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CNN Live At Daybreak
Yasser Arafat, Prime Minister Designate Agree to New Cabinet
Aired April 22, 2003 - 05:39 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Tomorrow is the deadline, by the way, for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and prime minister designate Abu Mazen to agree to a new cabinet.
Our Jerrold Kessel joins us now from Jerusalem for an update on whether they're making any progress.
They have to do this in two days, right?
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, and no, no, no. It's a high political drama and a real old-fashioned political struggle. But this classic political struggle has a good deal beyond just the future of the Palestinian Authority riding on it because the outcome of the struggle, the formation or the lack of the formation of a new cabinet, is the condition which the United States and Britain have made for the publishing of the so-called road map to a Middle Eastern peace. And without a new cabinet, then there'll be a hold up in these efforts to move this long confrontation, this long conflict back from a confrontation towards negotiations again.
And that's why Yasser Arafat has come under enormous pressure in the last couple of days, as the impasse continues, from the international community, indirectly from the United States, which hasn't been maintaining any contacts with the Palestinian leader, and directly from the Europeans, from the Russians, from the United Nations, from the Arab world to yield.
But so far he hasn't been yielding. He maintains his position. The impasse remains in place. And Abu Mazen isn't yielding either. He wants the formation of the cabinet to be as he wants it to be. He wants to have a reasonably free hand to advance back from confrontation to negotiation in the way he sees fit.
But for the moment, the impasse remains in advance of that deadline just about 36 hours or so from now.
But whichever way it shakes up, there's one thing that seems to be coming clear, Carol, out of this ongoing crisis in the Palestinian leadership, that those who believed that this move to bring in a new prime minister would mean that Yasser Arafat could be counted out may have been counting too early.
COSTELLO: Yes, he's not irrelevant, as the U.S. and Israel has termed him.
KESSEL: Absolutely not. And that's why the fight is very much as it is. It's said to be about a political struggle and that the struggle of who controls the security forces in the Palestinian community, but perhaps it's about something much more than that -- who really has the ultimate power in the Palestinian community.
COSTELLO: We'll see in two days.
Jerrold Kessel live from Jerusalem this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Cabinet>
Aired April 22, 2003 - 05:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Tomorrow is the deadline, by the way, for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and prime minister designate Abu Mazen to agree to a new cabinet.
Our Jerrold Kessel joins us now from Jerusalem for an update on whether they're making any progress.
They have to do this in two days, right?
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, and no, no, no. It's a high political drama and a real old-fashioned political struggle. But this classic political struggle has a good deal beyond just the future of the Palestinian Authority riding on it because the outcome of the struggle, the formation or the lack of the formation of a new cabinet, is the condition which the United States and Britain have made for the publishing of the so-called road map to a Middle Eastern peace. And without a new cabinet, then there'll be a hold up in these efforts to move this long confrontation, this long conflict back from a confrontation towards negotiations again.
And that's why Yasser Arafat has come under enormous pressure in the last couple of days, as the impasse continues, from the international community, indirectly from the United States, which hasn't been maintaining any contacts with the Palestinian leader, and directly from the Europeans, from the Russians, from the United Nations, from the Arab world to yield.
But so far he hasn't been yielding. He maintains his position. The impasse remains in place. And Abu Mazen isn't yielding either. He wants the formation of the cabinet to be as he wants it to be. He wants to have a reasonably free hand to advance back from confrontation to negotiation in the way he sees fit.
But for the moment, the impasse remains in advance of that deadline just about 36 hours or so from now.
But whichever way it shakes up, there's one thing that seems to be coming clear, Carol, out of this ongoing crisis in the Palestinian leadership, that those who believed that this move to bring in a new prime minister would mean that Yasser Arafat could be counted out may have been counting too early.
COSTELLO: Yes, he's not irrelevant, as the U.S. and Israel has termed him.
KESSEL: Absolutely not. And that's why the fight is very much as it is. It's said to be about a political struggle and that the struggle of who controls the security forces in the Palestinian community, but perhaps it's about something much more than that -- who really has the ultimate power in the Palestinian community.
COSTELLO: We'll see in two days.
Jerrold Kessel live from Jerusalem this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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