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CNN Live At Daybreak

Mr. Bush's New Mideast Policy Closely Watched Across Arab World

Aired June 25, 2002 - 06:32   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: Mr. Bush's new Mideast policy was closely watched across the Arab world. Reaction has been lukewarm with some ideas embraced and others rejected outright.

CNN State Department correspondent, Andrea Koppel, has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Reaction to the president's speech among U.S. allies in the Arab world was, at first blush, upbeat, one Saudi official calling the glass fairly full.

ADEL AL-JUBAIR, SAUDI FOREIGN POLICY ADV.: The president put forth a vision that was very clear in terms of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders within three years, which is farther than other presidents of the United States have gone. So in that sense, it's a -- it was a bold move on the president's part.

KOPPEL: But what they didn't like is that the president, while not mentioning Yasser Arafat by name, implied he had to go.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born.

KOPPEL: In Oman, in Riyadh and elsewhere in the Arab world, the consensus: President Bush has no right to dictate who leads the Palestinian people.

NABEEL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN CABINET MEMBER: The president is saying that change of leadership can only take place by the Palestinians themselves; that the United States is not the agent of changing the Palestinian leadership. Only the Palestinian people can do that. I accept that. President Arafat accepts that as well.

KOPPEL: In fact, analysts say, U.S. pressure to get rid of Arafat could provoke a backlash against the very goal President Bush hopes to achieve.

MARTIN INDYK, SABAN CENTER: He may, instead of sparking a demand on the Palestinian side for Arafat to go, he will instead produce a kind of counterproductive rallying around Arafat to spite the United States.

KOPPEL (on camera): Administration officials say none of this should come as a surprise to Arafat. They say Secretary Powell warned him last spring his days were numbered. As one official involved in the Mideast policy put it, the question now for the Arab world is: Is this about achieving Palestinian aspirations, or defending Arafat's leadership?

Andrea Koppel, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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