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CNN Live Sunday

Palestinian Authority Closes Down Militant Groups' Offices

Aired December 16, 2001 - 15:46   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: In the Middle East today, Palestinian authorities have been moving through the region shutting down offices they believe are linked to Muslim militant groups. In Gaza today, Israeli aircraft continue to put pressure on the Palestinians, and Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a Palestinian police station early Sunday. CNN's Jerrold Kessel has more on the troubles in the Middle East.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A grim-faced Yasser Arafat at prayers marking the start of the Idel Fitter (ph) holiday that ends the Ramadan holy month. This not just a day of festival prayers, but of enormous political significance for the Palestinian leader as he addresses the intense international pressure on him to curtail Islamic militants, the principal theme of his major policy address to his people.

YASSER ARAFAT, PRES., PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (through translator): All sorts of armed activities should be stopped, and there should be no more attacks, especially the suicide bombing attacks that we have always done them. And we will arrest all those who plan these attacks, and arrest them. And we will stop all these who have no other mission but to give excuses to further Israeli attacks.

KESSEL: Mr. Arafat's police have already shut down more than two dozen officers affiliated with the militant Islamic organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The international demand, pure and simple, is for the dismantling of the radical groups whose series of deadly strikes have killed more than 40 Israelis over the past month.

Marking the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, Israel's foreign minister said he is still waiting to see how serious Mr. Arafat is about controlling the militants.

SHIMON PERES, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Speeches will not change. Situations should be changed, acts. The only way we can judge the Palestinian Authority is by its record, not by its recordings.

KESSEL (on camera): And right now, the record?

PERES: The record is not good enough. KESSEL (voice-over): But Mr. Peres is also challenging the conception of his prime minister that Arafat has become irrelevant. The more irrelevant you try to make him, the more relevant you may make him, the Israeli foreign minister said.

At the start of their weekly meeting, Israeli ministers marked a National Culture Week, by reading out poems of their choice. Ariel Sharon's choice of an ultra-nationalist poet leaves no doubt he has no doubt about the course he's pursuing.

"Even if the enemy manages to cut many of us down," quoted Mr. Sharon, "deliver bitter blows, we will not bow down nor change."

No casualties reported in the latest Israeli air strikes against Palestinian police positions in Gaza overnight. But Israeli troops have killed at least 13 Palestinians since Friday, most during a two- day sweep of suspected militants across the West Bank and Gaza, in which over 60 people were detained.

Many guns and gunmen in evidence at a Gaza funeral Sunday, before the speech to his people by Mr. Arafat, a speech which comes just a day after the curtailment at least of the U.S. mediation mission under retired Marine General Anthony Zinni.

(on camera): And now, the focus on two parallel actions, Yasser Arafat's moves against the Palestinian radical groups and the Israeli army's offensive against the same militant organizations.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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