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CNN Live Today
Israelis Skeptical of Palestinian Authority Concessions
Aired June 10, 2002 - 10:10 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: Right now, at 10 minutes after the hour, we head to the White House. That is where Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is meeting with the president in the next hour. They will be discussing, of course, the deepening crisis in the Middle East.
Senior White House correspondent John King is at the White House and he sets the stage. John, good morning.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.
This meeting comes at a time of great differences between the Israeli position and the Arab position on what should be done to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and also of course, as Israeli troops once again surround the Palestinian Authority compound in Ramallah. So a sense of frustration here at the White House.
No talk at all of any major progress or any break-through. The White House press secretary Ari Fleischer just moments ago acknowledging there are very different positions being taken right now by the Arab world and by the Israelis.
The Arabs, as Mr. Bush heard over the weekend from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, want Mr. Bush to push for early recognition of a Palestinian state, and to embrace that Saudi peace proposal which calls for Israel to pull back to its 1967 borders, yet over the weekend, Prime Minister Sharon, who is due here, as you said, in just an hour, wrote a piece in the "New York Times" in which he said he is not prepared for a Palestinian state any time soon. He wants an interim security agreement first, and the prime minister also said that in his view, it would be dangerous, and he can see no scenario under which Israel would pull back to those 1967 borders. So a great divergence on the two positions right now.
Ari Fleischer saying, just moments ago, it is the president's job to -- quote -- "find a solution that unites the varying pieces of advice he is being given. The purpose of American diplomacy is to find a way to bring the parties together."
That task, however, quite gargantuan at the moment.
This will be the sixth meeting between President Bush and President Sharon. You might remember the prime minister was here just a little more than a month ago in early May. He cut that trip short, because as he was meeting with President Bush here in the Oval Office on May 7, he was told of a suicide bombing back home in Israel. Just hours later the prime minister headed home. He is back again now. There was more violence just before the weekend and, of course, overnight raids by Israeli defense forces complicating an already tough test for the president as he prepares for that meeting in a little more than an hour.
KAGAN: John, you mention this being the sixth visit for President Sharon and President Bush. And yet, no sign of Yasser Arafat. Any extension of an invitation to the White House for the Palestinian leader?
KING: No sign at all, Daryn. And indeed, we seem even farther away from that point, if you will. Over the weekend, President Bush making clear yet again that he does not believe Yasser Arafat has earned his trust, never mind a meeting here at the White House or anywhere else, and the administration increasingly talking about the changes underway in the Palestinian Authority, some of them the Israelis have labeled cosmetic.
But again, just moments ago inside the White House briefing room, Ari Fleischer talking about a new face of the Palestinian authority, that perhaps down the road there will be a new generation of Palestinian leadership.
This White House betting nothing on Yasser Arafat right now. No meeting envisioned at all. And there is another point on which there is a great divergence. The Egyptian president over the weekend said it is critical that the world give Yasser Arafat a chance. Mr. Bush responded by saying he doesn't really believe this is Mr. Arafat, that he is looking for leadership from the Palestinian authority, whether it comes from Arafat or not -- or not -- excuse me, Daryn.
KAGAN: That's all right. John King at the White House. Thank you so much.
And as you heard John mention, at the very same time that Mr. Sharon comes to arrive in the United States and visit the White House, another incursion in Ramallah. For more on that, let's check in with Matthew Chance -- Matthew, hello.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Daryn. That's right. As the U.S. and Israeli leaders prepare to meet in Washington to hold talks about the future of peace in the Middle East, you can see the tanks, armored personnel carriers and Israeli troops are once again deployed in force on the streets of the West Bank city of Ramallah. They have taken up positions across the town outside key installations, at road junctions and, just behind me, outside the compound of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
Over the past few hours, we've been hearing pretty heavy machine gun fire being -- coming out from tanks, also tank shelling against buildings. Buildings not inside the compound itself, but outside. Outside the perimeter of the presidential compound. The Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli military, say they are not intending to target Yasser Arafat during this incursion. But rather, they say they are just undergoing an operation to root out and destroy a terrorist infrastructure which they say exists inside Ramallah.
Indeed, they have arrested 27 Palestinians they say are wanted by Israel. Nevertheless as these meetings are prepared, as these two leaders prepare to meet in Washington, this sends a very painful message, a difficult message about the actual situation on the ground to the president of the United States now.
KAGAN: Meanwhile, some concessions by Yasser Arafat, not the least of which, announcing that there will be elections by the end of the year or early next year?
CHANCE: Yes, there's been a renewed commitment from Yasser Arafat to hold elections for the president of the Palestinian Authority, his job in other words, either sometime late this year or early next year. But that commitment came at the same time that Yasser Arafat announced the sort of measures to streamline to supposedly make more tangible the Palestinian authority, to reduce the number of ministers serving in that very cumbersome bureaucracy to -- from about 32 to 20.
That's been dismissed by the Israelis as not significant enough. The Palestinians say it is significant. The Israelis, though, still bothered by the fact that after all these changes in the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat is still the man ultimately in charge -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Matthew Chance reporting to us from Ramallah. Thank you very much.
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