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American Morning

Powell Leaves Lengthy Sharon Meeting Without Withdrawal Timetable

Aired April 12, 2002 - 08:26   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: New developments this morning on Secretary of State Colin Powell's search for peace. After a lengthy meeting between Powell and Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Powell came out and said he had not forgotten a timetable for an Israeli pullout from the West Bank, which had been the key demand from the Bush administration. And Sharon, stating that Israel is conducting a war against Palestinian terrorism, would only say that he hopes it will end shortly.

Powell repeated the United States support for Israel, but cautioned against the long-term effects of the offensive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: And I hope we can find a way to come into agreement on this point of the duration of the operations and get back to a track that will lead to a political settlement because I think that is uppermost in everyone's mind, how can we go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: The secretary of state meets tomorrow a Yasser Arafat and the message will also be direct -- stop the terror.

We are joined now by senior analyst Jeff Greenfield -- Jeff, you seem to be the resident house pessimist. Did you see anything positive come out of this joint news conference today?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: Well, the United States and Israel have not broken off diplomatic relations.

ZAHN: Ooh, that's for starters.

GREENFIELD: But, all right, let me be, that's flip, I realize, but the serious part about this is it strikes me that the more we go into this current morass, the more the bar is lowered. If you start from where we were, say, a year and a half ago, that then President Clinton, then Prime Minister Barak and Yasser Arafat were working on what we thought might be an actual comprehensive solution, and we're now at the point thinking well, maybe we can get the Israelis out of the West Bank so they can begin to bury their dead and clear up the damage and maybe somehow we can persuade the suicide bombers to cut back on their murderous behavior, and we haven't seemed to reach that yet, it's very hard.

You know, diplomats speak diplomatic language and we're hopeful and we're desperate, you compare that, you compare what Powell said this morning to what President Bush said a few days ago when he looked in the camera and he said to the Israelis, you know, I meant what I said, now.

ZAHN: We've had a number of guests that said you could express that but express that privately and that basically Powell's boxed in here because of those demands that were made publicly.

GREENFIELD: That's part of the problem. You know, when you send, you know, there's an old saying, you know, when you strike at the king, make sure you kill him. The optimistic way of that is when you commit your highest ranking diplomat to this kind of mission, maybe you should know in advance that you're going to get something out of it, you know? And we heard yesterday all afternoon when Powell was meeting with the king of Jordan that, well, certainly Sharon would not bring him to Israel and let him go with nothing, right? They would have to have something. Our correspondents were saying that all yesterday.

Well, maybe he has, but we haven't heard it yet.

ZAHN: Talk a little bit about your reaction to what King Abdullah of Jordan had to say yesterday.

GREENFIELD: Yes, this is striking. This is the, probably the most moderate regime in the region and one of the two or three that have diplomatic relations with Israel. The king, who's the late King Hussein, expelled the Palestinians 30 years ago. I want you to listen to what King Abdullah said when Christiane Amanpour kept pressing him to make the simple statement that suicide bombing, these murderers, that it was wrong. So if we can listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING ABDULLAH II, JORDAN: I personally do not, and I've always stood against the loss of life, terrorism or extremism in all its form, me, as a person, although there is the feeling, whether rightly or wrongly, in the Arab street, that that is the only mechanism that the Palestinians have in retaliating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: He also went on to say that Arafat is perceived as sort of the great hero of the Palestinian culture.

GREENFIELD: Right. But what strikes you about this is when the king who is probably, as is say, as moderate a voice as you can find, says well, this is what the street feels, it's not the street that's nurturing and funding these suicide bombers, you know? It's the government of Iraq. It's the government of Iran. The Saudis now say with this telethon that they're doing to raise money for the martyrs, well, it's not the suicide bombers, but it probably well is the families of the suicide bombers. And one of the questions that the secretary of state I don't think has yet got an answer to, maybe he'll find out from Arafat tomorrow, is how is this going to be stopped if Arab governments are funding and rewarding those who do this and their families? And, Prime Minister Sharon, how far have you retreated from the peace plan that Barak put on the table that Arafat rejected? We're nowhere near back to where we were a year and a half ago.

So, yes, I'm the house pessimist.

ZAHN: I think we should send you over there as a mediator. You'd cut to the quick of those issues after covering it for so many years.

GREENFIELD: Yes, you know, that's my diplomatic...

ZAHN: The Jeff Greenfield act.

GREENFIELD: Stop killing each other.

ZAHN: All right. Thank you. Have a good weekend.

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