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CNN Sunday Morning
Unrest Grows in Middle East
Aired March 10, 2002 - 07:06 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Middle East is a cauldron of unrest that's growing even hotter. In less than two weeks, nearly 200 people have been killed and hundreds more Palestinians and Israelis have been injured. We're going to live now to Jerusalem. Our bureau chief, Mike Hanna, is there and of course, following this ongoing story.
Hello, Mike.
MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Kyra. Well, the region reeling after days of unprecedented blood letting. The latest incident of violence over night, a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem in which 11 Israelis were killed. Also, Palestinian gunmen attacked a hotel in the Israeli town of Netanya. Two Israelis killed there, one of them a nine-month-old baby. This follows a week in which Israel has escalated its military operations against Palestinian targets. They're attacking a number of targets in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in an absolutely unrelenting fashion. The decision of the Sharon government, to ratchet up its military operations in attempt to stamp out Palestinian violence by using even greater Israeli force.
Well, the Israeli cabinet has been meeting today. This is a scheduled meeting, but before that, there had been a meeting of Sharon and his inner cabinet to decide how to deal with the situation and in particular, how to deal with the visit next week by the Special U.S. Envoy Anthony Zinni, who's due to arrive in the region within days. His task, to get a cease fire in place on the ground. Given the intensity of the violence at the moment, that's going to be a very difficult task, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And Mike, you mentioned General Zinni. Quite a shift in U.S. policy his trip, yes?
HANNA: Very much so. The U.S. had said for a number of months now that there was no point in sending their special envoy here until the level of the violence diminished. Well, now that the violence is at its absolute height, the Special Envoy Anthony Zinni is coming in.
Remembering too, that Zinni has been here on two occasions before, attempting to get a cease fire in place and each of those missions ended absolutely unsuccessfully. So the question as to whether or not he's going to succeed this time where he failed in the past, that's a difficult question to answer. But there are wheels within wheels here. We heard John King speak about the vice president's trip to the Middle East. Zinni's mission, a very important part of this in that Cheney's mission will be made a lot easier if Zinni can get a cease fire in place on the ground here.
Arab backing for the wider U.S. war against terror is going to be difficult to achieve while this Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues. So there are wheels within wheels. And the Zinni mission and the Cheney mission are very much interconnected, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: And another mission -- that of Ariel Sharon, another shift in policy. Very interesting. A lot of firsts here.
HANNA: Very much so and perhaps it's a reflection of the intensity of the violence that has raged in recent days, that the U.S. has shifted its policy position and that Ariel Sharon has done what amounts to a u-turn. Essentially, Sharon had, for months, said that he will not negotiate under fire, as he puts it. He says that there can be no talks about resolving the situation on the ground while the violence continues. He demanded a seven free day -- a violence free period before such negotiations could commence. Well, in the last few days, Sharon has dropped this precondition. He's now saying that he is prepared to negotiate under fire as he sees it.
But one must this very clear; he's talking about getting a cease fire in place. He is not talking about why the political negotiations down the line that would lead to some form perhaps of a resumption of why the peace talks. He's just talking about getting talks going in terms of stopping the violence on the ground.
And no doubt, this Sharon u-turn in policy, a result, very much, of the fact that Zinni is coming to the region and to Israel, certainly under a degree of pressure from the U.S and under very great pressure from the European Union, from the United Nations to stop a policy of using maximum force to end the violence and instead, to explore other ways, in particular, the means of negotiation too, as a very first and very tiny step to get an end to the violence on the ground before meaningful peace negotiations can recommence, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Our Mike Hanna, live from Jerusalem. Thank you very much.
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