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CNN Saturday Morning News

White House Calls Saudi Mideast Peace Proposal 'Constructive'

Aired April 27, 2002 - 08:06   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. is not entirely in agreement with a Saudi proposal for a Mideast peace plan. But the Bush administration calls the proposal constructive.

CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett joining us live from the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas with details, where the president met this past week with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia -- what's the latest spin on that meeting, Major?

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, good morning, Miles.

Allow me, if I can, to try to talk over the wind gusts you see tussling my hair and possibly working some of our equipment over here in Crawford, Texas.

It's important to note that this is not a peace plan in the large sense, to bring peace to the Israelis and Palestinians. What it is is a plan to get the Israelis and Palestinians closer to talking about a final and ultimate solution to all of their longstanding grievance.

So you put it in the incremental category. It was handed to President Bush by Crown Prince Abdullah Thursday here in Crawford during their five hours of meeting. It's an eight point plan. Let me summarize some of the key points put forward in the Saudi peace plan.

One of them is, of course, all Israeli troops withdrawn from the Palestinian territories. The U.S. agrees with that. The end of the Israeli siege of Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah. The United States agrees with that. Deployment of a multinational security force to guarantee peace in the future between the Israelis and Palestinians. The United States does not agree with that. All the Bush administration has committed to so far is monitors, not U.S. troops, not any sort of U.S. involvement in any sort of peacekeeping mission, just monitors to scrutinize any future security arrangements the Israelis and Palestinians might agree to.

Eight, humanitarian aid to rebuild damaged Palestinian refugee camps and cities. The United States agrees with that and is already working to that goal. Political talks. What that means is dramatically accelerating talks on a complete settlement of Israeli- Palestinian grievances to create a Palestinian state. There's a bit of a difference between the Saudis and the U.S. on how quickly to get to those talks and what would they be defined by. So that's another point of difference. Lastly, an end to all Israeli settlements. The U.S. agrees with that generally.

Now, Miles, one other thing to point out. President Bush has, since this plan was given to him, two opportunities speaking with reporters to offer his opinions about it. He chose not to. When a senior administration official came here to Crawford to talk to reporters about the content of the conversations on Thursday between the crown prince and the president, that senior administration official didn't mention it then either.

Ari Fleischer mentioned it yesterday for the very first time in a briefing with reporters. So I think it's fair to say the administration has not drawn a lot of attention to the Saudi proposal, calling it constructive, but not identifying it as a leading solution to the current crisis -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Major Garrett from a blustery Crawford, Texas or near there. We appreciate you being with us this morning.

Now let's get some more perspective on the Middle East crisis.

To do that we're joined by some familiar faces to CNN viewer, Marc Ginsberg, former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, former Mideast adviser to President Carter, and Mark Perry, who is with the "Palestine Report," a long time Mideast analyst with close ties within the Palestinian leader.

Good morning, gentlemen.

MARC GINSBERG, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO MOROCCO: Good morning.

MARK PERRY, "PALESTINE REPORT": Good morning.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about diplomatic speak here for a moment. When the administration says we had constructive talks, define that. Mr. Ginsberg, you first.

GINSBERG: Constructive means is that the parties were able to at least come to some understanding over the mutual aspirations that each party has towards a broader vision of peace in the Middle East. But they didn't get into specifics and it doesn't appear that either party wanted to reveal with a great deal of clarity if they were able to get more precise as to what this plan may have entailed and what the respective obligations of each party.

Remember, the president has called for each party, including the Arabs, to take specific steps, and this plan appears to place the burden squarely on the Israelis and the Palestinians and the Americans and certainly not on the Saudis and on other Arab states.

O'BRIEN: Mark Perry, I suppose you could say constructive is a polite way of saying it's really a non-starter.

PERRY: I think that the Saudi plan is actually much more carefully constructed than it looks and the administration is going to take its time in actually studying it and fleshing out the details with Arab officials that are still in Houston and the talks are ongoing. I think what's important about the meeting in Crawford, Texas is the personal relationship that this president has formed with the crown prince, which is very, very interesting and very good, I think from the Saudi Pay-Per-View, and I also that it's very clear the crown prince has put a lot of pressure on this president to put pressure on Ariel Sharon. We're seeing some of that happening today.

O'BRIEN: Marc Ginsberg, is that appropriate for the Saudis to be coming to, literally coming down to the ranch and telling the president to not be as strong a supporter of Israel?

GINSBERG: Well, you know, the Saudis got a response from the president. The president told Crown Prince Abdullah that we have a "unique" relationship with Israel, which everyone, including most Arabs, understand and recognize. And that's not going to change.

But, Miles, the point that I wanted to make here is quite interesting. In all of the eight points that Major Garrett outlined, there was no reference whatsoever to this international conference that the Saudis themselves had proposed at the Arab League summit. And I'm frankly perplexed as to why that sort of fell off this latest version of a Saudi initiative, which in my judgment states the obvious. None of these points really are contentious. They state the obvious and there's nothing really new in them.

O'BRIEN: So it is a real proposal, then, Mark Perry? I mean if you put eight platitudes out there, it's hard to get your handle on it unless there's much more to it than meets the eye.

PERRY: I think there's much more to it than meets the eye and I really don't think that they're platitudes. As soon as the president emerged from his talks yesterday he made it very clear that the United States expects Ariel Sharon to end this offensive. That was one of the points. And to ease up in Ramallah and Bethlehem. That was one of the points.

The United States has always been very clear that the settlements are an impediment to the peace process. That's in one of the points. It's clear that the United States now and the president, this president, has put himself on the side of this proposal with one exception and that means the United States has committed itself to a political process. That's got to be good news for the Palestinians.

O'BRIEN: Marc Ginsberg, settlements. Ariel Sharon is not the kind of person who's going to issue an order to back off from those settlements and several hundred thousand Israelis living in these settlements, that's a very volatile issue.

GINSBERG: Miles, the settlements represent a principal obstacle to peace and Prime Minister Sharon is clearly putting up roadblock after roadblock to putting these issues on the -- these settlements on the table. You just saw this morning that more Israelis were killed at these settlements. They will be targeted increasingly by Palestinian militants.

I think there is a strong distinction here that we have to make between helping the Israelis arrive at a peaceful settlement that is a fair and equitable arrangement also for the Palestinians and for the United States to make it abundantly clear to the Israeli government that Mr. Sharon is dead wrong in believing that these settlements can somehow remain if, indeed, there's going to be any chance for any Saudi initiative, American initiative or any other initiative to have the light of day.

I feel that the Israelis have got to get a strong message here that these settlements are on their way out and not going to be locked in concrete and that Mr. Sharon frankly is prepared to confront the United States on this and this is an issue that we're going to have to confront with him on.

O'BRIEN: All right, before we get away, let's talk briefly about this U.N. fact finding group, whatever you want to call them, on their way to Jenin, it is hoped, but delayed, at least for the moment, as Israel considers the makeup of this group.

Mark Perry, the concern in Israel is that what might have been, if you can use the term, legitimate casualties of war, might be inferred as something else, a massacre. Do you feel that the U.N. team is in a position to come up with real facts and not spin it one way or another?

PERRY: Well, there's been a historic animus between Israel and the United Nations and we're seeing it here. Unfortunately, the recent actions by Ariel Sharon make it look as if the Israelis are trying to hide something and this can't rebound in terms of public relations for the Sharon government, this, it can't be good.

They should allow the team to go into Jenin and see what they can. If there's nothing to hide, they'll find that there's nothing to hide.

I think the U.N. team can be trusted. What other choice does Ariel Sharon here have? He has no other choice. He has to let the team in. They will go in. And I think that they, I think we have to trust that they will issue an objective report.

O'BRIEN: Marc Ginsberg, it's hard to argue against that. If the Israelis have nothing to hide, why would they be so reluctant to allow this team in?

GINSBERG: I think there are two principle points, Miles.

First, Jenin was the Tora Bora capital of suicide bombing for Israel and it's clear that there was a major struggle there and that the Israelis are concerned that they will be held accountable for collateral damage. The United States inadvertently killed 1,000 Afghans during its attacks and the Israelis believe that they shouldn't be held to any less of a standard.

At the same time I think the Israeli government needs to be fully cooperative with this mission and the sooner that all the facts are on the table, the sooner it doesn't enter the folklore of Palestinian mythology that there was a massacre there if, indeed, there was no massacre. O'BRIEN: All right, Mssrs. Perry and, oh gosh, help me out. I've lost it...

GINSBERG: Ginsberg.

PERRY: Ginsberg.

GINSBERG: Marc and mark, Miles.

PERRY: Marc and Mark, right.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Marc squared.

O'BRIEN: You know, everything was going just fine until that moment.

Thank you, gentlemen. You did a great job, as always, and every now and then the brain just gets out here. We'll see you again soon.

PERRY: All right.

O'BRIEN: Now, an aspect of the Middle East story we have heard little about, Israeli Army troops who refuse to march into the West Bank. They are called refuseniks, willing to go to prison rather than take part in the latest Israeli offensive. For the first time they speak out in an interview with Christiane Amanpour and you will get a chance to see that 12:00 Eastern time right here on CNN.

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