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CNN Live At Daybreak

Diplomacy Efforts in Middle East Reach "Flurry" Stage

Aired December 06, 2001 - 05:34   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni is scheduled to meet today with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

The U.S. is putting more pressure on Arafat to come down hard on militant groups and CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna has details this morning. What's the latest from there?

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well Catherine, there's a flurry of diplomatic activity underway as Israel pauses its military operations, which had followed a weekend of suicide bombings in which more than 20 Israelis lost their lives. In the course of the day Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Mohar is due in Israel. He'll be holding a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

This is significant development. The first time Mr. Sharon has met an Arab leader since he was elected as prime minister early on in the year. Also the U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, a former Marine Corp general, will be meeting with the Palestinian authority leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank City of Ramallah. Mr. Zinni expected to be taking the message from the U.S. administration, a demand that has been made as well by the Israeli government that Yasser Arafat crack down and he seemed to crack down on militant organization such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad defined as terrorist entities by the U.S. administration.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad had claimed responsibility for attacks against Israeli civilians. But this crackdown being made more difficult by resistance to such activities on the ground in the -- in Gaza and in the West Bank. Many Palestinians seeing a crackdown against the Palestinian militant organizations as cow-towing or giving in to the demands of the Israeli government. There has been high tension in Gaza as the Palestinian authority security forces attempted to take action against some militant groups, and I'm joined from Gaza City by CNN's Matthew Chance who has the latest. What's going on there Matthew?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the public discontent on the streets of Gaza with many people expressing their anger generally at the arrest -- the crackdown on those Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad more specifically at the placing under house arrest by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian authority (INAUDIBLE) Sheikh Yassin, the leader of Hamas. That order came in last night local time. He's been confined to his residence. Overnight a standoff developed in the streets around a house where Sheikh Yassin lives, a standoff between Palestinian security forces and Hamas supporters obviously very angry at the arrest. Those clashes, those confrontations continued this morning. In fact within the last few hours we were stuck in the middle of a confrontation between Palestinian police forces and many angry young men -- Palestinian supporters of Hamas hurling stones and rocks at those police mines.

The police responded by firing tear gas and charging those crowds to try and disperse them. So the police have been dealing with these Palestinian demonstrators, but clearly a lot of people very angry at these arrests continuing here. Mike back to you.

HANNA: Well Matthew, word has come, speculation that there is a potential civil war looming in Palestinian territories. Is that too a strong a term?

CHANCE: I think it may be too strong at this stage. Certainly what we have been witnessing here in Gaza is some confrontation between limited numbers of Palestinian demonstrators, perhaps just a few hundred. They've been dealt with by the Palestinian security forces using, in my judgment, I'd say pretty minimal violence. There haven't been any beatings or any shots fired by the Palestinian security forces according to what we've seen.

We have been seeing them fire tear gas. We have been seeing them try to disperse these crowds largely made up, I have to say, of young boys simply throwing stones -- throwing stones rather. I've just been to a rally by the Fata Party -- the Fata organization, which is of course headed by Yasser Arafat. Even there, though, there are some officials expressing their discontent with the fact that these arrests taking place. But one of the Palestinian authority officials that I spoke to said quite simply the people, the members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have to understand at the moment Yasser Arafat is acting in the much wider national interest -- in their words, of the Palestinian nation.

HANNA: Matthew, very briefly we've seen in those pictures from Gaza that there are militants in those crowds, but there are also a lot of youths who appear to be bystanders who are siding with the militants. I mean how much in the general public aside from the militants is there resistance to Yasser Arafat's attempt to crack down.

CHANCE: Well certainly these aren't very popular moves at all, the moves of the Palestinian authority to crack down on these militant Palestinian groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It's difficult to gauge, of course, exactly how widespread the support is, but certainly the fact that in the last few days there have been pretty intensive airstrikes from the Israeli security forces on installations of the Palestinian authority, certainly here across Gaza and elsewhere in the West Bank in Palestinian territories. That hasn't helped the situation politically for Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian authority to go about the business of taking these militant Palestinian group leaders off the streets -- Mike.

HANNA: Matthew Chance in Gaza City. Thank you for joining us. We'll be keeping you up to date of developments there as Yasser Arafat makes good his commitment, it does appear at this stage to crack down on militant organizations. Whether this is enough or whether Israel would be satisfied with what is being done at present, that remains to be seen. Whether the U.S. is satisfied remains to be seen, and the diplomatic flurry here continues as attempts are made to bring this most recent ground of violence to an end -- Catherine.

CALLAWAY: All right, thank you. CNN's Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna. Thank you Mike and just a reminder that U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni is scheduled to meet today with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

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