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CNN Live Today

Secretary of State Testifies Before Senate

Aired April 30, 2002 - 13:25   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: On Capitol Hill today, Colin Powell was testifying there in front of a Senate committee, talking about the Middle East situation. He was there recently, we do know that. Andrea Koppel now is tracking this -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill. Actually, surprisingly, Secretary Powell wasn't asked a whole lot during his testimony today before Senate appropriations committee. They talked mostly about homeland security. But as you might imagine, the Bush administration is watching developments over in that region very, very closely, not for the least reason being that this is an American-brokered proposal that's hoping to resolve this standoff, this siege at Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters.

In particular, as you know, Bill, yesterday, a state department official was dispatched to the region to meet up with British officials who are checking out a jail in Jericho, that's a Palestinian-controlled city in the West Bank, to see if they can take those six alleged terrorists who were holed up with Yasser Arafat and put them in there under British and American supervision. During his Senate testimony, Secretary Powell was asked about this and said that he felt that a deal and actually the resolution was at hand.

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COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The president and I and all the members of our team will remain engaged in our Middle East efforts. We've had a little bit of progress over the weekend. I hope that in the next day or so, we will complete the arrangement to transfer those prisoners out of the Micada (ph) and give Chairman Arafat to opportunity to move about and do what we think he needs to do and what I believe he knows he needs to do to keep this process moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: Of course, what the U.S. is looking for from Yasser Arafat, Bill, as you well know, is to have him publicly condemn all acts of terrorism and to tell the Palestinian people that suicide bombing is wrong and to use his influence with various Palestinian groups to try to prevent future suicide attacks. But interestingly, Bill, U.S. officials are looking at this Ramallah case as a way to solve the standoff at Bethlehem as well. HEMMER: And, Andrea, there will be talks later this week on the Middle East as well. Colin Powell will be involved. Who else is attending? What do they hope to get done?

KOPPEL: Right. This is known as the Madrid quartet. It got its name about three weeks ago when Secretary Powell was in the Middle East and then zipped off to Madrid for a day. And it includes the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and the European Union. The U.S. views this as a wonderful way to kind of get the entire international community behind efforts to resolve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

And what the U.S. is hoping to do this week, Bill, when those officials arrive here Thursday and Friday, is to use this forum as a way to get into more of the sort of details as to how you rebuild the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and what not, where the money is going to come from. They're also going to look at the possibility of this regional or international Mideast peace conference, which was discussed when Secretary Powell was in the region, something they don't know where it would be. They don't know who would host it. But it would probably be at the foreign minister's level. So, it's yet another opportunity for members of the international community to get together, Bill, and use their influence to try to bring about an end to the conflict. But they do believe, U.S. officials say, that if the standoff in Ramallah and Bethlehem continues, that that could overshadow this conference.

HEMMER: Andrea, I'm out of time here, but I need to ask you this. Based on your previous answer, you said that they're using possibly Ramallah as an example as how to get out of Bethlehem. Is the suggestion then that the 25 wanted by Israel could be put on trial by the Palestinians and then put under lock and key, guarded by U.S. monitors again in that case too?

KOPPEL: Right, this is an idea that is out there. I'm told that what officials are looking at as a possibility -- now, remember the Israelis have said that there are two options for the gunmen inside the Church of the Nativity, either to go overseas or to go into an Israeli jail. The possibility that they're looking out now is maybe to go under American and British supervision. But, again, this is something that's in the middle of being discussed.

HEMMER: Andrea, thanks. Andrea Koppel at the state department.

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