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Morning News

Crisis in the Middle East: Stakes High as Emergency Summit Gets Under Way; New West Bank Clashes Reflect Grim Tone

Aired October 16, 2000 - 9:01 a.m. ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We need to begin in Egypt. That is where an emergency summit aimed at ending the deadly clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians is under way. The gap between the two sides is very wide. And the stakes are very high, but, by all accounts, expectations of what can be accomplished there are low.

CNN's Major Garrett joins us now from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the key players, including President Clinton, are gathered today.

Major, hello.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, the first formal meeting of this emergency summit has concluded. It was a business lunch involving all of the key players here in Sharm el-Sheikh. Of course, the host, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Clinton, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and also the U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan.

White House officials described that luncheon as business-like. Not very much actually achieved as far as negotiations are concerned. But, before that lunch actually took place, President Clinton, in his opening remarks at the beginning of summit, not only set the tone for it, but established the priorities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: I think it's very important that we all be quite honest and blunt with each other, but we be sober and serious about this. We are here because we would like to achieve three objectives. We want to end the violence and restore security cooperation. We hope to achieve agreement on an objective and fair fact-finding process on what happened to bring us to this sad point and how we can avoid having it ever happen again. And we want to get --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: That is the president's agenda, but, privately, White House officials concede that they would be happy if this summit simply created a sense of calm, ended the violence and at some future date, some of these other more difficult issues were dealt with. Right now, the various participants of this summit have broken up from lunch and it's unclear next what will happen -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Major, help us understand some of the logistics of this meeting. Is there a chance that Mr. Barak, Mr. Arafat, will actually meet face-to-face at some point?

GARRETT: Daryn, there is a chance, but, at this point, it's hard to say whether it's a good chance or not. This entire summit is sort of being developed as time goes by. I guess ad hoc would be the best phrase to use to describe it. Right now U.S. officials are hoping that by the end of today they can get some signal from both Mr. Arafat and Mr. Barak that they want to sit down. talk to each other, possibly sign some sort of communique or some sort of statement committing both sides to an end to the violence. That would be an important first step, White House officials say. But that still is even up in the air -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Major Garrett at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, thank you very much -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: And as those talks do begin in Egypt, Palestinians back in the Gaza Strip took to the streets today to show their opposition to renewed contacts with Israel. More than 100 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in clashes between Palestinians and Israelis since the violence exploded back at the end of September.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel now live from Jerusalem updating us now on the latest from there.

Jerrold, hello to you.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.

That somber tone of the opening session of that emergency summit in Sharm el-Sheikh reflected in the streets of the West Bank as if to underline the gloomy expectations of what might come out of the summit, as if to underline the urgency of meeting the attempts to cease the hostilities. What president Clinton spoke of: the impossibility of failure.

Here, a slew of crashes breaking out in the West Bank, erupting in the town of Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank where Palestinians broke away from a demonstration and began -- some began shooting at Israeli troops who were outside that Palestinian- controlled town and a firefight developed there. Also, in the town of Hebron, a traditional flashpoint, some serious clashes in the heart of the town with Palestinians attacking Israeli soldiers with stones. And Israelis opening fire against them, and at least a dozen people hurt there. There have also been clashes reported in Ramallah on the West Bank and in other places stone throwing and clashes seem to be erupting. Israel has reported that during the night an Israeli vehicle -- motorist was -- a car was hit and one woman seriously hurt. Two others hurt by those stone throwers. Down on the Gaza border with Egypt, a clash between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers, troops there, and the Israeli army reporting two soldiers slightly hurt.

So, all in all, an ominous shape of events on the ground reflecting that somber tone at the opening of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit.

HEMMER: All right, Jerrold.

Jerrold Kessel live there from Jerusalem.

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