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Diplomatic Efforts to Try to End Mideast Crisis Moving Forward; U.S. Military Moving a Number of Ships into Mideast Region
Aired July 18, 2006 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Diplomatic efforts to try to end the Middle East crisis are moving forward.
More on that part of the story from our Paula Newton, who is in Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Israel, the war footing continues, ammunition is pouring in, Reservists are being called up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's war now, so duty calls.
NEWTON: And now diplomats are on the ground. When a United Nations delegation met with the Israeli government, the message was clear, there will be no immediate cease-fire.
TERJE ROED-LARSEN, U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY: I think both parties agree that it is necessary indeed to have the political framework in order to reach eventually a cease-fire. We have presented concrete ideas, specific ideas, which we also have presented to our Lebanese counterparts. The government of Israel will now deliberate these ideas.
NEWTON: But the Israelis seem to be in no hurry. As their punishing campaign against Hezbollah continues, they seem free to set most of the conditions of any peace plans. Top of the list, forcing Lebanon to disarm what's left of Hezbollah and take back control of their southern border.
To do it, the Israeli foreign minister says her government might consider an international force to back up what is a weakened Lebanese army.
TZIPI LIVNI, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: So Israel will look into details about what is the best way to get an effective force on one force on one hand, but yet to reach a point in the future in which it will be a Lebanese army on the entire Lebanon.
NEWTON: An international force, UNIFIL, it is already on the ground in southern Lebanon, 2,000 strong, but an impotent army, perched very close to Hezbollah militia bases, yet powerless to enforce peace.
Israeli's deputy prime minister says that must change. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I don't believe that an international force, which is not a fighting force, and which is not ready really to face the situation as it is, can stop it.
NEWTON (on camera): Even if an international force is assembled, a peace plan is still a long way off. Especially since so far Israel has said it will offer no concessions in return for a cease-fire.
Paula Newton, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: So here's what we're doing today to help you better understand the story. We're taking an in-depth look at some of the key players in the Middle East crisis.
And right in the middle of things is Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He is the 12th person to hold the post. He was sworn in, in may After filling in when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was incapacitated by a stroke. He has held several government positions, including finance minister and mayor of Jerusalem.
In response to the current crisis, Olmert says, quote, we shall destroy infrastructures of terrorism until Hamas and Hezbollah do the decent thing.
Speaking of Hezbollah, you're now looking at the face of Hezbollah. Hassan Nasrallah leads the group that we've been talking about so much in recent days. We want to give you a closer look at the man behind the militant group.
With that, here is Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): His whereabouts are a tight secret, but he's the most public Arab voice against Israel in this fight.
HASSAN NASRALLAH, HEZBOLLAH LEADER (through translator): We will continue -- we will be able to defeat the enemy.
TODD: He's led one of the region's most notorious militant groups into the mainstream of Lebanese politics, but has also led his forces into deadly confrontations with Israel. Two of the many contradictions of 46-year-old Hassan Nasrallah, the defiant leader of Hezbollah.
ROBIN WRIGHT, "WASHINGTON POST": Hassan Nasrallah is a man who combines the kind of charismatic Islamic populist ideology of Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's revolutionary leader, with the wily guerrilla tactics of Che Guevara.
TODD: Born in Beirut, trained as a Shiite cleric in Iraq and Iran, Nasrallah joined Hezbollah when it was established in 1982, became its leader 10 years later when his predecessor was assassinated by Israeli forces and suffered his own personal loss in the late 1990s.
HISHAM MELHEM, "AN-NAHAR" NEWSPAPER, LEBANON: He lost a son fighting Israeli troops when they were occupying South Lebanon. So there's a good deal of stature.
TODD: Stature in Lebanon and beyond, according to analysts. They say for dispossessed Muslims, Nasrallah has emerged as a more pragmatic counterbalance to Osama bin Laden, who Nasrallah has condemned as despicable.
JON ALTERMAN, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Osama bin Laden comes across as removed. He talks in sort of cryptic sentences. Hassan Nasrallah doesn't talk in cryptic sentences. He raises his fist and he tells you how the world needs to be.
TODD: But the two have common enemies. At the same time Nasrallah was leading Hezbollah's rise in the Lebanese parliament. Intelligence analysts say he helped shelter Imad Mughniyeh, the alleged mastermind of the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut.
(on camera): Could this be the end of the line for Hassan Nasrallah. Some analysts believe he miscalculated this time, not figuring that Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers would escalate to this point. They say Nasrallah's fate may depend on how long Israel wants to keep up this fight.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(MARKET REPORT)
KAGAN: We're back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: We're getting this morning that the U.S. military moving a number of ships into the region.
With more on that and the view from the Pentagon, let's go to our Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, that's right. The USS Iwo Jima an amphibious assault ship that is essentially a small helicopter carrier, is being dispatched to the area off the coast of Lebanon, along with some of its support ships, that will also be there to assist in the evacuation if needed. They bring the capacity to take people from Lebanon to Cyprus, as well as helicopters that could be used.
But the primary means of evacuation continues to be a plan to use commercial chartered vessels, including the Orient queen, a Greek flag vessel, which we are told is either at or close to the Port of Beirut. It'll be the first ship out. But in addition, U.S. government officials say today that the U.S. government is trying to charter four or five more cruise ships as the primary means of getting U.S. citizens out of Lebanon.
Meanwhile, helicopter evacuations continue. There are now six CH-53 helicopters operating back and forth between Lebanon and Cyprus taking the most needy cases, the elderly, sick, children, so-called special needs cases.
Here we see some of the people arriving in Cyprus on Sunday.
Those helicopter operations continue today with another 60 or so people taken out of Lebanon. Right now, the U.S. has the ability, the capability, with those six helicopters to take out 300 people a day by helicopter, but again, they're reserving that essentially for people in a desperate situation.
Most people will be going out by ship in the coming days, either on the ship that's there arriving there today or one of the other charter ships that the U.S. is about to charter. And again, the plan is to bring four or five charter ships, supplement that with the six helicopters as an air bridge between Lebanon and Cyprus, and then have the U.S. military warships there as a backup. If they need extra capacity, they could be pressed into service in a number of ways -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jamie, explain to me the thinking, why are they going with commercial ships like that? Why not perhaps it could have even sped things up if they'd just sent the military in?
MCINTYRE: Well, believe it or not, speed was not the priority. Safety was the priority, orderliness was the priority, to make sure that they did this in a deliberate, organized way. And even, believe it or not, comfort was one of the things that they wanted to consider before they just rushed people on to warships.
First of all, you have to understand, these ships aren't there yet. They were in the Red Sea. They still have to transit the Suez Canal. And most of the ships won't get there until Thursday or Friday, the U.S. warships. One of them should be there by tonight.
But again, these are warships. They can take people if they had to. But they can take a limited number of people. They can move much more efficiently and with much more comfort and with perhaps a greater degree of individual safety if they can bring in cruise ships that are designed to carry passengers, and that's what they decided to do.
KAGAN: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. Jamie, thank you.
We're getting word from the Department of Defense that they are about to release some videotape of Americans who are being evacuated, and we will those very shortly and bring them to you in a bit.
Right now, a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Let's go right to these new pictures being released by the Department of Defense. It shows pictures of Americans being evacuated from Beirut, Lebanon. They're being loaded on to helicopters.
Our Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre was just explaining to us the few that are being taken out. We lost that picture. Well, we'll keep talking about it. Let me tell you about this, that the few that are being taken out by helicopter, they can do about 300 a day, and those getting priority are the elderly, the sick, and some children being taken out. Looks like we're re-racking the pictures, and we'll bring them to you again.
But of course 300 a day not nearly enough capacity in order to be able to bring out everybody who wants to get out in terms of American who want to get out of Beirut.
Here are those pictures yet again. And yet exactly compared to matching up to the description that Jamie was saying. It does look like we're seeing women and children among those who are being taken out by helicopter. Many of them being taken to Cyprus, being put on commercial planes, and either being taken to other countries or even back here to the U.S.
Much more on those evacuations and the ships that are moving into the area to increase those numbers to get people out. A little short video there. We'll have more as it becomes available.
Well, let's tell you what we know right now, as the fighting in the Middle East nears the start of its second week. Just a short time ago several new explosions believed to be Hezbollah rockets shook the Israeli city of Haifa.
This hour in Lebanon, frantic evacuations under way. Our Chris Burns says a cruise ship has started evacuating Americans from Beirut, and another is on the way.
And there's word from the Pentagon that it is bringing in three ships, the three-ship Iwo Jima group to help out. About 25,000 Americans are in Lebanon. They were there when the fighting broke out. Not all of those want to leave, however.
Diplomats are searching for ways to end the crisis. This is the scene along the Israeli-Lebanese border. Neither Israeli nor Hezbollah forces showing any signs of breaking down at this time -- backing down at this time.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
KAGAN: Well the markets might not be hot, but the weather certainly is: a massive heatwave all across America. We'll update you on that just ahead.
Plus, have you seen the new digs? Big weather is big news. That's why we've built this state of the art weather center. You can see Chad checking out his new toys over there. He's going to give me an exclusive tour, coming up in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: After this, we'll have more on the Mideast crisis. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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