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American Morning

Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erakat Reacts to Passover Bombing

Aired March 28, 2002 - 08:16   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: Now we focus our attention on the Middle East, where Arab nations have approved a Saudi peace plan just hours after the latest suicide bombing. The Palestinian Authority says it strongly condemns the attack that left 21 people dead, 20 Israelis and the bomber. Palestinian workers are evacuating offices in Ramallah, anticipating possible retaliation by Israel. And in the last hour we asked, or talked with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and asked him about what he thinks Israel should do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD BARAK, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Arafat could and still can what he's lack, his leadership or character to do this kind of decision. But he should arrest the people of Islamic Jihad. He should put an end, should put an end to the poisoning of the souls of young Palestinians against Israel and he can do that. He will not move unless he will see the whole world in a focused coherent form telling him end of bullets, start action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: On the other side, joining us now from Ramallah is chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. Thank you very much for joining us this morning, sir.

Mr. Erakat, has Mr. Arafat lost his ability to control his population?

SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: Well, it's a very difficult situation for President Arafat. You know, the whole situation is under total siege, under total closure, under inability to move. You know, either the Israelis will have to make up their minds to treat him as a president and a partner where he will carry out all his obligations or to treat him as a prisoner, which they are doing, or calling him at (UNINTELLIGIBLE) but they cannot hold him accountable.

What can President Arafat do after the Israeli government destroyed all his security abilities, offices, vehicles, command centers, communications centers?

Nevertheless, Paula, I want to say very, very frankly we condemn what happened in Natanya last night. We issued a very strong statement. President Arafat is condemning what happened in the strongest possible terms. And we really applaud, at this stage I really applaud the American decision to keep General Zinni here. And we have come a long way in the last few days with General Zinni and in order to initiate the implementation of Tenet. We hope that we will continue exerting every possible effort, because I don't know anymore what defines the line of retaliation or the line of action, what is it, what does all this rhetoric and talk like what I heard Mr. Barak saying now, do to us? Does it save one single Israeli life or one single Palestinian life?

Let's get to the business, Palestinians and Israelis, of helping General Zinni in order to ensure the success of his mission.

ZAHN: All right, sir, while you...

ERAKAT: And I believe we're going in the dark...

ZAHN: All right, I hear what you're saying, sir.

ERAKAT: Yes?

ZAHN: But while you accuse Mr. Barak of communicating propaganda, he accuses you of the same thing. And he essentially says that Palestinians aren't willing to concede that Yasser Arafat had anything to do with the violence. We've just heard your point of view. You basically said the Israelis have undermined his ability to control the population because they've damaged his infrastructure. Does he bear any responsibility for what's going on in Israel?

ERAKAT: What's the point? I mean Sharon has been treating Arafat as a prison. Sharon has been destroying our ability to move, our ability to function. But nevertheless, Paula, what I said to General Zinni when I met him yesterday, I said, you know, capabilities, we can't rebel.

Ask us the question are we willing to carry out all our obligations? I handed a written form to General Zinni from President Arafat saying I'm fully committed to carry out a hundred percent of the obligations emanating from the Tenet understanding. Let us reach this agreement. Let us see to it that the Israelis will give us the chance to do what we were supposed to do.

But at the same time, when they use the language of the closure and the siege and the suffocation, why these attacks are happening under the closure and the siege? Maybe and only maybe if we can help General Zinni reach the point of initiating the implementation of Tenet, a joint declaration of a cease-fire by the leaders of both sides and then monitors to follow-up the implementation by each side, I think we can have a chance then.

ZAHN: All right, but Mr. Erakat, you no doubt heard what Secretary of State Powell had to say and he says that is Yasser Arafat's responsibility. Let's listen quickly to some of his reaction to yesterday's suicide bombing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is the time for Chairman Arafat to get on television, to get on radio, to speak to his people, to tell them that they are destroying their own desire and vision for a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel behind secure and recognizable borders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Will Yasser Arafat address his people in Arabic, as Secretary Powell stated, and renounce the violence?

ERAKAT: Yes. I think just three days ago Mr. Powell was on the phone with President Arafat and he asked him to speak in Arabic about these things. The president did and I'm sure Mr. Powell realizes that those who carried out the operation last night intend to sabotage the Zinni's effort, intend to sabotage Arafat's efforts in order to get back to the peace process.

Paula, I have to just to say to remind, I'm not saying that anything justifies what took place last night, but since General Zinni came here, we have 31 Palestinians who were killed at the hands of the Israeli Army. If we can't budge to those who want to kill on both sides and sabotage the efforts of General Zinni and those who want to revive (UNINTELLIGIBLE), to revive the peace process, I think we will create a deeper problem.

Now, we have one thing in town called General Zinni. I really applaud the decision of President Bush and Mr. Powell to keep him in town and I think we should exert every possible effort with him in order to do those. We have to keep in mind, Paula, that today there is a historic significance strategic decision that came from the Arab countries, from the Arab summit and it's the first time since 1948 where the Arab leaders have come unanimously, willing, saying we will recognize Israel, we will normalize the relations, we will exchange ambassadors, we will have full peaceful relations in exchange for the limitation of the security resolutions. I believe this is significant. This is the most significant thing in the last 55 years or 54 years of conflict between Arabs and Israelis, this attitude that Zinni...

ZAHN: All right...

ERAKAT: ... effort, I think, we have a good chance to proceed forward. And we should not budge and we should not allow those who want to sabotage this effort to succeed.

ZAHN: All right, we're going to have to leave it there this morning.

Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, appreciate your joining us on AMERICAN MORNING.

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