Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

President Bush Fine-Tuning Policy on Mideast

Aired June 25, 2002 - 10:38   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas come as President Bush is fine-tuning his policy on the Middle East.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born. I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror. I call upon them to build a practicing democracy built on tolerance and liberty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Yasser Arafat responded to the president's remarks by saying the Palestinian people will choose their own leaders.

With us to explain more about the evolving policy within the administration is CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider.

Good to see you, Bill.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Leon.

HARRIS: First off, let me ask you about the words that we just heard from President Bush there, an excerpt from his speech. Many people who have been listening from the outside and say it seemed like it was pretty much all on the Palestinians. What do you make of this change here?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it definitely is on the Palestinians, because the president said, you want to state, that's the only way you will end the terror. We're going to reverse that. We're going to say, the only way you're going to get a state is if you have government in place that shows that it is committed to ending terrorism, ending the violence. That's the precondition, and that's also the Israeli position. So the United States stands with Israel on that point.

HARRIS: But in the eyes of some as well, that is a pretty tough yardstick that President Bush has established, and some say that's an impossible one for the Palestinians to measure up to.

SCHNEIDER: There are those are those who say that, but there's a big risk to the United States. The Bush administration, the president is on record, saying he favors the Palestinian state. But he cannot become the sponsor of a new terrorist state in the world. That would be outrageous. So he wants real assurances that whatever government there is in place over the Palestinians is one that will be able to control the violence, and he said pretty clearly yesterday, without mentioning any names, that's not Yasser Arafat, because we just heard the president say, he is compromised by his association with terrorism.

HARRIS: Let's listen to some of the reaction that's also been weighed as well on the remarks made by President Bush yesterday. Here now are the first words we will listen will be from the Israeli side of the argument here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD BARAK, FMR. ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: There are clearly capable. The are highly capable, highly adaptable, clever people. There is one obstacle named Mr. Arafat, and I hope he will realize that it's maybe his last opportunity to let what the president hinted to happen and not try to resist it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right. What do you make of words there from former Prime Minister Ehud Barak?

SCHNEIDER: Well, of course they echo what President Bush said, that the Palestinians have an opportunity here. They have to show that they are capable of reform, but in order to take advantage of that, they have to clearly, through our United States satisfaction, show that they repudiate violence, and that they can control the terrorism. That's a very tough thing, because to a lot of Palestinians, terrorism, those suicide bombers, are a legitimate weapon. It sounds horrifying, but that's the way some Palestinians feel.

HARRIS: Well, in addition to that, there wasn't much you could perceive as an incentive for Yasser Arafat of the Palestinians to actually comply with that. In fact, let's listen to this reaction from the Palestinian side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: Many of the issues President Bush mentioned lack any self-implementing mechanism. And what's needed here is a defined road map and a parallel approach, because I don't think that the sequential approach will work or do us any favor, but the endgame that he specified, the end of the Israeli occupation...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Those are the words there from the Palestinian negotiate Saeb Erakat. Btu the bill that was notable to me was noticing that there didn't seem to be wide agreement with this particular sentiment in the wider Arab world.

SCHNEIDER: That's right, the Arabs are being very cautious about this, because they realize that, you know, this is the only way toward a resolution of the conflict. What the United States did was essentially not do what the Palestinian wanted. We did not say here's the timeline, and these are the stages, month by month, year by year.

The president mentioned only one deadline. He said three years, this Palestinian can state can be realized, but the clock doesn't start, does not start for those three years until a Palestinian regime is in place that is capable and committed to ending the terrorism. When that happens, the three years will start, and that could be a long time.

HARRIS: That could be a long time indeed. Bill Schneider in Washington, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Take care. See you in a bit.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com