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CNN Live At Daybreak

Interview with Shimon Peres

Aired July 24, 2002 - 06:39   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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We are joined right now by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who is joining us live.

Mr. Foreign Minister, let me ask you, do you regret the attack, Monday night's attack?

SHIMON PERES, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, I do, very much. It wasn't our intention to hit any civilian life, and surely not to kill any children. It's not our norm, and we shall never accept out of the norm.

The fact is that Mr. Shehade, the person that we were looking after, is a sort of a local bin Laden. Eight times it was postponed, the attack upon him, because we were worried that civilian life would be lost because of it. This time, unfortunately, a mistake happened, and we regret it very much. We would like to see...

COOPER: Prime Minister...

PERES: ... neither grown-up person nor children, Arabs, being hurt or killed.

COOPER: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was quoted as saying that the attack was "one of our biggest successes." In your opinion, was it?

PERES: Well, I don't want to make any comments about his declaration or another. I mean, if Shehade himself would be the victim, I would call it a success. But what happened in addition to it is a tragedy, which I regret.

COOPER: What happens now? I mean, obviously, there has been a firestorm of criticism in the wake of this attack. What does Israel do now?

PERES: We don't want to go back to the bloodshed and to the killing and shooting and incidents. And we suggest that the attempt that we have introduced in order to facilitate the situation of the territories for the people should be continued, particularly in several domains which are very important for the Palestinians themselves.

I personally spoke this morning with their minister of finance, Mr. Fayed (ph). I told him that we have decided to disburse the money that he was asking for, and I told him we would do it by putting really trust on his own effort to organize the flow -- the normal flow of the Palestinian money.

We issued licenses for Palestinian workers to come to work, and we told him in some areas, we are ready to normalize immediately life, to pull back our army in the Gaza Strip, in the Judea area, including cities like Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jericho, and we are ready to continue to do so, if they will take in their hands the responsibility for law and order.

COOPER: Do you think those movements are going to be enough, though? I mean, the Palestinians are, to say the least, outraged by what has occurred this week. Yasser Arafat called it a massacre, an awful crime. Do you think Israel needs to do something extra now? Or is it just status quo?

PERES: Basically, I think the Palestinians are victims of their own mistakes, if it wouldn't be for the suicide bombers, killing children and women in Israel, day in and day out. I mean, we lost over 500 lives, over 1,000 people were wounded by suicide bombers. If they can stop it, their whole life and their territories, the whole situation of the Palestinian people would be changed dramatically right away.

We are not in search of any confrontation. We are not trying to win anything. What we are trying is to stop the cycle of terror and killing.

COOPER: Is it possible to fight this war on which you say is terrorism without having civilian casualties? I mean, it would seem to be a very difficult task, indeed.

PERES: It is very difficult to stop suicide bombers once they are on their way, because they are ready to explode themselves in the face of policemen, of soldiers, of children without any discrimination.

Basically, the Palestinians would do what other Palestinians are doing, like in the Jordan kingdom, you know, most of the Jordanians are Palestinians. And there, they took the law in their hands, our relations are in a reasonably well shape. There are two cities opposing each other in Eilat and Aqaba, maybe far away three to four miles each from the other.

For the last 54 years, not a single cartridge was fired between those two cities. There is a very long area, 200 kilometers, between the Red and the Dead Sea, partly Jordanian, partly Israelis', without fences, without trenches, without infiltration, without exchange of fire.

What we expect the Palestinians is to do exactly the same things that their brothers are doing in Jordan. We seek peace and understanding.

COOPER: My final question is, if Israel continues to individually target Palestinian leaders for assassination, isn't it inevitable that there will be civilian casualties? I mean, if that -- if the Israel policy continues, aren't more civilian deaths inevitable?

PERES: We submitted a list about all of those leading figures in the terroristic domain to the Palestinian leadership and their police. If they will arrest them, they will secure their life, and they will secure also the situation in the territories and in Israel. It's up to them.

COOPER: All right. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, thanks very much for joining us this morning on CNN DAYBREAK. We appreciate you taking the time.

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