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CNN Live At Daybreak

Another Day of Bloodshed in Middle East

Aired June 21, 2002 - 06:31   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: It is another day of bloodshed in the Middle East, plus there is some political news from Yasser Arafat to talk about.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Sheila MacVicar, joins us live from Jerusalem with details on that -- good morning.

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Indeed against the backdrop of continuing violence, an interview with Yasser Arafat published this morning in the Israel daily, "Ha'Aretz." Now, the headline says, Arafat to Ha'Aretz," "I accept Clinton's plan, peace is possible."

Now, what Mr. Arafat has said in this interview is that he accepts the peace plan put forward, or the framework for peace, put forward by President Clinton in July, 2000. You may recall there was that famous meeting at Camp David outside of Washington, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Yasser Arafat, President Clinton, a meeting that eventually broke down, did not obviously produce an agreement. Mr. Arafat now saying that he accepts that plan as a framework to move forward for a peace plan.

Now, there are many here, many Israelis certainly, who would say, well, he's about two years too late. But what that plan did do was establish essentially a framework for two states, two sovereign states, side by side, Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall, and the Palestinians giving up what is called the right of return for those Palestinian refugees living outside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, something we have heard reiterated again this week by Palestinian sources close to those who are talking with Bush administration officials.

Now, this obviously comes in the context of Mr. Bush's speech, that much anticipated and delayed speech, which we now think may happen next Monday, where the president will lay out his vision of the U.S. administration's way forward to get back to a political dialogue. And just as we heard earlier this week from Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, at the scene of that horrific bus bombing in southern Jerusalem, where he talked about what kind of Palestinian state are they talking about, Mr. Arafat is now laying some of his cards on the table and publicly saying that peace is possible. He goes on to say in this interview, Carol, that he believes that peace is possible with Ariel Sharon, that he thinks that the two of them can come to an agreement, and that such an agreement would be possible to reach within a relatively short period of time.

Now, you may remember yesterday, we also heard from Mr. Arafat, where he came out and made an unprecedented call for -- calling on all Palestinians to stop all acts of violence, all acts of terror against Israeli civilians. Again, dual message meant to be heard by Palestinians, meant to be heard by Israelis, and also meant to be heard by the Bush administration. Of course, what Israel says is that they don't want words, they want to see action -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sheila, does this smack a little of desperation on Yasser Arafat's part?

MACVICAR: Again, I think there are a number of constituencies here. We know that the Palestinians, as have the Israelis, as have other interlocutors, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Saudis, all have been talking to the U.S. administration over the course of the last number of weeks, as the administration has struggled to come to grips with this, and struggled to formulate a policy that they think is workable and will not be rejected out of hand by any of the parties.

So in this instance, what Mr. Arafat is trying to say, is that, listen, I am ready for peace. And he hopes that that is a message that will be taken on face value by the Bush administration -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. All right, Sheila MacVicar reporting live for us from Jerusalem this morning -- thank you.

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