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CNN Live Today
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Heading to Mideast Region Sunday; Evacuating Lebanon
Aired July 21, 2006 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're watching the crisis in the Middle East develop through a series of live pictures. You can split on your screen, one, New York City, the Security Council meeting just under way, and you can see the U.N. Security -- the U.N. Secretary-general Kofi Annan On the left part of that box, and he will be addressing them very soon. On the right side, northern Israel, the buildup of Israeli military along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
We're at the half hour. Let's take a look at what we know about the developing situation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to leave for the Mideast on Sunday. Today she outlines diplomatic efforts to ease the crisis.
Sirens sounded in Israeli port city of Haifa within the past hour. Hezbollah rocket attacks hit there and other towns today.
And there's growing concern about an all-out Israeli ground assault against Hezbollah. Israeli military says it is calling up its reserve troops.
Handshakes and high-level diplomacy the response to the past conflicts in the Middle East. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be heading to the region Sunday. But things are different this time around.
Our Brian Todd explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Snapshots of success, the accomplishments of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East. 1973, Henry Kissinger negotiates peace after the Yom Kippur War. Five years later, Jimmy Carters brokers the Camp David Accords. In 1993, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands on Palestinian rule and better Israeli security.
The consensus now? Don't expect any historic photo-ops with leaders who could help end this conflict.
AMB. RICHARD MURPHY, FMR. ASST. SECY. OF STATE: Obviously, that's Syria and Iran. Now, we don't have contact of any meaningful nature in either capital.
TODD: Former top U.S. diplomats say the days when Condoleezza Rice could even think of shuttling between Israel and Syria or Lebanon to broker a cease-fire are long gone, gone since the United States pulled its ambassador out of Damascus last year, over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, gone because of tensions over Syria's alleged sheltering of insurgents from Iraq, and gone in light of the Bush administration's hard line toward Syria in the war on terror, and toward Iran in the nuclear standoff.
Another reason for diminished diplomatic opportunity, analysts say, one overriding perception of America's role in this conflict.
FAWAS GERGES, SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE: The idea that I hear from really across the board is that the United States has given Israel a green light to continue its bombing of Lebanon.
TODD: An opinion so widely shared, it's forced the White House to deny even greater complicity.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: We're not engaged in military strategy sessions with the Israelis. We're not colluding. We're not cooperating. We're not conspiring.
TODD (on camera): Now, analysts say, that message has to be driven home to some key Arab leaders in the region, leaders in places like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, who may provide the only channel to get to Syria and Iran, and possibility negotiate long-term security at the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Helicopter evacuations, a surreal experience for many Americans. They're glad to be getting out of harm's way. But still kind of frightening when it's happening.
One of those hitching a lift out of Lebanon was Gabriel Awayjain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GABRIEL AWAYJAIN, EVACUATED LEBANON: At first it was kind of scary, because I never thought I would leave a country from a helicopter, and it was just my first time being in a helicopter, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: But that didn't stop her from capturing the experience on camera. Gabriel, just returning home, joins us by phone from us Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Gabrielle, hello.
AWAYJAIN: Hello.
KAGAN: How does it feel to get back in the U.S.?
AWAYJAIN: It feels good, but I'm sad to leave all of my friends behind and family. KAGAN: I bet so. Now we're putting up on the screen, and I don't even know if you can see what we're showing, but we're showing these photographs you took as you and your family evacuated. Tell me about what you saw as you looked out the window?
AWAYJAIN: We just saw water, like as we were leaving, we just saw Lebanon just like disappear slowly in our eyes.
KAGAN: And what about the military helicopters and airplanes that you saw?
AWAYJAIN: They were really cool, like we saw everything. My cousin actually sat next to a bomb, and it was just like we were going to a war.
KAGAN: And so while it was happening and while you and your family were getting away, were you scared?
AWAYJAIN: I was scared a little bit, but not so much.
KAGAN: Not so much that you couldn't take these amazing pictures.
AWAYJAIN: Yes.
KAGAN: What made you think of doing that?
AWAYJAIN: Well, I don't know. It was just an experience, so I thought might as well, like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
KAGAN: Yes, probably and we're looking at pictures of your family and other people who were able to get away onboard that helicopter. This was not the summer vacation that your family planned, was it?
AWAYJAIN: No, we were actually supposed to stay for a year, and our trip was cut short to like 13 days.
KAGAN: So this was just the beginning of a year?
AWAYJAIN: Yes.
KAGAN: And what was that year supposed to be about?
AWAYJAIN: Learning the language and just meeting new people.
KAGAN: And it had just gotten started, so that was pretty disappointing.
AWAYJAIN: Yes.
KAGAN: So you still have family back there?
AWAYJAIN: Yes, I still have family.
KAGAN: And thinking about them, even though you're safe back here in the U.S., I bet.
AWAYJAIN: Yes.
KAGAN: Yes, so change of plans. We're glad you're back here in the U.S.
AWAYJAIN: Thank you.
KAGAN: Yes, and thinking maybe being a reporter when you grow up, Gabrielle? Those are some pretty good pictures that you took.
AWAYJAIN: I don't know, I never really thought of it, but I should probably put that in my head.
KAGAN: Yes, you might want to think about that, because I think I see some talent. Good pictures. Thanks for sharing your story, and welcome home to you and your family.
AWAYJAIN: Thank you very much.
KAGAN: Thank you. Gabriel Awayjain, 13 years old, just arriving back in the U.S. after evacuating from Lebanon, and sharing those incredible pictures that she took as her family evacuated by air.
We'll have more pictures from some professional journalists just ahead, live pictures Israel. That's along the border there with Lebanon, or very close to it. We'll also go live to Beirut. That's just ahead.
You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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KAGAN: We're watching a series of live pictures as the Middle East crisis story develops. On the left hand side, the box there, that's the U.N. Security Council. That meeting currently underway in New York. And on the right side, northern Israel. You can see a buildup of Israeli military as it gets closer to the Lebanese border.
Our John Vause joins me now, live from Jerusalem, with a chance -- and to give some perspective about what the Israelis might want do in Southern Lebanon.
John, we've heard about this buffer zone. But the Israelis have made it pretty it clear they're not interested in a repeat of what the situation was in the '80s and '90s.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very true, Daryn. There's certainly no intention from any Israeli official that I've been speaking to over the last couple of the days that the Israelis want to go into southern Lebanon, plant the Israeli flag, and stay there. There's been talk of this 20-mile buffer zone, but the Israelis are not giving any official space on how far they want to go into Lebanon, how much land they want for this buffer zone, to protect those Israeli towns and cities from the Katyusha rockets and other missiles.
The number, 20 miles, is being talked about because what's happened over the last couple of days is the Israeli air force has been dropping these leaflets, sending out other messages to the civilians in the southern part of Lebanon that they should evacuate their homes and head to the Litani River, which is 20 miles north, for their own safety.
I think the key here is that the Israelis want an unmanned buffer zone. And there's no way in the world that a 20-mile space north of the border could ever be unmanned. So what we're seeing is the assembling of the tanks and the soldiers along the border of Israel and Lebanon, waiting for that order to go in. Because quite obviously, ten days of airstrikes and some fairly intense artillery shelling just has not taken out those Hezbollah strongholds, has not imagined to stop Hezbollah from firing those Katyusha rockets and other missiles -- Daryn.
KAGAN: So the plan is that these, what we're looking at, these lives pictures -- and I know you can't see there in Jerusalem, but we're looking at live pictures of buildup -- they would go into Southern Lebanon?
VAUSE: Yes, either today, tomorrow, or the next day. No one's entirely sure just precisely when all of this will happen, but it's a fairly safe bet now that the plans are on the drawing board and that the order is coming through some kind of very big ground operation in the southern part of Lebanon. The key to all this is what happens next? After the Israelis go in, they've called up the reserves. Between 3,000 and 6,000 reservists have been called up to augment the forces who are already there.
The key to all this is what happens after that, once they've cleared this area; in the words of one Israeli official, once they sterilize the area? Then what happens? Does the Lebanese army come in and take control? The Lebanese army has been bombed by the Israeli air force. Soldiers have been killed by the Israelis. Some kind of international peacekeeping force? The Israelis don't really want an international peacekeeping force. They don't trust soldiers from Russia or France or China to maintain that border, to maintain the security for the Israelis.
So there's a real dilemma here on the diplomatic front, and that's what the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, will face when she arrives in the region in the coming days, if this is, in fact, about to be announced in the coming hours.
One thing that we are watching very closely in Jerusalem, Daryn, is the elliptical machine, the exercise machine at one of the hotels here where the secretary of state stays. Because once that machine disappears from the gymnasium, then we have a pretty safe bet that Condoleezza Rice is heading. So we're watching that very, very closely.
KAGAN: That's a good clue. Good insight there. John Vause, thank you for that. John Vause, live from Jerusalem.
Coming up on the quarter hour, let's go ahead and take a look at what we know right now. The diplomatic developments -- you heard John make reference to the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. She has announced she will leave for the area on Sunday. Today she outlines U.S. plans for easing the crisis.
Sirens sounding in the Israeli port city of Haifa within the past hour. Hezbollah rocket attacks hit there and in other towns today.
And there's growing concern about an Israeli ground assault against Hezbollah. Israel's military says it is calling up its reserve troops.
Roads reduced to rubble; supplies dwindling. Getting medical care to the wounded in Beirut is becoming increasingly difficult.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta filed this report from Larnaca, Cyprus, for "ANDERSON COOPER 360."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The injury-to-death ratio right now standing about 3:1, which is remarkably high. The number of people who are dying compared to the number of people who have injured; about 750 people have been injured, compared to 250 have actually died now. The numbers rising every day.
Hospitals in the south of Lebanon, harder and harder to operate because of bombings, because of lack of infrastructure, because of lack of supplies. The roads from some of those smaller hospitals to the bigger hospitals, such as American University in Beirut, more difficult to actually pass now.
Amazing stories actually. Doctors are telling me where they actually have to take patients by all-terrain vehicles which travel slowly, if they can get through some of the rubble, and then transfer those patients to ambulances to get them to some of the bigger hospitals. This is what it's taking to actually get through what is quickly becoming a humanitarian crisis.
It's hard to say how long it will take. Blood is becoming in short supply, blood components are becoming in short supply. All of this while trauma continues to increase.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Larnaca.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And Sanjay is on the move and will continue to file reports from throughout the region. Look for updates weeknights on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." Much more coming from the Middle East. We're looking at the buildup Israeli military, getting close to the Lebanese border. More coverage just ahead. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: The crisis in the Middle East continues to develop. A number of live pictures to show you.
First, telling you about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She'll be going to the region on Sunday. This is tape -- my bad on that. It's a taped picture of the secretary of state meeting earlier today in New York City. She was meeting with U.N. officials.
Speaking of U.N., the Security Council is meeting right now. As we speak, live pictures from there. And then, on the right hand of your screen, what's taking place along the -- very close to the Israeli/Lebanese border, buildup of Israeli military. As the bombardment continues and intensifies by the Israeli military, Lebanese are on alert. Some have gone underground in a desperate bid to stay out of harm's way.
Our Karl Penhaul reports on the difficult and dangerous situation in the Lebanese city of Tyre. He filed this story for "ANDERSON COOPER 360."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Families huddle in this makeshift bomb shelter. The TV shows the latest on the fight for Southern Lebanon.
Their own lives frozen in time. It's just too dangerous to step outside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am afraid. I come with my family here, because I am afraid. I hope that they can stop the war.
PENHAUL: A Tyrean fisherman fled two blocks from his home to shelter in this basement of an apartment building with his wife and his children.
Seven families are holed up here, 40 people in total. Yet no toilets, no running water. When I met them, they'd already been underground nine days, since the moment Israeli bombs began dropping on Tyre.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sleeping on the floor. Dirt, everything dirty.
PENHAUL: Dirty may be, but probably safer than their own homes while Israel's running around the clock air strikes. As each day passes, Raeed's (ph), Nor (ph) and Mohammed (ph), are getting bored, but also more frightened. Their mothers know that feeling only too well. "I feel so frightened at the sound of bombs and the air strikes. I want peace. I want the war to stop," she says.
If they look through the window of their bunker these families can see the remnants of more peaceful times, like when they were free to hang the laundry out to dry.
But the view down the street is different now. A mile and a half away you see this. Israeli warplanes pound Tyre's suburbs. Hospital cook Mona Brahim (ph) says she blames Israel and America for the destruction. She says Hezbollah fighters are heroes.
"If Hezbollah was not here, then Israel would destroy us. Hezbollah protects us here in Lebanon," she says.
For now, at least, there's still electricity to power the fans. And those brave enough can still buy canned food from a few corner stores that remain open.
Carpenter Ahmad Nahim (ph) tries to stay patient, smoking his water pipe and daydreaming of home comforts.
"I hope the war will stop and I can go home to sleep in my own bed," he says.
It's not that he's grown weary of his companions, he just wants to get on with his life, far from the fury of war.
Karl Penhaul, CNN, Tyre, South Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Karl is part of the team covering the Middle East crisis for "ANDERSON COOPER 360." Anderson is live from the frontlines from Beirut tonight. "AC 360" airs weeknights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
We're watching these live pictures in northern Israel. The Israelis have said that the military is ready to call up a few thousand Israeli reserves to augment the Israeli deployment into Southern Lebanon. More on that ahead.
Plus, we'll check the markets here in the U.S. Actually we'll check the markets now. No, we won't. We'll check it after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: We continue to watch these live pictures out of northern Israel. The military there saying that it's ready to call up a few thousand Israeli reserve troops to augment the Israeli deployment into Southern Lebanon.
On the diplomatic front, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announces that she will head to the region on Sunday.
The State Department news briefing in an hour and a half, that is set to begin, you'll see that live here on CNN. (BUSINESS HEADLINES)
KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan. Keep watching CNN. "YOUR WORLD TODAY" is up next.
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