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Road Map to Peace Meetings
Aired June 17, 2003 - 13:19 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A heavy schedule of meetings today on the road map for peace in the Middle East.
CNN's Matthew Chance is keeping track of the talks. He joins us now live from Gaza -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, thank you.
And the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, is, as we speak, meeting with the various Palestinian factions, including the main militant groups here in Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Not a great deal of optimism. I have to say that amongst the people attending those talks, a representative of Islamic Jihad said before he went in that there would be no discussions of any kind of cease- fire at all against the Israelis unless they received concrete guarantees of, among other things, Israel was going to end its policy of assassination against militant leaders here in Gaza and elsewhere.
A plan has been forwarded by Palestinian officials to try and get the Israelis to hand them back responsibility for security here in the Gaza Strip. Central to that plan, though, according to Palestinian officials, is Israel's suspension of that policy of assassination. So far, according to the meetings they've been having, Israel not willing to do that at this stage.
O'BRIEN: Matthew, it sure sounds like an impasse. You have Hamas saying no cease-fire anticipated or desired. You have Ariel Sharon saying a cease-fire isn't enough, what they want is something more pro-active to try to root out Hamas and that ilk. Are we at a dead end?
CHANCE: Well, we're at an obstacle in the road map, certainly. Negotiations are still continuing. Talks will continue over the coming hours, and indeed the coming days, to try and implement this U.S.-backed road map.
The Palestinian Authority is in the process, under the terms of the road map, in increasing the power of their own security forces to make them more able to crack down on groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are very powerful on the ground here in places like Gaza. But at the moment, they're saying that unless they get more concessions from Israel, politically, even if they had the strength, they wouldn't be able to politically crack down on these groups.
O'BRIEN: Matthew Chance following the road map to peace for us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired June 17, 2003 - 13:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A heavy schedule of meetings today on the road map for peace in the Middle East.
CNN's Matthew Chance is keeping track of the talks. He joins us now live from Gaza -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, thank you.
And the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, is, as we speak, meeting with the various Palestinian factions, including the main militant groups here in Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Not a great deal of optimism. I have to say that amongst the people attending those talks, a representative of Islamic Jihad said before he went in that there would be no discussions of any kind of cease- fire at all against the Israelis unless they received concrete guarantees of, among other things, Israel was going to end its policy of assassination against militant leaders here in Gaza and elsewhere.
A plan has been forwarded by Palestinian officials to try and get the Israelis to hand them back responsibility for security here in the Gaza Strip. Central to that plan, though, according to Palestinian officials, is Israel's suspension of that policy of assassination. So far, according to the meetings they've been having, Israel not willing to do that at this stage.
O'BRIEN: Matthew, it sure sounds like an impasse. You have Hamas saying no cease-fire anticipated or desired. You have Ariel Sharon saying a cease-fire isn't enough, what they want is something more pro-active to try to root out Hamas and that ilk. Are we at a dead end?
CHANCE: Well, we're at an obstacle in the road map, certainly. Negotiations are still continuing. Talks will continue over the coming hours, and indeed the coming days, to try and implement this U.S.-backed road map.
The Palestinian Authority is in the process, under the terms of the road map, in increasing the power of their own security forces to make them more able to crack down on groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are very powerful on the ground here in places like Gaza. But at the moment, they're saying that unless they get more concessions from Israel, politically, even if they had the strength, they wouldn't be able to politically crack down on these groups.
O'BRIEN: Matthew Chance following the road map to peace for us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
