time agree that there isn't really no way to address this problem other than dealing with the political root causes.
So, really, anything that puts a cease-fire in place, could be construed as rewarding terrorism, but really the object of a cease- fire is to create alternative mechanisms for Palestinians to express themselves, to make terrorism not as much of an attractive option.
PHILLIPS: Do you think one of Powell's biggest obstacles will be convincing Sharon that Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas diminish rather than enhance Israeli security?
KARON: Well, I think that's another major challenge facing Powell that really the United States is recognized now, the need to link the political dimension and the future of the West Bank settlements and so on to the question of security and the cease-fire. But, obviously, that puts the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on something of a collision course potentially with Sharon. Obviously, the settlement freeze is the most immediate issue. Sharon is a long-time champion of the settlements. It remains to be seen how he will respond to that particular U.S. demand.
But also, Sharon has never been forced to tip his hand as to his view of a long-term -- idea of a long-term political solution. And this is going to place a lot of pressure on him. The government of Israel that Sharon heads is up a unity government in which there is a relative degree of consensus on security issues, but there is very little consensus on the political future of the West Bank.
PHILLIPS: Now you say -- you mention collision course. Now Lebanon is stepping up saying that it wants to support the Palestinians. What's the danger here of engaging neighbors in this?
KARON: I think there's a very clear danger to U.S. interests throughout the region and to Israel of some kind of regional escalation. I don't think anybody seriously expects any kind of conventional attack on Israel by its Arab neighbors for the simple reason that Israel's army is far too strong. But it could conceivably create the context for a lot more guerrilla-type activity, a lot more of those governments surrounding Israel potentially in the long-term, taking less of an active role in actually stopping groups like Hezbollah, using their territory to attack Israel.
PHILLIPS: Tony Karon, "Time" magazine, thanks for your insight.
KARON: You're welcome.
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