 | STANDING FIRM MARCH 12, 1996TRANSCRIPT | |
Leaders from both Arab and Western countries gathered for the International Summit on Terrorism Tuesday in Egypt. The NewsHour begins its coverage with this report from Peter Morgan of Independent Television News.
PETER MORGAN, ITN: President Clinton arrived at the Egyptian resort of Sharm 
El-Sheikh with one clear aim, to help restore confidence in a troubled Middle Eastern peace. Twenty-nine world leaders met at short notice, in effect, to help two men. Israel's prime minister, Shimon Peres, is under domestic pressure after four suicide bombs killed sixty-two people in nine days, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat needs international support as he tackles Hamas militants behind the attacks. The self-styled summit of peacemakers showed how far Arab-Israeli relations have come and how far they still have to go. Israel called for security cooperation, yet was criticized by Arab leaders for blockading Palestinian towns. Syria and Lebanon stayed away from the summit, opened by Egypt's President Mubarak. Israel's prime minister reserved his special anger for another absentee, Iran.
SHIMON PERES, Prime Minister, Israel: This terrorism is not an animal. It has a name. It has an address. It has a bank account. It has an infrastructure. It has a network, camouflaged as charity organizations. It is spearheaded by a country, Iran. The Iranian people are not our enemy. The region is not our home. It is their dream which initiates, promotes, and exports violence and fanaticism. Tehran has become the capital of terror.
JOHN MAJOR: We are not prepared to see recent hopes die.
PETER
MORGAN: John Major said people within the United Kingdom knew something about
the obstacles to peace. Yasser Arafat provided an angry example. The suicide
bombers have put the Palestinian leader in an impossible position. Israel
wants firm action against the Islamic militants. Arafat, though, fears such
moves will strengthen the extremists' hand at the expense of his own. While
promising to stand against terrorism, Mr. Arafat attacked Israel's decision
to seal off Palestinian towns and villages. He warned the blockade was strangling
the local economy to the extent of famine, as he put it, and undermining the
PLO's political standing in the region. With such tensions on view, the public
gestures of support were somewhat tentative. The final statement, which emerged
along with lunch, was short on detail. General promises to cut off terrorist
funding were backed up with that summit staple, a working group which will
support back next month. President Clinton, though, saw some progress.
PRESIDENT
CLINTON: The participants here today express their full support for the Middle
East peace process and their determination that this process continue in order
to accomplish a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the region, affirm
their determination to promote security and stability, and to prevent the
enemies of peace from achieving their ultimate objective of destroying the
real opportunity for peace in the Middle East, and re-emphasize their strong
condemnation of all acts of terror in all its abhorrent forms, whatever its
motivation, and whoever its perpetrator, including recent attacks in Israel.
