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CNN Live At Daybreak
International Wrap, Eye on World
Aired June 02, 2003 - 05:41 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: We're covering a lot internationally today. As you can see, David Clinch has joined us, and we're going to talk more about President Bush's whirlwind diplomatic mission.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes. Good morning, Carol.
Yes, he's off later today to Sharm el-Sheikh for meetings that will take place on Tuesday without Arab leaders, as we said, and then on Wednesday goes to Aqaba and Jordan.
Have you ever been to Sharm el-Sheikh?
COSTELLO: Never.
CLINCH: It's a beautiful place, unbelievably beautiful, right on the Red Sea, absolutely gorgeous; Aqaba, too. An absolutely beautiful place. But here is the problem.
COSTELLO: President Bush won't be sightseeing.
CLINCH: He's not going to be sightseeing. He's not going to be doing any diving while he's there. It's pretty serious stuff.
But why are there two meetings? It's actually kind of interesting. He's meeting with the Arab leaders on Tuesday, and then separately during this Israeli-Palestinian summit -- if you want to call it that, although it's yet to be determined that we're going to see them all really together in the same place at the same time. But at first the theory was that he'd do all of this at once with all of the Arab leaders and the Israelis and Palestinians in the same place. The Israelis and the Palestinians not quite ready to close this deal, so I think that's one reason why it's not all happening together.
The other reason, if you look at these Arab leaders, this has really more to do with post-Iraq, patching up of relations and really calming down the Arab world. There are a lot of nervous Arab leaders at the moment. They've seen what's happened in Iraq. They know they have their own radical movements to deal with in their own countries. They know the Israeli and Palestinian peace process is making the appearances of getting going, but far from solved at this point. They really want and need President Bush to go there and calm them down, let them know that he is not threatening them, to let them know that he wants them -- the Arab leaders -- to be part of this process, and he needs them to support him as he goes there.
But he's also -- again, reading the tea leaves here -- as we saw at the G-8, he's rewarding those who need to be rewarded. Jordan, the strongest supporter of the war on terror, and the war against Iraq if there was a strong supporter, getting the reward of having the Israeli-Palestinian summit there on their territory in Aqaba.
So, it's a reward, but, of course, it's a limited reward, because as we've said, it's far from clear that the Israelis and Palestinians are really ready to give any substance to this. It's getting them all started, getting them all in the same place, but very much still to be determined that they're ready to actually agree on anything at this point.
COSTELLO: Well, we'll see what happens, David Clinch, many thanks.
CLINCH: Absolutely.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired June 2, 2003 - 05:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We're covering a lot internationally today. As you can see, David Clinch has joined us, and we're going to talk more about President Bush's whirlwind diplomatic mission.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes. Good morning, Carol.
Yes, he's off later today to Sharm el-Sheikh for meetings that will take place on Tuesday without Arab leaders, as we said, and then on Wednesday goes to Aqaba and Jordan.
Have you ever been to Sharm el-Sheikh?
COSTELLO: Never.
CLINCH: It's a beautiful place, unbelievably beautiful, right on the Red Sea, absolutely gorgeous; Aqaba, too. An absolutely beautiful place. But here is the problem.
COSTELLO: President Bush won't be sightseeing.
CLINCH: He's not going to be sightseeing. He's not going to be doing any diving while he's there. It's pretty serious stuff.
But why are there two meetings? It's actually kind of interesting. He's meeting with the Arab leaders on Tuesday, and then separately during this Israeli-Palestinian summit -- if you want to call it that, although it's yet to be determined that we're going to see them all really together in the same place at the same time. But at first the theory was that he'd do all of this at once with all of the Arab leaders and the Israelis and Palestinians in the same place. The Israelis and the Palestinians not quite ready to close this deal, so I think that's one reason why it's not all happening together.
The other reason, if you look at these Arab leaders, this has really more to do with post-Iraq, patching up of relations and really calming down the Arab world. There are a lot of nervous Arab leaders at the moment. They've seen what's happened in Iraq. They know they have their own radical movements to deal with in their own countries. They know the Israeli and Palestinian peace process is making the appearances of getting going, but far from solved at this point. They really want and need President Bush to go there and calm them down, let them know that he is not threatening them, to let them know that he wants them -- the Arab leaders -- to be part of this process, and he needs them to support him as he goes there.
But he's also -- again, reading the tea leaves here -- as we saw at the G-8, he's rewarding those who need to be rewarded. Jordan, the strongest supporter of the war on terror, and the war against Iraq if there was a strong supporter, getting the reward of having the Israeli-Palestinian summit there on their territory in Aqaba.
So, it's a reward, but, of course, it's a limited reward, because as we've said, it's far from clear that the Israelis and Palestinians are really ready to give any substance to this. It's getting them all started, getting them all in the same place, but very much still to be determined that they're ready to actually agree on anything at this point.
COSTELLO: Well, we'll see what happens, David Clinch, many thanks.
CLINCH: Absolutely.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
