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American Morning
Peace Plan in Peril
Aired June 11, 2003 - 09:04 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning to the violence threatening to undermine the Mideast peace plan, Israel is responding to a rare U.S. rebuke, insisting that yesterday's missile attack in Gaza City was justified.
Our Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna has more -- Mike.
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, criticism of the Israeli action continues, both from outside and from within Israel. But the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has no regrets about the action in which there was an attempt at assassination of a senior Hamas militant leader.
Ariel Sharon reportedly told his cabinet in the court in the morning at a special meeting that he would do whatever is necessary to combat what he said was terror. Israeli defense forces alleging in the wake of that assassination attempt that the target, Hamas leader Abdel Rantissi was a known terrorist aiming to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel.
The fallout though continues, within the Israeli media particularly, many of the media asking why the particular timing at this particular time, particularly as attempts were under way to resuscitate a peace process.
Despite all these unfolding violence from the ground, though, the Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Sullimain (ph), arrived in the West Bank in the course of the day for talks with the Palestinian Authority to see if he can go about attempting to brokering some form of agreement between the Authority and the Palestinian militants, in a bid to broker some kind of cease-fire, some kind of truce, to allow the U.S.-backed road map to be implemented.
But certainly, on the Palestinian side, the militant side, there appears to be little likelihood that there will be any cease-fire or truce talks in the near future.
Demonstrations continued in Gaza in the wake of the day, and indeed the night, following that attempted assassination. Palestinian anger reigns high, and that anger is also being directed at the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, because of what they believe is his conciliatory stance towards Israel, and because they believe that Israel is undermining whatever efforts that Mahmoud Abbas is making to get a cease-fire in place.
So a week after both parties agreed to implement that U.S.-backed road map on the presence of U.S. President George W. Bush, well, it could not be further away it appears at this time, with that violence continuing on the ground -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Mike Hanna in Jerusalem. Mike, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 11, 2003 - 09:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning to the violence threatening to undermine the Mideast peace plan, Israel is responding to a rare U.S. rebuke, insisting that yesterday's missile attack in Gaza City was justified.
Our Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna has more -- Mike.
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, criticism of the Israeli action continues, both from outside and from within Israel. But the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has no regrets about the action in which there was an attempt at assassination of a senior Hamas militant leader.
Ariel Sharon reportedly told his cabinet in the court in the morning at a special meeting that he would do whatever is necessary to combat what he said was terror. Israeli defense forces alleging in the wake of that assassination attempt that the target, Hamas leader Abdel Rantissi was a known terrorist aiming to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel.
The fallout though continues, within the Israeli media particularly, many of the media asking why the particular timing at this particular time, particularly as attempts were under way to resuscitate a peace process.
Despite all these unfolding violence from the ground, though, the Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Sullimain (ph), arrived in the West Bank in the course of the day for talks with the Palestinian Authority to see if he can go about attempting to brokering some form of agreement between the Authority and the Palestinian militants, in a bid to broker some kind of cease-fire, some kind of truce, to allow the U.S.-backed road map to be implemented.
But certainly, on the Palestinian side, the militant side, there appears to be little likelihood that there will be any cease-fire or truce talks in the near future.
Demonstrations continued in Gaza in the wake of the day, and indeed the night, following that attempted assassination. Palestinian anger reigns high, and that anger is also being directed at the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, because of what they believe is his conciliatory stance towards Israel, and because they believe that Israel is undermining whatever efforts that Mahmoud Abbas is making to get a cease-fire in place.
So a week after both parties agreed to implement that U.S.-backed road map on the presence of U.S. President George W. Bush, well, it could not be further away it appears at this time, with that violence continuing on the ground -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Mike Hanna in Jerusalem. Mike, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
