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American Morning

Powell's Mission Becomes Increasing Difficult

Aired April 15, 2002 - 07:39   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: This morning, Secretary of State Colin Powell's Middle East mission has taken him to Lebanon and now to Syria. And in Beirut, Powell talked with Lebanese officials about the cross-border attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas against Israelis that threatened to widen the conflict in the region. He continued on to Damascus for talks with Syrian leaders. Powell's meetings yesterday with Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon gave no indication that any progress is being made toward a cease-fire.

And joining us now from Jerusalem, are CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Chris Burns and near Jenin, CNN's Rula Amin. Welcome all. Glad to have all of you with us. So, Wolf, if you would, I know you have spent a lot of time in the region over the years. Give us your overview on what you think this so-called -- what some are describing as -- mission impossible might ultimately accomplish.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm not sure, Paula, it is going to accomplish anything given the passions, the depth of the anger on both sides. It is almost a mission impossible. Having said that, if anyone can achieve anything, it is Secretary of State Colin Powell. The Israelis and the Palestinians are reluctant to make concessions to begin with. And they certainly are very reluctant to make concessions to lesser U.S. officials, whether General Zinni, the special envoy, or Assistant Secretary of State. Powell, knowing his credibility, knowing the importance, the influence, the stature that he has, they will bend over -- both sides -- to try to meet him some way.

Having said that, within their respective communities, there is so much anger right now, so much hatred. Both sides see it black and white. They feel so much that they have right on their side. It is almost like a mission impossible.

ZAHN: And Chris, don't you have two non-starters here. You now have Arafat saying, yes, I'll go for a cease-fire, but the Israelis got to get their troops out of there. And now, I know, some Israeli official said late last night on our own air that it might be two weeks before a complete withdrawal.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, the Israelis are insisting that they want to follow through on stamping out, rooting out what they call the infrastructure of terrorism. So, obviously, we're looking at almost a chicken and egg syndrome. Where the Israelis are demanding more time, insisting on more time to carry out their operation, Defensive Shield. And the Palestinians say, well we're not going to talk, we're not going to agree to any kind of cease-fire negotiations until the Israelis pull out from where they moved into in the last two weeks. So, yes, very much, almost a vicious circle here.

Possibly, what we might see, what we are seeing with what Powell is doing. Talking to both sides, trying to get them to agree in at least in the long run to negotiations. And at least today what we are seeing is a meeting between the Israelis and the Americans on, perhaps greasing the wheels a bit. The U.S. has offered more than $90 million in additional aid, not only for emergency aid in feeding the people, but also in reconstructing. So, this perhaps might grease the wheels a bit and get the Palestinians, anyway, to be a bit more flexible.

ZAHN: All right, let's bring Rula Amin into the conversation. Rula, you are standing by outside the town of Jenin. Is it true, you were able to get some of the first looks at some of the damage in Jenin?

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well we did go into Jenin yesterday and there was a lot of destruction. However today we have not been able to go in. We were told yesterday by the Israeli Army that we will be able to get in. When an advance team of CNN tried to get in, they were faced with Israeli tanks -- wouldn't even talk to them -- and they just pointed their barrels towards the car and waved to them to go away. So, we have been denied access to Jenin again. Of course Jenin refugee camp is still off-limits to us. Paula.

ZAHN: So what did you see yesterday?

AMIN: We saw a lot of destruction. Again, we saw restaurants, clubs, security headquarters, streets, cars all in ruins. We saw also a lot of angry people. We saw people standing in line trying to get bread. There is still a curfew on Jenin towns, just like the rest of many Palestinian towns. There are about hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been confined to their homes under curfew. And when we went to Jenin yesterday, the curfew had been lifted for a few hours.

The people were rushing, trying first to check out the damage, what had been destroyed in the last few hours -- or the last few days -- they have been at home. And second, is they were trying to stock on supplies, bread, milk, eggs, whatever actually had not been ruined. Because no electricity and no water has been running in Jenin for the last, almost week. And we saw a lot of Palestinian Authority municipality field workers trying to reverse some of the damage, working hard to get the electricity back in town. We've heard today from residents inside that they have been able to bring electricity back at least to some parts of Jenin.

ZAHN: All right, we're going to continue to look at some of those pictures, because these really are some of the first pictures we've seen of some of the devastation in Jenin. And I'm going to pose this next question to Wolf. Wolf, there's a lot of speculation in the newspapers here, stateside, about the extent of lives lost. You've had Palestinians for a week saying, basically that several hundred people have been slaughtered here. The Israelis are now saying it is closer to a couple of dozen people killed. What is the latest that has been confirmed for you there in the bureau?

BLITZER: Well the Israeli Chief of Staff is suggesting several dozen, maybe 100 Palestinians killed. Earlier in the week, Palestinian officials were saying 500 Palestinians were killed. There is no doubt, Paula, a lot of people were killed in Jenin. Obviously a hundred is a lot of people, 500 is even more. The question is, were they innocent people? Were they civilians, were they innocent bystanders? Or were they, as the Israelis insist terrorists, gunmen, people fighting the Israelis.

This was a fierce military battle that took place in Jenin. The fiercest in some 20 years of Israeli military activity. You have to go back to the early 80's when the Israelis invaded Lebanon. The Israelis lost 23 of their own soldiers in that battle. They say their were booby traps all over the place, explosives. And the fighting was intense, the fighting was tough. And as a result, there were innocent people that were killed, no doubt, as the Israelis swept into that city. Which they say was the stronghold of some of those suicide bombers that had crossed into Israel and gone after Israeli civilians.

I guess we're going to just have to wait and see, once those international representatives from the Red Cross, the UN, once international journalists are given some free access and people can go in and have a good close look, first hand we'll get a better sense of what happened. But right now there are all sorts of wild accusations being hurled on all sides.

ZAHN: All right, let's move on to Chris now, to bring us up to date on the standoff over the Church of Nativity. The Israelis offering a so-called deal to some of the Palestinians hold-up inside, particularly those they think are guilty of terrorism. They can either be expelled or face some sort of military trial at some point. Any signs of any change in the standoff?

BURNS: At this point, Paula, no. The exile for life offer is seen by the Palestinians as adding insult to injury. Because they say that exile for life is out of the question, and that a trial, arrest by Israeli forces is also just symbolically offending the idea that Bethlehem is one of the Palestinian Authority's areas. They are supposed to be Area A, governed by the Palestinian Authority. So imposing Israeli law on that area is very offensive to the Palestinians.

The last word we heard today, that there was an exchange of gunfire around the Church of the Nativity. The Israeli Army says that they blew up some kind of a weapons lab in Bethlehem as well. So, the activity does continue there, and the question is, what will happen? Now, the Vatican is trying to broker some kind of an agreement where the Israelis might pull back and allow the Palestinians to leave. There is up to 200 gunmen inside. But, up to now the Israeli military is offering, is not giving any flexibility on this.

What I might point out, however, that in the last couple of days, there was an opinion in the "Haaretz" newspaper, saying that Israel stands too much to lose in terms of public relations in the world. Bethlehem -- the Church of the Nativity, obviously being the spot where the Bible says Christ was born. And if that is made as a center point of this conflict, that Israel would suffer much more in terms of public relations than in trying to get a hold of a few dozen, or a few score of gunmen, Paula.

ZAHN: All right, team, I wanted to thank you for your insights this morning. Chris Burns, Wolf Blitzer, Rula Amin, I know it is not easy to report in this environment. Thank you very much for spending some time with us here this morning.

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