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CNN Live At Daybreak

More Violence in the Middle East makes it Harder to Achieve Peace

Aired December 11, 2001 - 06:26   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: Now we are going to move on to the Middle East where more cease-fire talks are expected today despite more violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

CNN's Chris Burns is live in Jerusalem with more on that -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Carol, you might ask here where is the peace process? Well no sign of that at this point, especially overnight, more violence, the latest in which Israeli helicopter gunships fired at a police -- Palestinian police position in the Gaza Strip at Beit Hanun. This was a Force 17 Post belonging to Yasser Arafat's special bodyguard force. Destroyed a building there, but caused no reports of injuries.

This comes in the wake of a mortar attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza that injured -- lightly injured one girl. And also an incident in the West Bank in which two Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces as the Palestinian's car, according to the -- according to the Israelis, tried to go through a police checkpoint in Turkaram (ph) after firing -- after the Israelis fired warning shots.

A funeral today for two other Palestinians, two young boys who were killed when Israeli helicopter gunships yesterday fired -- tried to killed a Palestinian militant and failed to kill him. He was seriously injured in that attack. That, of course, comes as the Israelis are trying to crack down on Palestinian militants.

What does this do to the diplomatic process? Well, Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Authority, is now talking with his people to decide whether they should continue with security talks with the Israelis. There was supposed to be a meeting today mediated -- chaired by Anthony Zinni, that's the U.S. envoy who's been trying desperately for the last two weeks to try to get the guns silent and the bombs silenced so that the peace process could continue, but at this point that meeting is up in question.

Also on the diplomatic side, full court press, not only by the Americans but also by the Russians, the U.N. and now the Europeans, who, as of yesterday, said that they now condemn the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad as terror networks that Arafat must dismantle. This is the moment of truth, according to the Europeans now as well, and Javier Solana is coming to take that message. He's the EU foreign policy chief. He's going to talk with Arafat later this afternoon and this is what he's going to -- the message he's going to bring him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAVIER SOLANA, EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: I would tell Mr. Arafat tonight the same thing I've been telling lately that we -- he has to continue fighting against terror and that's his obligation at this point in time, and he'll have support if he's going to do that, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to see (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that success in the fight against the -- against the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: And the theory is that one more Palestinian suicide attack in Israel could cause further violence and perhaps cause things to unravel out of control -- Carol.

LIN: All right. Thank you very much. Chris Burns keeping a watch on things live in Jerusalem.

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