Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Terrorism Addressed at Arab Summit

Aired March 28, 2002 - 08:09   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: Time now for us to bring you up to date on the latest from the Arab summit.

Let's go to Beirut, where our own Christiane Amanpour is standing by. You just saw parts of her interview with the Saudi foreign minister.

Christiane, good to see you.

There were a couple of things I was struck by when Prine Al- Faisal talked about Ariel Sharon having this conflict in his head. What did he mean?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think he means that this is a government which is now publicly on record as certainly not agreeing with the Oslo peace process and certainly in the last year or Ariel Sharon's rule, his popularity, they're referring to, has plummeted. He believes, in their view, that there is a military solution to this conflict and they believe that there is not.

So what was interesting about talking to him, and obviously with other leaders, as well here, the aim, they say, of this summit was not just to put forth their strategy vision for peace now and now it's not a Saudi initiative, but it's an Arab initiative, but to reach above the head of the Israeli government and go directly to the Israeli people, to reach out to Israeli public opinion. As odd as that might seem at a time when there's been this terrible suicide attack in Israel, they still hope that they can convince the Israeli public that this kind of conflict won't stop unless there is a political solution and unless there is a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders.

So they're trying to reach out and convince the Israeli people of that. And to be very frank, they're hoping that in several electoral cycles the Israeli people may turn around and elect a government that might be more predisposed to entering these kinds of peace negotiations.

ZAHN: But the public polls wouldn't seem to reflect that, at least the ones we've analyzed here lately, and I'm curious what impact these Arab officials you spoke with think that this Passover massacre will have on the Israeli population's ability to accept some of the stuff they're talking about.

AMANPOUR: Well, exactly, and I pressed them quite hard on that, including the foreign minister this morning. They still, they condemn it to us. They say they condemn all attacks on civilians. But they couple that with attacks on Palestinian civilians. They believe that -- and this is not new, this is the same position that they've had for years -- that without occupation, there wouldn't be suicide bombings, at least not by people allied with Yasser Arafat's movement.

So what they want is an end to the occupation.

In terms of the ratings and polls, they, too, are looking at polls, and they look at Ariel Sharon's popularity plummeting and sort of a more bold track taken by the Israeli peace movement, the Israeli left, which had been silenced, as you know, for a long time and recently has resurged.

Of course, they know that these suicide attacks terrorize and traumatize the Israelis and make them wonder whether the Arabs actually do want peace. But they hope that by publicly saying at this summit that they are now ready to offer full normal relations and all that entails, not just diplomatic, but grassroots normal relations, as well, to declare an end to the conflict, no more territorial claims, Israel's right to exist, to formally go on record as an entire Arab block and say that they're ready to do that in return for land, that, they hope, will make an impact in Israel.

ZAHN: Are any of these leaders, or have they to you conceded that Yasser Arafat bears any responsibility for the escalation of violence?

AMANPOUR: You know, we asked that over and over again and as you've seen in the opening sessions of this summit, there was public support for the intifada and public support for what they don't call violence or terrorism, but resistance. So it is coupled, they want this to end, they say, but they cannot ask the Palestinians, this is what they say, to end the resistance, which is what they call it, at a time when occupation continues.

And, again, they keep saying we condemn bombings and attacks on civilians, but our civilians are being killed. It's the same, they keep saying the same thing. The bottom line is, from what we can read into it, this will continue until they feel that the U.N. resolutions are complied with and the occupation is over.

ZAHN: Well, I thought the Saudi crown prince revealed some very interesting things to you. Thanks for that exclusive this morning.

Christiane Amanpour I'll let you go away. I know you can barely hear us with the drone of the helicopter behind you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com