ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Sunday Morning News

Middle East Peace Talks May Resume Sooner Rather Than Later

Aired August 13, 2000 - 8:09 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In international news this morning, there are reports that the Mideast peace talks may resume later this month.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel joins us live from Jerusalem and he has the latest.

Hi, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra.

Since the Camp David summit ended inconclusively two and a half weeks ago, there have been for the first time a lot of talk today and a lot of it positive talk about the prospects of resuming those truncated peace efforts to find a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal. But one of those who's not doing any talking is Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

And Mr. Barak has taken several days off and he's been vacationing in northern Israel along with his wife along the -- at a kibbutz guest house on the Lebanese border and there are no indications at all in the photo opportunity that Mr. Barak granted Israel television as he was taking that vacation to indicate that he's under any kind of pressure or that he feels any kind of pressure that those peace talks with Yasser Arafat since they ended so inconclusively are in a state of limbo.

Quite the reverse. The indication is that the Israeli tactic is to put pressure on Yasser Arafat that he should make a change in decision, a strategical change in his position on issues such as Jerusalem, which held up the concluding of the Camp David peace effort. And until he does make that change in his position, then Mr. Barak seems in no position to be in a hurry.

And quite the opposite, Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian leader has been literally restlessness incarnate since Camp David. He's been undertaking trip after trip to Arab, Muslim and European capitals, literally visiting as many as there are days on the calendar and this morning he set out again for more such visits to Beijing, to Tokyo, to Indonesia, to other capitals in Asia as we have reports that he's under pressure to reverse the Palestinian position on declaring unilaterally Palestinian independence on September 13 should there be no peace deal with Israel by that date. And we understand that ever since Camp David, the United States has been talking hard and applying pressure on Mr. Arafat's Arab allies and on Washington's own European allies that they should persuade the Palestinians that it's much better to get back to the peace table rather than to declare that unilateral, to go ahead with that unilateral declaration of statehood.

But it won't all be decided until Dennis Ross, the U.S. envoy, returns here in a week from now to begin discussing the issue with both the Palestinians and the Israelis. The pressure, however, of time is now on Yasser Arafat.

I'm Jerrold Kessel, CNN, reporting live from Jerusalem.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top  © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.