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CNN Live At Daybreak
Colin Powell's Mission Moves to Lebanon
Aired April 15, 2002 - 05:01 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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now for more on Colin Powell's search for peace in the Middle East. His mission moved today from Israel and the West Bank to Lebanon.
CNN Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler is covering Powell's visit -- Brent, good morning to you.
BRENT SADLER: Good morning, Carol.
This is an ongoing visit by the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who arrived here a couple of hours ago. Let's look at the first video. He met first of all with Lebanon's president, Amir Lahoud, at the presidential palace just on the outskirts of the city itself, Beirut. And Primary Lahoud made it very plain that the Lebanon wants to see the U.S. show, as it was put here, realism and objectivity towards finding a solution not only between the Palestinians and the Israelis, but also in terms of comprehensive peace in the Middle East at large.
President Lahoud called on the U.S. to remobilize the peace process based on United Nations resolutions and to help promote an Arab peace process adopted at the Arab summit in Beirut just a couple of weeks or so ago, offering Israel normal relations with the Arab world in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territory.
Now, that was an initiative which the U.S. secretary of state has been carrying through to a second meeting. That's going on now with the Lebanese prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri. Secretary of State Powell is with Mr. Hariri right now. Hariri himself will go to Washington, leaving Beirut a few hours from now. He'll meet with President Bush in the White House, it's expected, on Wednesday.
Now, what's been the focus of attention here aside from trying to regenerate, to remobilize, if you'd like, U.S. efforts towards building on comprehensive Middle East peace has been the situation, the very dangerous situation, as you said, Carol, along the Lebanese- Israeli border. The past couple of weeks it's been getting worse, clashes almost daily between Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel responding with heavy artillery strikes and using war planes against suspected Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon.
Now, this is taking place across a much talked about blue line. That United Nations blue line was drawn almost two years ago when Israel withdrew its occupation forces from the tip of south Lebanon. This is what Secretary of State Powell had to say just a short time ago about those violations across the blue line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States remains concerned about continuing violence across the blue line. There is a very real danger of the situation along the border widening the conflict throughout the region. It is essential for all those who are committed to peace to act immediately stop aggressive actions along the entire border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SADLER: This is an action packed day for Secretary Powell. He'll be wrapping up in Beirut, we expect, within about another hour or so, another statement expected referring not only to the situation on the border and the issue of comprehensive peace, but directly Colin Powell talking about there must be, he said, an end to Israeli incursions in Palestinian areas and he said Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat must, he said, "exert all efforts to stop suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks."
Now, after leaving Lebanon, Secretary Powell will go immediately to Damascus. It's expected he'll see President Bashar al-Assad there. Syria's involvement in Lebanon very important. Syria has a lot of influence here. Syria has some 20,000 troops stationed in Lebanon and it has been the Syrians as well as Hezbollah and the Lebanese that Israel holds directly responsible for these cross border violations over that much talked about and now very dangerous blue line -- back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Brent Sadler, thank you.
And we are awaiting another news conference from Colin Powell after he completes his meeting with Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. We'll get to that live as it happens.
And while Secretary of State Powell is in Lebanon and Syria today, efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire do continue. Aides to Yasser Arafat are scheduled to meet today with U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni, too. Powell is having a busy day. The talks were arranged -- arranged a three hour meeting between Powell and Arafat.
CNN's Andrea Koppel reports from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what Secretary of State Powell saw as he drove into Ramallah, once a vibrant political hub of the Palestinian Authority, now a virtual ghost town. The only signs of life heavily armed Israeli soldiers.
(on camera): This is the compound where Yasser Arafat has been under siege for weeks. Just over there, there's barbed wire, Israeli soldiers, and, in fact, there are tanks deployed over there in front of the compound. We'd show you, but we're not allowed to film them. (voice-over): Security was especially tight this day for Powell's much anticipated meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a meeting which ran three hours and ended with Powell striking an optimistic note.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Ladies and gentlemen, we've just completed a useful and constructive exchange with Chairman Arafat and the members of his staff and we exchanged a variety of ideas and discussed steps on how we can move forward.
KOPPEL: Among those ideas, U.S. and Palestinian officials tell CNN, working to secure a quick and peaceful end to the stand-off between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, providing international aid to help rebuild ruined West Bank infrastructure and coordinating actions to further flesh out Arafat's recent statement condemning terrorism to ensure an end to suicide bombings.
Palestinian officials say Arafat told Powell he wanted to cooperate, but said the ongoing Israeli military offensive in the West Bank is a major stumbling block.
NABIL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN CABINET: He will do everything possible to stop all violence once a cease-fire is agreed, once the Israelis for once comply with what President Bush has been telling them, get out now.
KOPPEL: It's a message Powell again delivered to Israel's prime minister during their second meeting this week. Senior U.S. officials telling CNN Powell warned Ariel Sharon the U.S. is very concerned about the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories. In particular, Powell told Sharon, "suspicion is growing about what's going on in the Jenin refugee camp.
(on camera): On Monday, Secretary Powell will take a break from the Israel-Palestinian crisis and will travel to Syria and to Lebanon to focus on yet another U.S. concern, increased fighting on the Israeli-Lebanon border and what U.S. officials fear could be the start of a wider regional war.
Andrea Koppel, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Thank you, Andrea.
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