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Yasser Arafat Speaks of Meeting With U.S. Secretary of State

Aired June 28, 2001 - 07:51   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Live to Ramallah right now, where Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is summing up a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Let's listen in, through a translator.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

YASSER ARAFAT, PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The real need to provide monitoring for the implementation of the Mitchell Report. The parties, head of the United Nations of America, the European Union, and the United Nations, and others are not immune here to our experience with tenure of being observers who are stationed in Bethlehem (INAUDIBLE).

LIN: Clearly, we have some audio problems here. We are anxious to bring you this event live. This is a summary of a meeting between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Yasser Arafat, the meeting well over two hours today.

This is a live picture out of Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters office, where Yasser Arafat, so far, has acknowledged that in order to move the peace process forward, it will need international cooperation. Secretary of State Colin Powell is trying to find out how much authority and how much control Yasser Arafat has over reducing the violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has demanded zero violence, in order for the next step in the Mitchell Report to move forward. The next step would be confidence-building measures on both sides, increased cooperation, where they can find cooperation, in order to get to the point where both sides feel they can move back to the negotiations table.

Negotiations broke off when Ariel Sharon became prime minister.

Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ARAFAT (through translator): ... that are inflicted on our people. Our land is being confiscated, settlements are being constructed, and residential units are being built while there is no governmental financing. This is an agreement with myself and my peace partner, Rabin: no new settlement. And settlements are not to be extended more than 50 meters from the limits of the settlement.

(INAUDIBLE)

LIN: We are continuing to monitor the situation out of Ramallah. Once again, you are looking at a live picture of Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, where he is beginning to sum up some of his concerns about how to move the peace process forward.

He was just talking about making sure that the Israelis no longer expand existing settlements in the West Bank. He is calling on the international community to help support this peace process.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is meeting with Yasser Arafat today, to try to figure out ways to reduce the violence, to reach a level that both the Israelis and the Americans can live with, to move the peace process forward.

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