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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Natan Sharansky

Aired June 01, 2003 - 07:12   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: After the G-8 summit in France, President Bush is going to head to the Middle East, where he's going to try to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. He'll meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan on Wednesday. A lot of expectations for the talks. Let's see what some of the realities may be. We're going to try to find out from those with close ties to the Middle East leaders.
We begin this morning with Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky. He joins us from New York this morning. Mr. Sharansky, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

NATAN SHARANSKY, ISRAELI CABINET MINISTER: Good morning.

COOPER: How optimistic are you or are you optimistic at all about these talks coming these week?

SHARANSKY: We were -- we in Israel, we are very enthusiastic about June 24 speech of president when he declared that the -- all the Democratic reforms in the Middle East will bring to security and to Palestinian state.

At the same time, it was a very difficult decision for us to approve road map because it has some positions which definitely will make much more difficult implementation of President Bush's vision.

COOPER: Well, in fact, you voted against Israel approving the road map. Why was that?

SHARANSKY: I voted against it because I believe there are two points which are very, very problematic. First is that Palestinian (unintelligible) of state not in the end of the process of democratization. Rather the downpayment before all the main negotiations about refugees, about the borders begin.

And as we see now, at this moment when Israel already declared that it accepts the existence of Palestinian state, Palestinians refused and Abu Mazen refused to accept the fact that Palestinian refugees will have to go to Palestinian state and not to Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.

As a second point, which is no less important, for the first time in our history, the judges of the process, the inspectors of the process, the monitors of the process will be not the United States of America, but also Europe and the United Nations. And we know that the approach to the United Nations is to appease the terrorists and not to fight the terrorists. And that will be the key question, the most important question whether the terror will be defeated or we will try to find way to appease the terrorists.

COOPER: There is word coming from Mahmoud Abbas of late that he will be able to move against the various militant groups, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the like. How confident are you that he can actually deliver on that?

SHARANSKY: This all -- it's very positive factor that Abu Mazen already -- during the intifadah or during the last years of the war, (unintelligible) was saying again and again that the terror doesn't help the Palestinians and that terror has to be defeated.

At the same time, we see at this very moment Abu Mazen is negotiating so-called junta with terrorist organizations. Junta means cease-fire. And we are not really interested in cease-fire for another two or three months before the next terrorist attacks. We want that Abu Mazen will become our real partner in our struggle against terror. We still hope, we try to be optimistic, but we are concerned that he's not all going to do it.

COOPER: So you're saying basically he's trying to negotiate with these groups, as opposed to just eliminate them. Is anything short of total elimination of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade? Is anything short of total elimination of those groups acceptable?

SHARANSKY: I think that President Bush made it very clear, terrorism has to be defeated. We understand it cannot be done in one or two or three days. But we want Palestinian authority to become immediately from the beginning of the peace process, our major partner in struggle the terror, and not negotiating the cease-fire for another two or three months in order to resume terror at the moment whether to be comfortable for them.

COOPER: All right, Natan Sharansky, we appreciate you joining this morning here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Thank you very much.

SHARANSKY: 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 1, 2003 - 07:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: After the G-8 summit in France, President Bush is going to head to the Middle East, where he's going to try to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. He'll meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan on Wednesday. A lot of expectations for the talks. Let's see what some of the realities may be. We're going to try to find out from those with close ties to the Middle East leaders.
We begin this morning with Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky. He joins us from New York this morning. Mr. Sharansky, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

NATAN SHARANSKY, ISRAELI CABINET MINISTER: Good morning.

COOPER: How optimistic are you or are you optimistic at all about these talks coming these week?

SHARANSKY: We were -- we in Israel, we are very enthusiastic about June 24 speech of president when he declared that the -- all the Democratic reforms in the Middle East will bring to security and to Palestinian state.

At the same time, it was a very difficult decision for us to approve road map because it has some positions which definitely will make much more difficult implementation of President Bush's vision.

COOPER: Well, in fact, you voted against Israel approving the road map. Why was that?

SHARANSKY: I voted against it because I believe there are two points which are very, very problematic. First is that Palestinian (unintelligible) of state not in the end of the process of democratization. Rather the downpayment before all the main negotiations about refugees, about the borders begin.

And as we see now, at this moment when Israel already declared that it accepts the existence of Palestinian state, Palestinians refused and Abu Mazen refused to accept the fact that Palestinian refugees will have to go to Palestinian state and not to Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.

As a second point, which is no less important, for the first time in our history, the judges of the process, the inspectors of the process, the monitors of the process will be not the United States of America, but also Europe and the United Nations. And we know that the approach to the United Nations is to appease the terrorists and not to fight the terrorists. And that will be the key question, the most important question whether the terror will be defeated or we will try to find way to appease the terrorists.

COOPER: There is word coming from Mahmoud Abbas of late that he will be able to move against the various militant groups, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the like. How confident are you that he can actually deliver on that?

SHARANSKY: This all -- it's very positive factor that Abu Mazen already -- during the intifadah or during the last years of the war, (unintelligible) was saying again and again that the terror doesn't help the Palestinians and that terror has to be defeated.

At the same time, we see at this very moment Abu Mazen is negotiating so-called junta with terrorist organizations. Junta means cease-fire. And we are not really interested in cease-fire for another two or three months before the next terrorist attacks. We want that Abu Mazen will become our real partner in our struggle against terror. We still hope, we try to be optimistic, but we are concerned that he's not all going to do it.

COOPER: So you're saying basically he's trying to negotiate with these groups, as opposed to just eliminate them. Is anything short of total elimination of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade? Is anything short of total elimination of those groups acceptable?

SHARANSKY: I think that President Bush made it very clear, terrorism has to be defeated. We understand it cannot be done in one or two or three days. But we want Palestinian authority to become immediately from the beginning of the peace process, our major partner in struggle the terror, and not negotiating the cease-fire for another two or three months in order to resume terror at the moment whether to be comfortable for them.

COOPER: All right, Natan Sharansky, we appreciate you joining this morning here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Thank you very much.

SHARANSKY: 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