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CNN Live Today
State Department Works to Soothe Middle East Tensions
Aired June 13, 2003 - 11:03 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, ANCHOR: We want to stay in the Middle East. We go to the situation brewing between Israelis and Palestinians. There, both sides mourning the dead today after a week of carnage and bloodshed.
And a diplomatic effort is under way to try and keep the peace process from becoming another victim of the violence there.
Our Jerusalem bureau chief, Mike Hanna, now rejoins us. He's live with more on that story.
Hello, Mike.
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
It has been a week of ferocious violence. More than 50 people killed on both sides in ongoing incidents of violence.
In Gaza, there were more funerals held in the course of the day for at least eight people who were killed in Israeli rocket strikes into that area in the course of Thursday.
Among those killed, at least two members of the militant Hamas organization, the organization that Israel has said it will completely destroy. Also killed was the wife and child of one of those militants, as well as a number of bystanders. Well over 30 people were injured in that latest Israeli rocket strike.
People mourning the dead, as well, in Israel. There are funerals held in the course of Friday for a number of people killed during a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday. Seventeen people were killed in that attack. More than 70 were injured.
And in the wake of that attack, for which Hamas claimed responsibility, the Israeli government threatened to destroy Hamas and to eliminate its leaders.
Well, there is still diplomatic developments happening behind the scenes. Lots of phone calls happening between the U.S. and the Palestinians and the Israelis in a bid to find a way to reduce the level of this violence, in a bid to find a way to get the implementation of the U.S.-backed road map back on track.
From the U.S. point of view, and the Israeli point of view, the problem remains the extremists from the Hamas movement and other militant organizations, and that is what all attention is focusing on, is what to do about that -- Leon.
HARRIS: It's going to be very interesting weekend once the U.S. envoy arrives there. We'll see how things develop then.
Thanks, Mike.
Mike Hanna, reporting live for us from Jerusalem.
Well, the Bush administration, as we said, is sending a team to the Middle East this weekend in this effort to salvage the latest peace initiative.
The president is sending the -- he's spending the weekend, rather at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, as he sends Deputy -- sorry, Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf to the Middle East.
Our White House correspondent, Chris Burns, is traveling with the president. He joins us now live from Kennebunkport with the word from there.
Hello, Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Leon.
The president couldn't be further away from the Middle East vortex over here. He's gone fishing, actually, literally. He's out fishing this morning after golfing earlier in the morning.
However, his lieutenants on foreign policy are very busy. Secretary of state Colin Powell, especially. He was speaking to reporters earlier this morning, talking about the situation, how there has to be some kind of an effort to put the road map to peace back on track.
And a day after the -- Powell himself had said the issue was Hamas, not the Israelis, not the Palestinian authority, it appeared this morning that he was offering some kind of an olive branch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We all are anxious to see restraint, and we understand that it's important to get the terror down, and that if the terror goes down the response to terror will no longer be required. So we have to get moving, bring the terror down.
All of our efforts are focused on Hamas, and persuading Hamas, and Islamic Jihad and other terror organizations that this is the time to abandon terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Abandon terror. He's calling on them to abandon terror. And then, in that case, there would be no reason to attack them anymore. So that appears to be some kind of an olive branch.
Obviously, tipping his hat a little bit to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, who's trying to reach some kind of a negotiated ceasefire with the militants to try to continue, then, with confidence-building measures on both sides toward getting that road map to peace back on track.
Now Powell is on his way in a couple of -- the weekend after next to the Middle East to talk with the Middle East quartet. That also includes the E.U., the U.N., and the Russians, all of whom with the United States are behind this road map to peace, a road map aimed at establishing an independent Palestinian state by the year 2005.
And just this weekend, as you said, Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf is on his way, a troubleshooting team to the Middle East this weekend to talk to both sides and do a lot of hand holding -- Harris.
HARRIS: All right. We'll see if it works. Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it. Enjoy yourself at Kennebunkport.
We'll be checking back with Chris later on throughout the day here on the network.
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 13, 2003 - 11:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, ANCHOR: We want to stay in the Middle East. We go to the situation brewing between Israelis and Palestinians. There, both sides mourning the dead today after a week of carnage and bloodshed.
And a diplomatic effort is under way to try and keep the peace process from becoming another victim of the violence there.
Our Jerusalem bureau chief, Mike Hanna, now rejoins us. He's live with more on that story.
Hello, Mike.
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
It has been a week of ferocious violence. More than 50 people killed on both sides in ongoing incidents of violence.
In Gaza, there were more funerals held in the course of the day for at least eight people who were killed in Israeli rocket strikes into that area in the course of Thursday.
Among those killed, at least two members of the militant Hamas organization, the organization that Israel has said it will completely destroy. Also killed was the wife and child of one of those militants, as well as a number of bystanders. Well over 30 people were injured in that latest Israeli rocket strike.
People mourning the dead, as well, in Israel. There are funerals held in the course of Friday for a number of people killed during a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday. Seventeen people were killed in that attack. More than 70 were injured.
And in the wake of that attack, for which Hamas claimed responsibility, the Israeli government threatened to destroy Hamas and to eliminate its leaders.
Well, there is still diplomatic developments happening behind the scenes. Lots of phone calls happening between the U.S. and the Palestinians and the Israelis in a bid to find a way to reduce the level of this violence, in a bid to find a way to get the implementation of the U.S.-backed road map back on track.
From the U.S. point of view, and the Israeli point of view, the problem remains the extremists from the Hamas movement and other militant organizations, and that is what all attention is focusing on, is what to do about that -- Leon.
HARRIS: It's going to be very interesting weekend once the U.S. envoy arrives there. We'll see how things develop then.
Thanks, Mike.
Mike Hanna, reporting live for us from Jerusalem.
Well, the Bush administration, as we said, is sending a team to the Middle East this weekend in this effort to salvage the latest peace initiative.
The president is sending the -- he's spending the weekend, rather at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, as he sends Deputy -- sorry, Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf to the Middle East.
Our White House correspondent, Chris Burns, is traveling with the president. He joins us now live from Kennebunkport with the word from there.
Hello, Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Leon.
The president couldn't be further away from the Middle East vortex over here. He's gone fishing, actually, literally. He's out fishing this morning after golfing earlier in the morning.
However, his lieutenants on foreign policy are very busy. Secretary of state Colin Powell, especially. He was speaking to reporters earlier this morning, talking about the situation, how there has to be some kind of an effort to put the road map to peace back on track.
And a day after the -- Powell himself had said the issue was Hamas, not the Israelis, not the Palestinian authority, it appeared this morning that he was offering some kind of an olive branch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We all are anxious to see restraint, and we understand that it's important to get the terror down, and that if the terror goes down the response to terror will no longer be required. So we have to get moving, bring the terror down.
All of our efforts are focused on Hamas, and persuading Hamas, and Islamic Jihad and other terror organizations that this is the time to abandon terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Abandon terror. He's calling on them to abandon terror. And then, in that case, there would be no reason to attack them anymore. So that appears to be some kind of an olive branch.
Obviously, tipping his hat a little bit to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, who's trying to reach some kind of a negotiated ceasefire with the militants to try to continue, then, with confidence-building measures on both sides toward getting that road map to peace back on track.
Now Powell is on his way in a couple of -- the weekend after next to the Middle East to talk with the Middle East quartet. That also includes the E.U., the U.N., and the Russians, all of whom with the United States are behind this road map to peace, a road map aimed at establishing an independent Palestinian state by the year 2005.
And just this weekend, as you said, Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf is on his way, a troubleshooting team to the Middle East this weekend to talk to both sides and do a lot of hand holding -- Harris.
HARRIS: All right. We'll see if it works. Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it. Enjoy yourself at Kennebunkport.
We'll be checking back with Chris later on throughout the day here on the network.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
