George Mitchell: Israel unlikely to freeze out Arafat

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. Mideast envoy Anthony Zinni has been meeting with Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs in hopes of brokering a cease-fire after more than a year of fighting in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell is the author of one Middle East peace plan. He spoke Wednesday with CNN's Fredricka Whitfield after a suicide bomber killed seven Israelis on a bus in northern Israel.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: Do you see that [Wednesday] morning's bombing is perhaps a setback of all the efforts the Bush administration has recently tried to garner in order to get these two sides together?

GEORGE MITCHELL: It's clearly a setback. The action is indefensible and must be totally condemned, but it points out the urgency of working toward a cease-fire and trying to end as quickly as possible this kind of violence.

WHITFIELD: Vice President Dick Cheney says that in perhaps response to an awful lot of criticism from those who said he should have met with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat when he was in Israel. He says he is willing to return to the region within days to meet with Arafat to implement the Tenet plan, which seeks the Israeli troop pullout. Do you see this Tenet plan as an extension of your plan?

MITCHELL: Yes, it is in fact a first action to get to our plan. The CIA director, George Tenet, who worked it out, worked closely with our committee, and I think it's a sensible approach that -- if adopted by the parties -- can provide the first step in our recommendations, which is an immediate and unconditional ending of violence and a resumption of security cooperation.

WHITFIELD: How important do you see it as Cheney returning to that region to have direct talks with Arafat?

MITCHELL: It's a significant action taken by the administration and demonstrates the importance, which they attach, to bringing about a reduction of violence there to enable the administration to deal with other problems in the region.

WHITFIELD: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has lifted restrictions so that Arafat can move about, at least lifted restrictions at his headquarters in Ramallah. He also says that he is allowing Arafat to attend the Arab summit later on this month, next week in fact.

However, there are some rumblings that perhaps Prime Minister Sharon would not allow Arafat to return once he leaves the region. How smart or how dangerous would that move be?

MITCHELL: Well, it's impossible to know now because it depends upon what happens at the summit meeting, but I think it's unlikely that any such freezing out would occur. It seems to me that the actions by the Israeli government reflect the reality that Arafat is the chosen leader of the Palestinian people, and like it or not, he is the one that we all have to deal with.

WHITFIELD: At the same time, do you see that that kind of potential threat might further exacerbate violence from Palestinian militants?

MITCHELL: Well, in reality of course, many of the Palestinian groups engaging in violence are opposed to Arafat and are opposed to the entire peace process. So the humiliation of Arafat is not something that they are particularly concerned about. Now, there is, of course, a large segment of the Palestinian people and authority who do support Arafat and who would view it in that way.