International Community Reacts to Hamas Victory; Enron Trial Gets Under Way
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: International donations and armed resistance. Like oil and water, they don't seem to mix. Hamas is finding that out as it struggles to assume control of the Palestinian authority.</s>JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: Charges of corporate corruption in the spotlight in the United States. The trial of two former top Enron executives finally getting under way.</s>VERJEE: And wait until we show you what's on the menu for the Year of the Dog. You might just want to go back to the Year of the Rooster. It's 7:00 p.m. in Ramallah, 11:00 a.m. in Houston, Texas. I'm Zain Verjee.</s>CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. To our viewers in the United States and around the world, welcome. This is</s>YOUR WORLD TODAY. ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Green flags are in abundance, but there's some question about greenbacks after Hamas' stunning election victory. The question is whether the economically destitute Palestinian Authority will continue to get international aid. That's on the agenda of two high-level meetings. In Brussels, European foreign ministers called on the militant group to recognize Israel, denounce violence, and disarm. The European Union is the biggest donor to the Palestinians, giving more than $600 million last year.</s>URSULA PLASSNIK, AUSTRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We have expressed once more the continuous policy that we have been following in the Middle East, that violence and terror are incompatible with democratic processes. And in that respect, we have urged Hamas and all other factions to renounce violence, to recognize Israel's right to exist, and to disarm.</s>VERJEE: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in London to discuss Hamas with the Middle East quartet. That includes Russia, the E.U., and the United Nations. Back home, her boss stood firm.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Hamas party has made it clear that they do not support the right of Israel to exist. And I have made it clear so long as that's their policy that we will not support a Palestinian government made up of Hamas.</s>CLANCY: Well, the Europeans had a voice right in the region. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she's prepared for a new Palestinian Authority to continue receiving European aid if -- and it's a big if -- if it accepts certain conditions. She made those remarks after meeting with the Palestinian Authority's President Mahmoud Abbas Friday.</s>VERJEE: In Gaza meanwhile, a Hamas leader is calling on the international community to just keep the aid flowing. Ismail Haniya promised not to use the money for violent activities.</s>ISMAIL HANIYA, HAMAS LEADER: We appeal to you to channel the aid to money to the Palestinian Treasury Ministry in order to be spent on priorities to build and develop the Palestinian scene. And we assure you that this money will be spent on employee salaries, day-to-day necessities, and some of the much-needed infrastructure for the people. And you will be able to check all that through measures upon which we agree.</s>CLANCY: The whole world is talking about them. What is Hamas saying? Their leaders came out with this. They will consider a long- term truce with Israel in exchange for a complete withdrawal from lands occupied during the 1967 war. That's actually a stand that's being repeated from several years ago. Even some veteran Palestinian negotiators say the very charter of Hamas leaves little room to compromise. Guy Raz is on the ground. He explains.</s>GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The diplomatic formula in the Arab- Israeli conflict has always been land for peace. It was the philosophical basis for the 2000 Camp David talks between then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. End of occupation would mean an end to conflict and full diplomatic and economic ties. But Hamas has a very different vision.</s>MAHMOUD ZAHAR, HAMAS LEADER: Negotiation is not our aim. Negotiation is a missile. If Israel is ready to give us the national demand to withdraw from the occupied areas '67, to release our detainees, to stop their aggression, (inaudible) between Gaza Strip and West Bank, at that time, with assurance from other side, we are going to accept to establish our independent state.</s>RAZ: In other words, Hamas is offering Israel neither recognition nor an end to conflict. But a long-term cease fire in exchange for Israeli withdrawal to its boundaries before the Six Day War of 1967.</s>YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI, SENIOR FELLOW, SHALEM CENTER: I would say that that offer is so ludicrous that it won't even get anywhere near the table.</s>RAZ: Hamas' charter leaves little room for compromise. Article 11 of the Hamas Covenant states, "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf, consecrated for future Muslim generations until judgment day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered. It, or any part of it, should not be given up."</s>RAZ: Veteran Palestinian peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi sees Hamas' stated position as problematic.</s>HANAN ASHRAWI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: When you deal with the land as an Islamic Waqf land, as a trust given by God, then you automatically tie your hands, and you have automatically have linked it to a question of face and absolutism. So you cannot reach any compromise on the land.</s>RAZ: Indeed, despite the many pitfalls since 1994, Palestinian- Israeli negotiations have always been sponsored by the international community. Hamas sees that as a problem. Article 13 of its chart states, "Initiatives and so-called peaceful solution at international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. The conference are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Muslims as arbiters."</s>RAZ: Conceptually, then, Hamas is in a bind. If the group abandons its uncompromising positions, it ceases to be Hamas. But if not, the international community may decide to isolate the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Guy Raz, CNN, Jerusalem.</s>ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: And that leaves us to our question of the day. We want you to weigh in on it.</s>CLANCY: We are asking you this. Do you think international aid should be cut off to a Hamas-led government? Send us your response to YWT@CNN.com. We're going to read out some of these responses later here on</s>YOUR WORLD TODAY. VERJEE: Iran's controversial nuclear program was also high on the agenda for the European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels. But France says last-ditch talks achieved nothing. French, British, and German officials met with Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator. The French foreign minister says it's clear that the involvement of the U.N. Security Council is now necessary. Iran defied international pressure this month and restarted sensitive nuclear work. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog will meet on Thursday to discuss whether Iran should be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.</s>CLANCY: Turning now to Poland, where officials are reporting they don't believe anyone else is going to be found alive in the rubble of a collapsed exhibition center. Now, they're going to try to focus on what was the cause of this disaster. Why did it give way Saturday? At least 67 people were killed. Many more were injured. Fionnuala Sweeney is on the scene. She's been looking over what is left of that. Fionnuala, what've officials there said now?</s>FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the officials at the moment are trying to determine that there are no more corpses left inside the exhibition center, which you can probably just see behind me. But if we show you another picture, an aerial picture of the exhibition hall, you can see just outside that people have laid a lot of candles there in mourning. Poland is now in a national state of mourning. Sixty-seven people have died, another 34-year-old man succumbing to his injuries last night when the roof collapsed on this exhibition center in which there had been something like 500 people at about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. It is a very sad time for Poland. The Polish president Kaczynski describing it as the worst disaster in Poland's post-communist history. Now, the investigation is under way, but we are not allowed anywhere near the actual scene of the devastation. However, just before night fell, and it is about 6:00 here in the evening, the authorities did allow us in for a few minutes to take a look for ourselves at the scale of the devastation.</s>SWEENEY: Well the police have been taking us around this building, and we've been stopping periodically to view the extent of the damage. We're, of course, not allowed into the building itself. It's far too dangerous. But we have been able to get up close. And from here, you can see just how the walls of this exhibition hall have fallen in towards the exhibition center itself. And when you look inside, you can see a lot of snow lying on those steel beams and girders among the benches, which once had cages for the homing pigeons who are still flying around here. Homing pigeons in a sense without a home. But the police saying it's way too dangerous for us to go any closer, and they're constantly monitoring what we are doing as we travel around this exhibition hall, which is the size of a football- soccer pitch (ph). And so 500 people inside that hall. People have described that when the roof began to collapse, they heard a sound like matches breaking. And if you can see from inside the hall, pictures we've taken, these steel girders and concrete beams breaking like matches. It must have been truly a terrifying ordeal.</s>SWEENEY: Now what remains of the convention center is now a crime scene. Police are working on a number of theories. Mainly, that snow on a flat roof caused the building to collapse. But there are a number of other theories, including the differentiation in the heat inside of the building with all those people and the subzero temperatures outside -- Jim?</s>CLANCY: Fionnuala Sweeney reporting to us there live from the scene. Fionnuala, thank you. Good report. And let's hope they find some answers.</s>VERJEE: Another mining accident to report. The third in North America this month. But this one has a happy ending. All 72 potash miners trapped under ground by a fire in central Canada have been rescued. After a fire broke out on Sunday, the miners took refuge inside sealed emergency rooms that were stocked with oxygen, food, and water, good for about 36 hours. Earlier this month, 14 miners died in two separate accidents in the U.S. state of West Virginia.</s>CLANCY: Well, one of the biggest headlines in the financial world this day is one of the biggest corporate corruption trials in the U.S. and its history. It's under way right now in the state of Texas. Enron Energy founder Kenneth Lay, his former chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling, both men accused of fraud and conspiracy. The company's collapse cost 4,000 employees their jobs. Many of them have gathered at the scene of the trial. Chris Huntington is reporting from Houston.</s>CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Angie Chappel lost her job and her life savings when Enron imploded more than four years ago.</s>ANGIE CHAPPEL, FORMER ENRON EMPLOYEE: It was my retirement. It was my kids' college fund. You know, I put a lot of money into my 401k. It made a big impact on all of us. I mean, we lived a very comfortable life, and then we didn't.</s>HUNTINGTON: Chappel and her family are still trying to work their way out of that financial hole. And she blames the two Enron executives about to go on trial for running her family's future into the ground.</s>CHAPPEL: Jack's the only income. We have so much more than the rest of the Enron employees. While they were telling us to buy stock, they were selling theirs.</s>HUNTINGTON: Ken Lay insists he is innocent.</s>KENNETH LAY, FORMER ENRON CHAIRMAN: We're going to have a long trial and a tough trial, but we're going to be fine.</s>HUNTINGTON: Last month, Lay said the government had falsely charged him with misleading investigators and regulators about Enron's financial problems.</s>LAY: Most of what was and is still being said heard or read was, and still is, either grossly exaggerated, distorted, or just flat false.</s>HUNTINGTON: Lay's main defense will be that he was out of the loop when chief executive Jeff Skilling and chief financial officer Andrew Fastow created improper off-the-book deals to hide Enron's debt and pump up its appearance of profitability. Fastow has pleaded guilty to two counts and is expected to be the government's key witness against Lay and Skilling, who also insists he is innocent.</s>JEFFREY SKILLING, FORMER ENRON CEO: And I have no knowledge of any -- and had no knowledge of any wrongdoing.</s>HUNTINGTON: Sharon Watkins, the former Enron vice president who blew the whistle when she correctly warned that the company would implode in a wave of accounting scandal, is also likely to testify.</s>SHARON WATKINS, FORMER ENRON VICE PRESIDENT: I certainly would like to see Jeff Skilling charged, because I think he's the one that drove us over the cliff. Ken Lay, idiot or criminal, those are his two choices. Neither one's very positive.</s>HUNTINGTON: Another former Enron employee agrees.</s>CHAPPEL: Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay, if they're guilty of anything, it's of not knowing what their company was up to. But they're responsible for it. They're responsible for whatever goes on, and they should pay the price.</s>HUNTINGTON: Chris Huntington, CNN, Houston.</s>VERJEE: In Iraq, the U.S. military is facing an increasingly lethal threat.</s>CLANCY: Coming up, how insurgents are able to pierce their best defenses. You're watching CNN.