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Breaking News
Arab Countries Recommend to Halt Diplomatic Relations With Israel
Aired May 19, 2001 - 13:17 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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We're getting some breaking news for you. As we've been telling you for the last couple of days, there has been escalating bloodshed in the Middle East. There was a suicide bomber, Palestinian suicide bomber at a mall where people were killed and injured. That was followed by an Israeli response for a couple of days now where people have been killed and injured, and we're getting breaking news from our Ben Wedeman who is in Cairo. Ben, what can you tell us?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Donna, after a day of meeting of nine Arab foreign ministers who were in Cairo today, have issued a statement, a recommendation, calling on Arab countries to halt all political contacts with Israel until they say what they call the aggression against the Palestinians and the Palestinian authority comes to an end.
Now, this is significant in that this call was endorsed by some of the most pro-Western Arab countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia, all of whom were by and charge supportive of U.S. efforts to work out a peace agreement in the Middle East -- Donna.
KELLEY: Ben, can you tell us how many countries, though, have supported it? I think it's a 22-nation Arab League. Are they all on board?
WEDEMAN: Well, these are just nine Arab foreign ministers who are part of the committee formed after the last Arab summit meeting in Amman two months ago, and certainly they represent a fairly broad spectrum of opinion within the Arab world.
Now, there are 22 members of the Arab League, and this is worth pointing out, it's a recommendation, it's not a unilateral decision, and it is up to each country to decide what to do. But the fact that this committee includes two of the three Arab countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel, is significant. The third, of course, is Mauritania, which is not a very large player on the diplomatic scene in the Middle East.
But the belief is here in Cairo in the Arab League that certainly if these countries sign on, then the entire membership of the Arab League will sign on to this recommendation. KELLEY: Ben, if the foreign ministers have recommended this, then what happens now? Do the countries have to get together and talk about it, and decide and vote and give it the stamp of approval? What's the step now?
WEDEMAN: No, this is a decision that will be taken individually by these countries. It's a recommendation. So, basically -- most of these countries don't have any political contacts with Israel anyway. It's really most significant in the cases of Egypt and Jordan, which have been very active inn trying to bridge the cap -- the gap between the Palestinians and Israel. Egypt and Jordan were the authors of a peace initiative, which was intended to halt the fighting and resume the negotiations, but their initiative did not fair very well. The Israelis rejected one of the basics points of it, which was a halt in settlement activity.
And the fact that they have signed on, that they have put their names to this recommendation, would indicate that certainly we're in for a very cold period in relations between Israel and its most friendly Arab countries -- Donna.
KELLEY: Ben Wedeman, thanks very much from Cairo with that breaking news, the nine Arab foreign ministers recommending the halt of ties, the political contacts, until this violence ends.
Also on the phone with us right now is Raanan Gissin. He is the senior adviser to Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Mr. Gissin, are you are able to hear me?
RAANAN GISSIN, SENIOR ADVISER TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I can hear very well.
KELLEY: Thank you. Thanks for joining us. I trust that you were able to hear our reporter Ben Wedeman giving us that news.
GISSIN: Yes, I did.
KELLEY: And he was telling us, of course, that the nine Arab foreign ministers are recommending halt in political contacts until this ends, including Jordan and Egypt. Your response, when Jordan and Egypt have diplomatic relations with Israel?
GISSIN: That they do, and I think it's the wrong announcement at the wrong time, and really counterproductive, both for -- well, counterproductive to the peace process, but mostly counterproductive to Arab interests.
I think the Arab countries, you know, and it has been ascertained for a long period of time, for the past 25 years, since the peace process has been going, Arab countries, Arab people, the Palestinian people need peace as much as we.
And therefore, by severing relations or by calling for the severance of relations -- I am not sure that they will follow suit with that -- but the question -- it begs the question, and then what? And after that, what? How are you going to proceed from there? I mean, that's a logical question that any human being would ask. OK, so you don't talk with the Israelis, then who do you talk to?
I mean, we are the ones that the Palestinians should talk to and they should do it around the negotiating table and not on the battlefield. That is what we were trying to tell them all along. But unfortunately, they decided -- or their leader, Yasser Arafat, decided that this time he will try a little bit more violence and terrorist activity -- the most horrendous attack just recently that took place on Friday, against -- in a shopping mall, killing six people and 100 wounded.
Of course we will not tolerate that. Not accept it. Now, if anyone believes that if he puts a gun to the head of Israel and puts the finger on the trigger and say: "Every time you disagree with what I want in the negotiations, I will pull the trigger," is going to get peace, then he is wrong.
And I would suggest to the Arab leaders to reconsider their move, and instead of putting the gun to the head of Israel, rather put some pressure on Yasser Arafat to stop the violence. That's all that we need, and then we can resume negotiations.
KELLEY: Mr. Gissin, I am not sure if you were able to hear Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary-general's comments in a statement. He said while he has always -- and he does again -- decries terrorism -- talking about the suicide bomber and the bombing that happened out in that shopping mall on Friday -- he said that the Israeli response was excessive.
GISSIN: Well, you know, there's always a question of excessive. I wonder how the United States would have responded to such attacks if it would have come, you know, a neighboring country, let's say from Mexico or Canada, or how Great Britain would respond to IRA attacks?
So you know, it's always easy to criticize and investigate Israel. We have a right, and it's a natural right, to defend our citizens and we're exercising the right to self-defense, believe me, after a great amount of restraint. But we cannot allow this kind of -- this kind of terrorist action, which can easily escalate to more terrorist actions of this sort to continue, and therefore it was very important to -- to send a very severe message, you know, to the Palestinian authority, which is responsible for this.
Because when they want, there is no such attacks in Israel. When they exercise what they should do according to the agreement, then they can stop the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. This time, Arafat simply gave them the green light, the go-ahead.
KELLEY: All right, we need to go on that note. Ranaan Gissin, who is the senior adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, thanks very much. And we'll keep on top of the story and follow the story for you here on CNN.
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