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American Morning

As Israel Widens War in West Bank, Angry Backlash Being Felt in Arab World

Aired April 04, 2002 - 07:08   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: Back to the Middle East now. As Israel widens its war in the West Bank, an angry backlash is being felt in the Arab world. Egypt, one of only three Arab states with diplomatic ties to Israel, is now limiting those contacts as a result of what they call the aggression.

And the anger is directed not only at Israel, but at Israel's chief backer, the United States. Demonstrators have taken to the streets this week in Cairo and other Arab cities from Beirut to Damascus.

Two U.S. senators are traveling in the region. They are not carrying any official message from the president, but they are taking the pulse of the world leaders from Central Asia to the Middle East. And Senator Bill Nelson joins us now from Damascus, Syria. And hopefully his colleague, Senator Richard Shelby, will be joining us a little bit later on this morning -- welcome -- good to have you with us this morning, sir.

SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: Thank you, and Richard Shelby is right here with me.

ZAHN: OK. Good. So we'll start off with you. Senator Nelson, before we get to the specifics of your meeting with the president of Syria, I wanted you to address what is front-page news in the papers here today that there appears to be a shift in Bush administration policy towards coming to any kind of settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, that the secretary of state now said that the political process has to be sped up and has to include negotiations, which will lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. What does this say to you?

NELSON: Well, we met at length today with President Assad of Syria, and we pressed upon him the need for leadership to emerge in this part of the world, because this kind of violence is going to erupt into a major eruption. And clearly, that's not in the interests of the United States.

What we need to have is both sides pull back, get a cease-fire, get a condition where they can come to the table and start talking the specifics of peace. In the meantime, the administration needs to continue its efforts to be an honest broker for the United States, and Senator Shelby and Congressman Cramer and I were very happy to carry that message to the president of Syria today.

ZAHN: It appears, though, the administration is dropping its insistence on this cease-fire being carved out first before any political solution is addressed. Is that a good thing?

NELSON: Whatever will bring people to the table. I cannot tell you the ultimate formula which his going to stop the shooting, stop the killing, but whatever it is, it's got to be earnestly sought right now. I think that there are enough of the leaders in this part of the world that clearly want that to happen, so that they can stop killing each other and get to the table.

ZAHN: Senator Nelson, you talked about your meeting with President Assad earlier today. Syria, of course, on the U.S.'s list of state sponsors of terrorism. Are you satisfied with the role that Syria is playing in trying to clamp down on terrorism?

NELSON: We are not satisfied. Clearly, they can do more. Indeed, they have been helpful to us. There is a demonstration going on here in Damascus as we speak, and they have protected the American interests here. They have clearly been helpful to us in our war against al Qaeda, but you know, there is a lot more that they can do, and we directly confronted that issue with the president.

There are our perceptions that they have offered the facilities to some terrorist groups, and that our delegation told them that we wanted that to be ceased. They take a different role on that, and therein is part of the problem of bringing minds together here in the Middle East.

ZAHN: All right. Senator Nelson, if you would, we're going to allow you to share some of your audio equipment with your colleague, Senator Shelby, as he is getting miked up and puts one of these IFBs (ph), one of these listening devices in his ear. We will get back to him.

As we are waiting for Senator Shelby, I just wanted to share with you a recent USA Today Gallup Poll, which talks about perceptions of Americans and Bush administration policy. We now have 41 percent of Americans in this poll saying the president should personally get more involved, with 55 percent saying no.

Let's go back to Damascus, Syria now, and actually I am told Senator Shelby is still getting miked up. One of the things that we need to talk to Senator Shelby about is this whole point Senator Nelson just addressed about the Syrians needing to do more. He said, while they have offered us some kind of cooperation in the war against al Qaeda, more needs to be done.

Let's see if Senator Shelby is ready yet. OK. He has a mike on now, but he can't hear me. OK.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: I can hear you.

ZAHN: OK. Great. Senator Shelby, welcome. Senator Shelby, Paula Zahn here. SHELBY: Thank you. Hello, Paula.

ZAHN: Good morning -- thank you very much for joining us, sir.

SHELBY: Can you hear me?

ZAHN: I can hear you now, and I am told that you can hear me as well. I just wanted to follow up on a point that Senator Nelson just made.

SHELBY: I can't -- can you turn it up?

ZAHN: Let's turn up this audio level here. OK. How is that level? You can hear me now?

SHELBY: A little louder, a little louder.

ZAHN: OK. We're going to take one more attempt here, in addition to the low audio level...

SHELBY: I can't...

ZAHN: ... he is experiencing, we have a tremendous delay here.

SHELBY: I can't you hear you, Paula.

ZAHN: OK. Senator Shelby, we are going to take a very short break here...

SHELBY: You need to bring...

ZAHN: ... to try to solve our audio problems, and we will be right back at you with our conversation with Senator Shelby.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: And we are back, and we're going to try that connection again with Senator Richard Shelby, who joins us from Damascus, Syria. Can you hear me now? Welcome back.

SHELBY: I can hear you, Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Thank you very much for joining us, sir. You colleague, Senator Bill Nelson, talked about the meetings the two of you had with the president of Syria earlier today. And Senator Nelson said that while Syria has been helpful in the war against al Qaeda, that Syria can do more. I am curious whether you were able to ask the president about this latest Hezbollah action in Lebanon, where the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Israel come together.

SHELBY: Paula, that was talked about at the meeting. As a matter of fact, the issue of Hezbollah, the role they are playing now, and the possible pullback and disengaging between the area of Lebanon and Israel was very important. We put that on the table today and felt that it -- this didn't -- if they didn't back away there, this would just widen the war there or widen what's going on as far as the fighting is concerned, and that was in no one's best interest.

ZAHN: Are you confident that Syria, which has long supported Hezbollah, will actually do something about this?

SHELBY: That's a good question -- an excellent question, Paula. We were not reassured in that regard. As a matter of fact, the question was not answered straight up by the president, although overall, we had a good meeting.

I also asked the question of the president, did he believe that down the road that Hezbollah would become an international terrorist group, such as al Qaeda. And of course, he emphatically said no, but that is the concern of a lot of people in the country. But most of our emphasis today was on how can we bring the people to the table? That is the Israelis, the Palestinians and so forth to cut the violence down and bring some kind of warm, lasting peace to the area. It's a tough question, but it's something I believe is much better than war, much better than violence, much better than killing each other every day.

ZAHN: According to both the "Washington Post" and "The New York Times" today, the Bush administration is changing its stance a little bit, dropping its insistence that a cease-fire must happen first before a political solution may follow. The secretary of state actually saying that political process must be sped up. Is this a step in the right direction?

SHELBY: We hope so, but you know, we have tried so many steps, but we cannot quit, Paula, in trying to bring the people back to the negotiating table, where they can have meaningful negotiations, and back away from the violence. Israel is interested and should (ph) be in its (ph) security. The Palestinians are interested in statehood, and I hope that's all they are interested in. I think that there are a lot of things positive between the parties that can bring them together.

ZAHN: And how soon do you think there might be any withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied lands?

SHELBY: That's something we don't know. I know the Israelis have deployed powerful military forces all over the West Bank, and we will have to see when the violence subsides.

ZAHN: All right. Senator Shelby, we are going to leave it there this morning. We very much appreciate your time, and we apologize for all those audio distractions you had to deal with. Good luck on your mission. Senator Shelby, again, thanks for joining us.

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