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CNN Live Sunday

What Can U.S. Do to Stop Israeli-Palestinian Violence?

Aired March 03, 2002 - 17:09   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.
FREDRICKA WHTIFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: What can and will the Bush administration do to keep the Israeli-Palestinian violence from spiraling further out of control? CNN's senior White House correspondent John King is following the Mideast story on the Washington front. John, how involved is the U.S. willing to be?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Middle East diplomacy is one of the president's major challenges in the days ahead. A weekend of deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians only raising the pressure for the White House to do more.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Both sides now have to do everything to apply restraint, to stop the terror, to stop the daily exchange of fire that's going back and forth.

KING: Egypt's flag across the street from the White House. President Hosni Mubarak is in Washington to urge Mr. Bush to take a more personal role in the crisis. Saudi Arabia also says U.S. pressure is critical if a new Saudi peace plan is to gain momentum.

In an interview with "TIME," Crown Prince Abdullah said: "If the United States assumes the primary role, it will give the process great credibility and effectiveness. If the U.S. has no desire to contribute to this, it should let others do it."

The Saudi plan calls for Israel to completely withdraw from all territories occupied since 1967 -- the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. In exchange, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations would offer Israel full normalization of relations.

JAMES STEINBERG, FORMER CLINTON DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think that it may be appropriate now to bring both Israelis and Palestinians together to discuss these ideas. It does not necessarily have to begin at the level of Prime Minister Sharon and Chairman Arafat.

KING: The Bush White House has resisted taking such a middleman role until it sees more evidence both sides are committed to peace, and the obstacles to the Saudi plan will dominate the Bush-Mubarak discussions.

The White House wants Egypt and other Arab nations to pressure Palestinian leader Arafat to do more to stop attacks on Israel. President Mubarak and other Arab leader in turn say only direct pressure from Mr. Bush will get Israeli Prime Minister Sharon back to the bargaining table. Pressure for the president to do more is rising with the Israeli-Palestinian death toll. At least 75 people killed in the past week, more than 1,200 over the last 18 months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: And that Arab pressure for the White House to do more, including a more spirited public campaign in support of the Saudi peace proposal will only intensify as Vice President Dick Cheney heads to the Middle East at the end of the week -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And John, shifting gears a bit, what more do we know about Tom Ridge's plan on having a better system of terror threats?

KING: We're told, Fredricka, by the end of this week, of if not by then certainly by early next week, Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, will announce this new color coding system. If you go to a U.S. military base, they have an alphabetical system for what they call threat con, threat condition -- alpha, bravo, charly, delta. They decided here at the White House a color code would be more understandable to the American people -- all this in response to criticism in the past when the government has put out those vague terror alerts, saying there is a possibility of a new terrorist strike, but the government can't say when it will happen or where it will happen.

This is an attempt to respond to that criticism, to give the American people and law enforcement agencies a better understanding of just how serious the White House views that threat.

WHITFIELD: OK, John King at the White House, thank you.

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