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CNN Live Saturday

State Department Confirms Powell Will Meet With Arafat Tomorrow

Aired April 13, 2002 - 13:03   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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Our Andrea Koppel, our State Department Correspondent, traveling with the Secretary of State Colin Powell is standing by in Jerusalem. She's got late breaking developments on official word that the Powell visit, meeting with Yasser Arafat will, in fact, occur tomorrow. Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that's right. As CNN reported several hours ago, now State Department spokesman Richard Boucher confirming on the record that this much anticipated meeting, which had been delayed by 24 hours, will go ahead tomorrow morning, Sunday morning in Ramallah at Chairman Arafat's besieged headquarters in the West Bank.

Secretary Powell will travel the roads that have been blocked now for many, many weeks with a convoy. We're not even sure just yet how many journalists will be able to accompany him to meet with Yasser Arafat.

In his statement, Richard Boucher said that there were some interesting and positive elements in the statement that was issued earlier today condemning terrorism and condemning all acts of violence against both Israeli and Palestinian civilians. This statement issued in the name of Yasser Arafat and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority.

In the statement that Richard Boucher issued, he said that Secretary Powell is going to want to talk with Yasser Arafat about his statement condemning violence of all kinds and looks to see that statement put into action and a reality to bring an end to terrorism and violence and an early resumption of the political process. That's diplomatic speak for trying to get a peace process moving, Wolf, with some real tangible results there for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Yasser Arafat, of course, looking for an end to the ongoing Israeli military incursion into the West Bank. The Israelis looking for an end to violence and acts of terrorism perpetrated by Palestinian extremists. This is not going to be an easy meeting.

Yasser Arafat, you could really see it in his face, in the pictures we saw come out of Ramallah yesterday, looks like somebody who has been through a war zone, literally, in recent weeks. It's not going -- it's not going to be easy for Yasser Arafat to make many or any concessions because his people are not really supporting that. But having said that, Colin Powell is going to make another try to see if he can make some headway. He didn't make much headway in his meeting yesterday, for that matter, with Israel's Prime Minister who refused to give him a firm time line for Israel's withdrawal from West Bank towns and cities.

But a lot of people will be watching this meeting tomorrow in Ramallah, Wolf, not the least of which will be many of the Arab leaders that Secretary Powell met with before arriving here in Jerusalem earlier this week.

BLITZER: Andrea Koppel, she's covering the Secretary's visit to this part of the world. He's in Jerusalem right now. Andrea, thanks so much for your report. And just to recap, the meeting will now go forward tomorrow morning in Ramallah, a meeting between Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat.

This after the Palestinians issued a statement in Arabic condemning terrorism, including yesterday's suicide bombing in an open air market, right near the open air market, the Mahame Yehuda Market here in Central Jerusalem, a statement that the U.S. had demanded from the Palestinians as a prerequisite for going forward with the meeting.

The U.S. officials now saying the statement issued by the Palestinian Authority is acceptable, is something that sets the stage for the meeting, but it's unclear what the Secretary of State realistically can achieve, what he can get from Yasser Arafat in terms of hard commitments to enforce a cease-fire agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

At the same time, Israeli officials making it clear that they're not enthusiastic about this Powell-Arafat meeting, but they will allow the meeting to go forward. A convoy, as Andrea Koppel just reported, a convoy will leave Jerusalem with the Secretary of State and his top advisers and drive to Ramallah. That's where our Michael Holmes is now standing by with additional information on how this latest Palestinian statement came about. Michael.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, yes good evening to you. I can tell you that it came about during a two-hour meeting held with Yasser Arafat and senior members of the Palestinian Authority. We do know that Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator and also a member of the three-man Palestinian negotiating team that's been dealing with General Zinni, they got together.

They spent, not much we're told of the two-hour meeting actually getting the wording out of this statement. We were told, by one person at the meeting, that "we've said these things before. The wording is genuinely mint, but it wasn't difficult to make this statement, because we've said it before." The rest of the meeting, we're told, concerned working out the details of an agenda with Colin Powell when he does get to the compound tomorrow morning. Wolf.

BLITZER: Is there any realistic expectation, Michael, that Arafat can take the concrete steps, not just utter some words, issue a statement, but concrete steps that will convince the Israelis he's once again a serious partner in peace negotiations?

HOLMES: Well, that's the big question. The Israelis doubt it very much, obviously describing him in various forms, one being that he's a flat tire at the moment. He certainly doesn't have much to work with. His security apparatus has been destroyed, essentially. The Palestinian Authority headquarters has been destroyed, right down to municipal offices.

Whether he's in a position to run much of a government at all, once this is all over, is very much in doubt. Whether he has swayed those who have been carrying out suicide bombings is also something that's not certain at all. Israel says he has direct control over that.

Whether he is going to be a partner with Israel in any kind of peace discussions, you got to have your doubts. Israel has very firmly said that they don't see him as a negotiating partner anymore. They don't have any faith in him as a representative of the Palestinian people.

The Palestinians, on the other hand, keep saying that one phrase we've heard before. The only address for Palestinians is Yasser Arafat. He's the elected leader of Palestinians and they're not about to put anyone else up, which makes of course Colin Powell's job in the next few days, not just tomorrow, exceedingly difficult. Wolf.

BLITZER: Is it also your sense, Michael, that this may just be the beginning of a limited form of shuttle diplomacy between Jerusalem and Ramallah, that the Secretary of State might find himself engaged in, or do you think if he doesn't hear what he wants to hear tomorrow, he's just going to wrap it up and head back to Washington?

HOLMES: Well, we've heard that he's planning to stick around for a few days. Tomorrow is Sunday. We've heard that he might stay as long as perhaps Wednesday. I think you're right. I think that if he gets one thing from the Palestinians tomorrow, then it will be a series of incremental steps.

If he goes home with the smallest of advances here and that's nowhere near any kind of peace, formal peace, the sense here is that there's not going to be any major resolution of this conflict, but anything will do at the moment.

Now, Wolf, before I go, I want to let you know something that happened in Jenin today, and also in Jerusalem. A U.N. delegation, also a delegation from the international committee of the Red Cross, met with Colin Powell, we're told, and raised the issue of Jenin and the lack of access to Jenin, where of course Palestinians claim there has been, in their words, a massacre, Israel denying that, of course.

They said that they raised the issue with Colin Powell. He took it seriously and they say that he then took it to the Israeli government or that's what they were led to believe. They said at the end of the day, they were still denied access.

They say that they had people there on the outskirts of the refugee camp there, waiting to go in. They are still being denied access, and a very senior human rights worker told us, I'll just give you the quote: "They really, really don't want us to get in."

So, Jenin's still a standoff from the point of any kind of independent verification of both sides of whatever it is that went on there. Wolf.

BLITZER: Michael Holmes reporting the latest information from Ramallah, right near the headquarters, what once was an elaborate headquarter compound of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority President. Michael, thanks very much.

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