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The Big Question: What Can Colin Powell Do to Make Difference in Middle East?

Aired April 05, 2002 - 07:09   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: Our big question this morning: What can Colin Powell do to make a difference in the Middle East? When the secretary of state heads to the region next week, his agenda will include an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities and a cease- fire.

Israel, meanwhile, continues to tighten its grip on the West Bank. The president mentioned yesterday that both sides were strong and direct, and the time is now to stop the violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Decades of bitter experience teach a clear lesson. Progress is impossible when nations emphasize their grievances and ignore their opportunities. The storms of violence cannot go on. Enough is enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And joining us now to talk about Colin Powell's mission to the Middle East is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger -- welcome back -- good to see you again.

HENRY KISSINGER, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: Always good to be here.

ZAHN: I hate to remind you of this, but on Tuesday when you were a guest here, you said it wasn't a mistake for Secretary Powell not to travel to the region. Now of course, the president has announced he will make this trip next week. Is that the right thing to do? Or do you still stand by your original statement?

KISSINGER: I didn't think on Tuesday enough had happened to send Secretary Powell, and I was afraid that Secretary Powell would be trapped between the parties without a stated program put by each party in their favored (ph) direction. Now, the president has made a clear and strong statement of what America expects from both sides. Now, the secretary of state has an agenda of his own in the name of which he can operate in the Middle East. And I think now it is appropriate for him to go there and, in fact. very important for him to go there.

But we have to remember that talking isn't the issue. The issue now is whether both sides, and especially on the issue of terror on the Arab side, are prepared to make concrete adjustments and changes in their perception (ph).

ZAHN: Do you think they are?

KISSINGER: That is what has to be brought -- what it is important for us and it is important for the war against terrorism, that the outcome, whatever it is, is not perceived as having been elicited from us by suicide bombings. And that one side has to make the territorial concession, and the other side only recognizes that it exists, but changes nothing else. The recognition of existence is where foreign policy starts for every other nation. It's not something for which you usually ask to make a concession.

So that is the challenge that the secretary has. The president has made very clear what we expect from the Israelis in concrete terms. Those are things that are visible and can be done. A commitment to the existence of Israel is a word that has occasionally been given by individual parties, and it has to be tied to complete measures so that mothers can send their children to school without worrying which report of a bomb affects them.

ZAHN: For the most part, the president's speech was received very positively in editorial pages of newspapers all across the country. There was, however, a scathing editorial in "The Wall Street Journal" this morning suggesting that in President Bush calling for Israel to end this siege of Palestinian terrorists, you in fact are rewarding the terrorists and, in the words of "The Wall Street Journal," "propping up Yasser Arafat.

KISSINGER: I haven't seen that editorial yet. But one point when I was in office, I had an assistant check for how long we were getting editorial support by doing what the editorials were urging us...

ZAHN: However, that lasted about two minutes?

KISSINGER: Never more than two weeks.

ZAHN: Two weeks.

KISSINGER: So I think it was a strong statement that the president made, and it was well done. But that does not assure support if we do not get control of the diplomacy, and if the diplomacy emerges as incompatible with what we have been saying all along about the war on terrorism, and that's the big task for Secretary Powell.

ZAHN: Help us understand what went into this calculation in making this decision to have Secretary of State Powell go to the region. The "Washing Post" is suggesting this morning that the administration had to weigh the risk and what that might entail his going over vs. continuing to get slammed in those editorial pages, which I know you are so in love with.

KISSINGER: No, I think they are important. I think actually they are important, but it is always important, it's always crucial to remember that the ultimate test is the outcome and not the day after. And it's no protection to have been approved editorially if what emerges doesn't work. I think there is a chance of this working, as long as we keep at the end of what is being done that terrorists should not be able to say that they got us to do things that we would not have done except for terrorism. That has to be one big guideline.

ZAHN: So how do you prevent that from happening?

KISSINGER: I think just as the Israelis have to do things that are very painful to them, which have been spelled out in detail and forcefully by the president, the Arab states have to state that suicide bombing is not an appropriate means of achieving Arab objectives. Right now, the suicide bombers are glorified as martyrs. Their families are getting some vengeance, and therefore, they are undoubtedly claiming credit for having produced American intervention and activity and diplomacy that we had heretofore rejected.

I think the president's statement was a very forceful, well- delivered, well-crafted statement. And at the end of it, when the various concessions are ended up, the end result has to be something concrete that the Arab side did, other than just recognition of Israel, which can always be withdrawn.

ZAHN: But in the end, you're confident...

KISSINGER: There has to be an end to suicide bombings, and there has to be an attack on civilians and an end to attack on the civilians as a strategy for military campaigns, and then, these other measures that the president so strongly put forward, it will be balanced.

ZAHN: Well, we always appreciate your perspective and your candor, even if we have to put on the spot every now and then. Dr. Henry Kissinger, great to see you again -- look forward to having you back next week.

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