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CNN Sunday Morning

Sharon to Meet with Bush for Fifth Time

Aired May 05, 2002 - 07:02   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, let's begin our focus this hour on the crisis in the Middle East and peace efforts taking shape at the White House. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is now on his way to Washington for his fifth meeting with President Bush. Mr. Sharon says his latest peace plan may be his most serious yet. CNN's Jerrold Kessel is in Jerusalem with a preview.

Good morning, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra and just before we get to Mr. Sharon's departure and what he needs to be taking to the White House, some news just coming in. Israel Radio reporting that an Israeli tank went over an explosive charge in the northern part of the West Bank and we're told just opened fire. This all according to Israeli Radio. No confirmation from any other source that three Palestinians, a mother and two children, were killed. That according to the Israeli Radio, but we shall try to update you with the latest details of that incident in the northern part of the West Bank.

Also, the talks continuing, so far, unsuccessfully to try to wind up that five-week old siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. But Mr. Sharon has, meanwhile, departed a couple of hours ago. His plane took off en route to Washington. He will be meeting, of course, with President Bush on Tuesday. And these are being termed very critical talks for the future of the Middle East in an attempt to get a common strategy in place between the United States and the Israeli prime minister.

Now, Mr. Sharon has continued with his own agenda, it seems, his own timetable with Israeli forces continuing to move sporadically into Palestinian towns in search of terror suspects, as Israelis call it. There was another such incident today in the Tulkarem refugee camp. The troops have come out since then, but by and large, the Israeli massive military sweep in the West Bank is over despite that standoff still in Bethlehem and that the focus will be on Mr. Sharon trying to understand what President Bush has in mind with that international conference that the United States is pressing for, possibly in Turkey -- in Ankara, Turkey within the next month or six weeks. The focus on that will be the Israelis' concern. Mr. Sharon says he has his own peace ideas of how to progress forward and to put the relationship away from war and a bloody confrontation and back into a political mold with the Palestinians. But while he himself does not balk at the idea of a Palestinian state emerging down the road, he has a lot of opposition at home to that, even from within his own camp. But the focus for Mr. Sharon will be whether Yasser Arafat has a role to play in that future Palestinian state. He still believes that he can convince the United States that Yasser Arafat is -- has only a -- is only a force for instability not for stability. So, the key, perhaps, to these talks will be the question of Yasser Arafat's role -- should he have, should he not have any kind of role in this future move towards the political realm and away from the confrontational mode between the two sides?

The message the Israelis and the Palestinians seem to be getting at this stage, in advance of the Bush/Sharon talks at the White House, is that the United States believes Yasser Arafat can still be a force for stability provided that he forcefully reassert his authority and refashions his Palestinian Authority regime in the West Bank and Gaza -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jerrold Kessel live from Jerusalem. Thank you.

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