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American Morning
When Summit of Arab Nations Gets Under Way, Arafat May Not Be There
Aired March 26, 2002 - 07:13 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: When a crucial summit meeting of Arab nations gets under way in Beirut tomorrow, Yasser Arafat may or may not be there. Israeli leaders under intense pressure from the U.S. to let him go will decide today whether to lift their travel restrictions on the Palestinian leader.
The violence in the past year-and-a-half has claimed the lives of over 1,000 Palestinians, 350 Israelis. Now, 22 Arab nations are gathering in Beirut, focusing in on a Saudi Arabian plan for Middle East peace.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in the Lebanese capital.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the handshake felt around the Middle East. At Camp David in 1979, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin, and the U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, sealed the peace between Israel and Egypt. They were the first to exchange ambassadors and normalize relations.
It would take another 25 years for the next Arab nation to make peace with Israel, which Jordan's King Hussein did with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. A year earlier, a handshake between Rabin and Yasser Arafat heralded the possibility that the whole Arab world would eventually recognize Israel and live in peace.
But it's a new millennium now, and it hasn't' turned out that way. And yet, with Saudi Arabia's new proposal for the Arab world, normal relations with Israel in return for a withdrawal to its 1967 borders, fragile hope has again resurfaced.
SHIMON PERES, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Normally it would mean normalization, I mean, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) open borders and open gates as far as the economy is concerned, fighting together the dangers which are regional like (UNINTELLIGIBLE) narcotics, pollution, AIDS. They want to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a world to test potentials (ph) or remain in a world that there is only dangers.
AMANPOUR: Israel exchanged ambassadors with Egypt and Jordan, their flags fly in each other's capitals, and there have been exchanges of commerce and tourism. But more than just a state of peace between two nations, normalization implies a binding together of peoples, and that has not yet happened, even in the two Arab countries at peace with Israel, where the Palestinian intifada has hardened an already skeptical public opinion.
HABIB KAMHAWAI, JORDANIAN ANALYST: After 17 or 18 months of devastation to a land, people and infrastructure, every single Arab and even every single Muslim looks at Israel as the enemy, looks at Israelis as the enemy, as the killers. And this is a very bad time to ask about normalization or even to try to measure it.
AMANPOUR: A measure of normalization may one day show up on maps like these. In Lebanon and other Arab countries, maps don't even show Israel existing on the land that was once called Palestine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Now, despite the bitterness of what has happened over the last 18 months, the Arab nations here, specifically three senior leaders who we have spoken to today, say that the main aim of this summit, apart from presenting a plan as a way forward, is to try reach out to Israeli public opinion, to convince Israelis that the Arab countries finally want to, as a block, announce that they want to end the conflict, recognize Israel's right to exist and enter into normalization in all forms and fashions of what that term absolutely means.
And in terms of whether Yasser Arafat comes here or not, the host and also other foreign ministers here have told us that that would be nice and he would obviously be welcome, but his presence is not essential for what they are going to do. And that is sign on to this summit proposal to endorse full normalization with Israel in return for a withdrawal to the 1967 borders -- Paula.
ZAHN: So, Christiane, they are telling you it would be nice, but not necessary for what they are trying to accomplish. There are a number of reports here stateside that suggest that Prime Minister Sharon will allow Arafat to come. What is the expectation there?
AMANPOUR: Well, it's hard to really put a finger on it, because what we are hearing is that even if Sharon finally says, yes, he can come, that on the other side, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, one of the countries that has made peace with Israel, has advised Arafat not to come. So there is a little bit of sort of bravado going on here as well from the Arab countries that, you know, perhaps Arafat shouldn't come under these strict, strict conditions that the Israelis are putting on him.
Nonetheless, despite those atmospherics, they say they are going to push ahead and sign onto this document, which they say now has unanimous approval from all of the Arab countries here.
ZAHN: All right. We'll leave it there this morning -- Christiane Amanpour, thanks so much for that live update.
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