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American Morning

Crisis in the Middle East; Al-Maliki Vs. Congress

Aired July 26, 2006 - 06:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: First, though, an emergency summit on the crisis in the Middle East. It's just about to end now in Rome. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice meeting with foreign ministers from European and Arab countries.
Let's get right to CNN's John King. He's there.

Good morning to you, John.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Soledad.

Let's start with this -- we're told by sources involved in these discussions, look for the meeting to run a little longer than planned.

Now why is that? We're told by these sources that there is a broad agreement on a major reconstruction package for Lebanon. A broad agreement on a major new humanitarian package for Lebanon.

But there is a big hangup and a big dispute over the critical issue, how do you strike a deal to stop the fighting? And if you have a proposal on the table to stop the fighting, what kind of international force would go into southern Lebanon and what would the rules be for that force? Who would lead that force and what countries would take part?

A senior U.S. official telling us just a short time ago that could be the deal breaker. That they're working on a statement announcing a reconstruction package and a humanitarian package. They hoped also to have some sort of a deal.

What the United States wants is a comprehensive deal that says Hezbollah will get out of the terrorism business, it will disarm, it will pull back from the southern Lebanon border. The international force and the Lebanese army would go in to provide stability and, of course, the violence would stop.

But the U.S. is under pressure to yield here. Many others say just have a cease-fire, then deal with the difficult question of what happens to Hezbollah. We are told they are hung up on that. Because they are hung up on those disagreements, we expect the talks, and we're told the talks, will run a little bit longer than scheduled.

Again, a reconstruction package under agreement, a humanitarian package under agreement. But what good is any of that if you can't stop the fighting. And, Soledad, they're still hung up on that. Very difficult diplomacy here. And at the center of it all, of course, Secretary of State Rice. S. O'BRIEN: John King for us this morning. Thanks, John. We'll check back in with you a little bit later.

We're getting an update. We're getting word this morning that, in fact, Ariel Sharon, the former prime minister of Israel, has been rushed to an emergency room. Of course, he has been very, very ill, near death, many times reported. We're going to get some more information on this. That report is coming to us from the Associated Press this morning. As soon as we get more information, we'll update you on the former Israeli leader's condition.

Let's get right back to Haifa this morning. Miles there is.

Hey, Miles, good morning.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

Live from Haifa where the air raid sirens have been blaring once again today. When you take the entirety of northern Israel so far today, we're told by Israeli police spokesman, 37 rockets have rained down, causing 13 injuries, one of them very seriously.

Take a look at these pictures. This was just on the outskirts of Haifa. This, the third largest city in Israel. A man seriously injured just as he was driving his car. The rocket striking nearby. Shrapnel inside their packed with these ball bearings, causing something injuries.

Meanwhile, north of the border, concern about the humanitarian crisis which continues to grow in Lebanon as Israeli defense forces, the Israeli air force, focus on southern Lebanon and, of course, the southern suburbs of Beirut in their pursuit of Hezbollah. We're told the first airplane with some relief supplies has been able to land at the damaged Beirut International Airport. This is a Jordanian C-130. When the Israelis cratered that runway, it was clear they left enough runway space for these aircraft to come in, carrying some relief supplies, some humanitarian supplies. Concerns about hunger, about people needing medicine and supplies. Upwards of 800,000 people displaced now on this 15th day of this conflict.

Meanwhile, one other issue that is front and center for you today, the Israeli air force, with a bomb in southern Lebanon, focusing on what turns out to have been a U.N. observation force. The United Nations has been in southern Lebanon since the Israelis pulled out in 2002. Four U.N. observers were killed and the U.N. secretary general says it was deliberate. For more on this we go to the United Nations and our senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth.

Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, Kofi Annan, in a statement yesterday, saying an apparent deliberate attack by Israel. The secretary general, who is in Rome at that major conference on Lebanon, outraged over what happened in southern Lebanon at a U.N. base there. Kofi Annan, in part of his statement, after he said he was shocked and distressed, the secretary general saying "this coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked U.N. post at Khiyam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would be spared Israeli fire. Furthermore," Annan goes on, "General Alain Pelligrini, the U.N. force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular U.N. position from attack.

We had a phone call from the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, overnight telling Kofi Annan he expresses his deep regret, saying that it was, in effect, an accident. Israel's U.N. ambassador earlier expressing his regrets to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN GILLERMAN, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: We are very, very sorry and we regret this tragic incident and extend our condolences to the families of the Chinese, the Finnish, Austrian and Canadian casualties. But I seriously don't believe that Kofi Annan believes that this was a deliberate and targeted. I think that -- and I hope that his statement was made in haste. I believe it is premature, irresponsible and regrettable. I don't think anybody in his right mind thinks that Israel is targeting U.N. personnel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Finland and China, which lost soldiers, are very upset. China calling in the Israeli ambassador, Miles, and the Security Council this week was discussing the traditional renewal of the U.N. force there, UNIFIL, which got heavily hit by this Israeli attack.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, surely this will factor into the discussion about any additional peacekeeping force marching forward, Richard. And you have to wonder, if this was a post that was well-known and had been established for quite some time, surely those coordinates were well-known to the air force.

ROTH: The U.N. outposts are right in the middle of everything. They are very close to Hezbollah rocket firing and incoming. Since the outbreak of fighting, they have taken hits from the Israelis and people have been injured. Their positions are known and the U.N. says they were telling Israel where they were.

M. O'BRIEN: Richard Roth at the United Nations, thank you very much.

Question of how this crisis appears to be broadening is on people's minds today as well. We're hearing reports that the Lebanese army, not Hezbollah, the army of the government of Lebanon, based in Beirut, that fledgling democracy we've been telling you about, is engaged in the sense that they are defending themselves. We get more on this story now from Anthony Mills in Beirut. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yesterday, Lebanon's interior minister, Hamad Fatfat, said that the Lebanese army has fired at Israeli war planes and that it will counter any aggression directed against it. He appears to be concurring with the Lebanese president, Emile Lahood, who told CNN a few days ago that the Lebanese army would fight back if it was attacked, if an Israeli ground force rolled into Lebanon. So he appears to be strengthening the position of the Lebanese president, Emile Lahood.

And we know, of course, that the Israelis have warned the Lebanese army against firing at its planes. They have said that that is not acceptable. And, indeed, so far the Lebanese army has really stood by in this conflict. Although some of its positions have been targeted, including the deaths of a number of Lebanese soldiers, the only response thus far really has been some half-hearted bursts from anti-aircraft batteries. Of course, ineffective as we know.

So that's really been the only response so far of the Lebanese army. But it appears, from the words of the interior minister and, indeed, backing up the Lebanese president, that the Lebanese army will, indeed, fight back if Lebanon is invaded, if its positions are attacked in any form of invasion of Lebanon. And one would assume, since Hezbollah really is coordinating the resistance to any Israeli invasion in the south, that the Lebanese army would be working together with Hezbollah. And, of course, the irony of that would be, it would be doing precisely the opposite of what America and Israel have asked it to do, namely take Hezbollah on forcefully, prevent it from firing rockets into Israel. Instead of that, it would be working with Hezbollah.

Anthony Mills, Beirut, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: That was Anthony Mills in Beirut.

And now we turn it over to a story which has been front and center for us since day one. The Americans trapped in the middle of all this. Despite all the evacuations we've been telling you about, there still are Americans trapped in Lebanon who'd like to make their way out. And we have word this day of an evacuation underway of southern Lebanon, Tyre, a very dangerous place. CNN's Karl Penhall is there.

Karl.

KARL PENHALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly this morning, Miles, a group of Americans have come from a place way more dangerous than the city of Tyre. As you say, Tyre, and its suburbs, are very dangerous, under constant barrage of Israeli shells and bombs from war planes. In fact, as we speak now, war planes are flying over and we can hear bombs being dropped. Maybe you can see some of that smoke in the distance in the hilly regions there. But beyond that hilly region, that's where those Americans have come from this morning. They've come from the small town of Yaroon (ph). And that, Miles, is only about a mile from the border. And we were talking to one of those, Hussein Salay (ph), a high school student from Queens, New York, and what he described to me made this sound like a trip along the highway to hell. This is what he told me, Miles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUSSEIN SALAY, AMERICAN EVACUEE: It's almost like two hours to get here. It took us -- the roads -- missiles all over the roads. Pieces of missiles, airplanes in the sky, all over the sky, everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PENHALL: He went on to tell me how they had lived for 14 days in an underground basement, living off what little food and water they had. That they said that as a result of Israeli bombardment, houses around them were just crumbling and the neighbors, other civilians, just retreated from house to house looking for shelter in those bunkers. And today was the first day that they could come out.

A convoy of 10 cars. And we understand that later in the day more of those will be coming out. And what they're doing is arriving here in Tyre and there's a ship now in the Port of Tyre that will ferry them to Cyprus and then back home to Queens, New York.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Karl, yesterday when we were coming to you frequently, the Israeli air force had targeted Tyre because that is the source of many of these Hezbollah rockets. There's got to be a lot of concern that Americans could get caught up in the crossfire there?

PENHALL: What we understand from U.S. embassy officials is that they have managed to arrange safe passage. And so what it seems, although they're not giving full details, but what it seems is that they're informing both sides, on the Lebanese side, but also on the Israeli side, of the times that they will be bringing those convoys through from that border region.

As I say, only about a mile, two miles from the Israeli/Lebanon border. And for that time, it seems that the air strikes are stopping. What Hussein Salay told me was that, yes, he did see Israeli war airplanes in the area but the they weren't attacking that convoy at all. So it does seem like safe passage has been arranged, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Karl Penhall in Tyre, Lebanon, thank you very much.

So far, Soledad, 15,000 Americans who were in Lebanon when this all broke out have managed to get out safely. As we say, there's still some left and we're watching that for you.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Some of the stories have been just truly horrifying. Miles, thanks. We'll check in with you in just a little bit.

Iraq's prime minister addresses a joint meeting of Congress today. Nuri al-Maliki has come under fire from some on Capitol Hill, not for what he's doing in Iraq, but for what he is saying about the crisis in Lebanon. Congressional correspondent Dana Bash live for us on Capitol Hill.

Hey, Dana, good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

And, you know, in about three months from now, the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate is up for re-election and Iraq overshadows everything for voters. So lawmakers of both parties say they are eager to hear what the prime minister says about his war- torn country where the U.S., of course, has invested so much. But some Democrats are incensed about what he has said and not said about the conflict raging between Israel and Hezbollah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH, (voice over): These house Democrats want to cancel the Iraqi prime minister's address to Congress unless he apologizes for statements last week denouncing Israeli aggression, but not Hezbollah's.

REP. TOM LANTOS, (D) CALIFORNIA: Recent statements by Iraqi leaders are beneath content.

REP NITA LOWEY, (D) NEW YORK: The U.S. Congress should not provide a platform for supporters of Hezbollah.

BASH: The House speaker says he'll allow the speech to go as planned, but promised to discuss the issue in private.

DENNIS HASTERT, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: We've asked the prime minister to come and speak to us. His country has 130,000 of our troops there. We need to have the dialogue.

BASH: Democrats are seizing on even tacit support of Hezbollah by Nuri al-Maliki as what they say is the latest example of a failed Bush policy.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Our country has expended over 2,500 lives, 18,000 wounded, $300 billion to fight the war on terror. Prime Minister Maliki owes his office to those American lives and those American dollars. Where is he on the war on terror?

BASH: At a White House press conference, the Iraqi leader did not directly address his stance on Hezbollah. And later, the U.S. national security advisor did nothing to clarify it. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He gave the answer he gave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he ducked the question clearly.

BASH: Several Republican lawmakers told CNN that al-Maliki is trying to hold together a fragile, young government and criticizing Israel is simply playing good politics back home.

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, (R) CONNECTICUT: Am I surprised that an Arab has words of concern about Israel and has supported Hezbollah and Hamas? No, I'm not surprised. He's trying to build coalitions in his own country. I am outraged but, you know, welcome to democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now Congressman Shays is in a tough re-election campaign where Iraq is playing a central issue. But while some Democrats are going to be listening very closely to see whether or not the prime minister clarifies his position on Hezbollah, what Shays says that he and other Republicans are going to be listening for is what he says about his own country, Iraq. Specifically whether he is going to thank the United States for all of its sacrifice in Iraq and, most importantly, whether he can instill confidence in members of Congress that he does have a plan for what they think matters most, securing that country and getting U.S. troops home.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash for us on Capitol Hill. Dana, thanks.

We're going to continue our coverage of the Middle East in just a moment. First, though, let's get a check of the forecast. Chad's got that.

Hey, Chad, good morning again.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Update now on what we're waiting for. Let's show you some live pictures, if we can, from the foreign ministry office in Rome. You can see right there, they're getting ready for that joint press conference we're expecting between the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and also the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. We're expecting it right at the half hour. We'll bring it to you live when it happens.

Also, this word into CNN. CNN now confirming, in fact, that the former Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has been rushed to a hospital intensive care unit in Tel Aviv. His condition has deteriorated. Earlier in the week they were saying it was deteriorating a lot, but it was not life threatening. Well now he has been rushed to the hospital emergency room.

You'll remember he suffered that massive stroke back in January and that in April of '06 the cabinet finally declared that he was permanently incapacitated. The next month, in fact, they brought him to a long-term care facility in the hopes of bringing him out of his coma. Some disturbing news there. We're watching that story as well and we'll bring you that news conference when it happens.

Still to come this morning, the U.S. strategy to help resolve the Middle East crisis. We'll take a look at whether the Bush administration is doing it the right way.

Also, the final evacuations of Americans out of Lebanon. The mission commander tells us what's being done to get Americans out safely.

And we'll take a look at the mood in Haifa as the rockets continue to rain down there. How are Arab and Jewish neighbors getting along in the middle of this crisis? All those stories are ahead on a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back everybody. You're taking a look at some live pictures coming to us from the foreign ministry office in Rome. We're expecting a joint news conference from the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and also the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan. It's supposed to happen in about nine or ten minutes or so. We're going to bring that to you live when it does happen.

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Arab and European leaders in Rome to discuss the current crisis and also the composition of an international peacekeeping force. That, of course, at the top of the agenda. Richard Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. He's with us this morning to talk about the diplomatic efforts.

Nice to see you, as always. Thanks for being with us.

RICHARD HAASS, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Thanks, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Cease-fire at the beginning or cease-fire at the end seems to be the biggest stumbling block right now.

HAASS: That's one of the two big stumbling blocks is the question of sequence. The United States has only supported what you might call a conditional cease-fire. It's got to be wrapped in something larger. The Europeans and the U.N. essentially want a cease-fire at the beginning, calm things down and then they'll address the political question.

An even bigger stumbling block, though, beyond sequence, may be the mandate of the force. It's fundamentally different if you put a force in to keep the peace. Essentially all the local fighters, Hezbollah and Israel, would agree to the force. Fundamentally different than if you try to insert a force to make the peace, to enforce the peace. And it's not clear to me the international community has the stomach to do the latter, to enforce the peace, and it's not clear to me Hezbollah will agree to a force to simply come in. S. O'BRIEN: So it's a huge problem on both fronts.

Today we have news of these four U.N. troops who have been killed and Kofi Annan says it was deliberate. Whether it was deliberate or not, it kind of adds a new wrinkle to all of this, doesn't it?

HAASS: For sure. It puts added pressure on Israel. It somewhat isolates Israel and I think it, in some way, shortens probably the amount of time Israel has to continue this sort of air campaign it's had against Hezbollah.

S. O'BRIEN: Also puts pressure on that first question you talked about, which is this peacekeeping force. I mean it's going to change a little bit, I think, how countries perceive that force's role in the region. Who's going to be part of this force?

HAASS: Well, again, I think the mandate question is fundamental. It's much easier, at least less difficult, to get international participation if both Israel and Hezbollah say welcome, we want to have a force. If, however, both Hezbollah or Israel say, we're not ready for such a force and the international community wants to act, you're not going to have a lot of volunteers. You could possibly have the Turks, possibly the Egyptians, but I don't think you're going to have Europeans, you're not going to have the United States. Obviously very, very difficult to put a force in, essentially an unwelcoming context.

S. O'BRIEN: The Egyptians sound like a big if, because when I was talking to their ambassador yesterday, I mean he sure didn't sound like he was getting ready to -- or they were getting ready to front some kind of a force. And you have to wonder, is an Arab country really going to put Arab soldiers into ostensibly protect Israeli land?

HAASS: Well, you have problems with the (INAUDIBLE) for lots of reasons. The Egyptians are largely Sunnis. Hezbollah is close to Iran. Hezbollah itself is Shia. So in some ways this brings out the fundamental split now within the Arab world. Very, very difficult. Again, orders of magnitude more difficult if Hezbollah says we don't want them. You're not going to have a lot of countries lining up to send their troops into essentially a war zone.

S. O'BRIEN: When you talk about that split, it kind of brings us to the sectarian violence that's going on in Iraq right now.

HAASS: Exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: And, you know, we heard from General Abizaid he mentioned the word sectarian violence literally, I think, three times in one sentence. How come no one's calling it a civil war? Is it a civil war?

HAASS: Civil war is one of these terms of art. At some point, sectarian violence flips over into civil war. It's really a question of degree. There's no precise definition when sectarian violence becomes a civil war. Bottom line is, the situation is bad. The bottom line is, the situation is deteriorating. You have ethnic cleanse going on in greater Baghdad. You've got Sunni on Shia violence and vice versus. The situation's bad, hence the decision to increase the presence of U.S. and international forces in Baghdad, though not clear that alone will be enough to quell this incipience of a war.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, I was going to say, I mean, what can U.S. troops realistically do if, indeed, sectarian violence, you know, dribbles into civil war? And I'm not even really sure where the line is between those two phrases. What can U.S. troops realistically do?

HAASS: First of all, no one's sure where the line is. It's almost a spectrum. And we're clearly moving along it. And we're moving along it in the wrong direction. The situation's getting worse.

The fundamental question, what could U.S. or outside forces do? They can help, but they can't solve it. They can dampen things down, perhaps. But at the end of the day, no amount of international presence can keep Iraqis from killing one another if Iraqis are intent on killing one another. You need a degree of local consent. You need a degree of local willingness to live together. Absent that, you can't solve it by any number of troops.

And that's the frightening thing about Iraq. It's quite possible that Iraq now is on a trajectory where no amount of American presence, no amount of international support can really change the chemistry there. If that's the case, in three or six months, we're not going to be sitting here debating whether there is a civil war. There will be one.

And the danger then is not only that it's awful inside Iraq, but several of Iraq's neighbors are going to be tempted to be drawn in. Ironically enough, Iraq today, in 2006, has the potential to look like Lebanon 15 or 20 years ago where you had an internal civil war exacerbated by the local countries getting involved. That's the frightening scenario for Iraq and I think we're right on the cusp of it.

S. O'BRIEN: That's a frightening thing. Richard Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Nice to see you as always. Thanks for coming in to talk to us.

HAASS: Thanks, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, Iraq's prime minister addresses Congress today. Not everybody's happy to see him. We're going to talk this morning to Senator Bill Frist about the controversy that is now surrounding Nuri al-Maliki's comments about the Middle East.

And in just about 10 minutes or so we're expecting to hear from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. They're holding a joint news conference in Rome. We're going to bring it to you live when it happens. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. You're taking a look at some live pictures coming to us from Rome. It's the foreign ministry office there. We're expecting a joint press conference between the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. It should be happening in the next couple of minutes or so. We're going to bring it to you live when it happens. That's just one of the top stories we're covering for you this morning.

Also we're watching the condition of the former Israel prime minister, Ariel Sharon. He's been rushed to the intensive care unit of a Tel Aviv hospital. He was already hospitalized. Apparently they are trying to remove some excess fluid that is building up in his body. You'll recall, as the last couple days we've been telling you that his condition's been deteriorating. Although we were told that what he was suffering was not life-threatening. He has been in a coma since he suffered that massive stroke back in January of this year.

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