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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Shimon Peres

Aired December 09, 2001 - 10:00   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: And in the Middle East today, another suicide bombing stoking Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Several people were wounded, but none killed in this latest Palestinian attack in Haifa. The port city was also one of the targets of deadly suicide bombings last weekend.

Just a short while ago I spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres about this latest attack and its impact on failed peacemaking efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Mr. Peres, thank you for joining us. There has been another suicide bombing in Haifa. What does this tell you about Yasser Arafat - about whether he can control the violence or wants to control the violence.

SHIMON PERES, ISRAEL FOREIGN MINISTER: We shall judge him by the efforts he is taking. We are not under the impression that he took, already, the idea, the 100 percent effort, as he was requested.

But the deep issue really, the profound one is that is he willing and able to control all the dissident groups, which are armed, carrying bombs and rifles -- each of them shooting in a different direction, serving a different policy without any coherent report over them.

I'm saying it not for the sake of Israel. We don't consider Arafat as our policeman. I'm saying it for the sake of the Palestinians themselves. If they will not established a single authority, all over the arms, the carriers of arms, the users of it (sic), they're going to produce one tragedy after another tragedy. And they will pay the price, and we shall pay the price for it.

MESERVE: Prime Minister Sharon said this morning in light of what is going on, we will have to increase our military activity. What exactly does that mean? What is Israel's next step?

PERES: Well, we shall probably do more of the same. I mean we are very careful not to hit civilian lives and then when we bomb different targets on the Palestinian land, we hit at buildings, not at people. And I believe this distinction will be respected in the future as well -- not to hit civilians, not to kill people. MESERVE: Last hour we talked to Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. Here's an excerpt of what he had to say to us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: Yasser Arafat today is in a situation when he sees the Israeli cabinet coming to convene their Cabinet -- weekly meeting in an unprecedented move, in the heart of Ramallah and the occupied West Bank. When he sees that he cannot -- you know, as I said, every town, village and refugee camp is sieged -- when he sees that the headquarters of his police and intelligence are being targeted, really Yasser Arafat needs help, and Yasser Arafat needs the support to enable him to carry out the obligations emanating from agreements signed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Mr. Peres, what Mr. Erakat seems to be saying is that the Israeli government's actions are undermining Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority, and the peace process -- your reaction.

PERES: Well, I think some requests were put before Yasser Arafat, not by Israel, but by General Zinni. And I'm sure it was an objective person, and a knowledgeable one. He provided the Middle East with 33 suspected people, not because they are leaders of a political movement, but because they are the ones who carry ticking bombs. Arafat says that he has arrested, until now, 12. I believe that if Arafat will make a supreme effort and arrest the whole list, he'll make it also possible for us to continue in the direction of cease-fire.

You know, as Arafat asked for time, which is a fair request; but we do not have the time. We are pressed by time because every morning, almost, we have a bomb. I mean yesterday when Arafat asked for time, we didn't know that this morning we shall have a bomb in Haifa.

And as long as bombs on the agenda -- almost, you know, 11 of 12 incidents daily -- we are without a choice. He must be in a hurry. And he is the responsible party in the territories in the West Bank and Gaza. He has a police force for it, and he must really take it very, very seriously because it's very much in his hands.

MESERVE: A security meeting is scheduled between the Israeli and Palestinian authority security chiefs and General Zinni. Given the days events and given the fact that the last meeting of this sort described as being very tense, what are the prospects for there being any real progress out of this meeting?

PERES: You know, when you're working for peace, you don't get the right to be tired -- not even the right to be disappointed. There was a meeting, as you know, on Friday, didn't produce the expected fruits. But I was glad that they have decided to have another meeting. And I do believe that another meeting will make a little bit of progress in the direction of the cessation of fire. We don't have a choice, and we don't have an alternative.

MESERVE: You mentioned earlier that the targets picked by the Israeli defense forces would be buildings -- would not be people, but four Palestinian policemen were killed today in the West Bank and the Palestinian authority says that this was unprovoked. Is that the story?

PERES: No, they were not killed because of bombs. This was an encounter on the land and in the unit of fire, people went into a certain place to look up the suspected terrorists, and there was unfortunately an encounter with the Palestinian policemen that started to shoot at our soldiers. So this wasn't a bombing. This was a confrontation.

MESERVE: There has been a lot of questions about whether the ultimate goal of the Israeli government is to topple Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian authority. Is it?

PERES: That's not my view. I think that Arafat was elected by the Palestinians, and we shouldn't pretend, even, that we are the ones who are going to decide who will lead the Palestinians. It is for them to decide and then, you know, if one may think it's easy to get rid of Arafat, there is nobody that can really tell seriously who will replace him. They may discover that the success of Arafat will be by far a more extreme person than Arafat himself.

It is true that Arafat has committed mistakes, but it's also true that Arafat has signed agreements and while it's not a simple proposition, we have to go on and respect the Palestinians, their elections, and their elected leaders.

MESERVE: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Thank you so much for joining us today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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