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CNN Live At Daybreak

Standoff at Church of Nativity Could Be Over Today or Tomorrow

Aired April 23, 2002 - 06:32   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem could be over today or tomorrow. That is the word we are getting from an Anglican envoy, who is acting as an intermediary between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Some 200 Palestinians have been inside that church for three weeks now with food supplies dwindling.

Having said that, we want to go live to Bethlehem now for the latest on the negotiations to end this standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Our John Vause is standing by. How long have the negotiations been going on, John?

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they started at five past 12:00 local time. That's about an hour-and-a-half ago, Carol. It was actually delayed by about an hour. The time set down was 11:00, but they did get off to a slow start. So these are, in fact, the first direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

We were out and about a few hours ago, and we saw the security around the area. We understand the delegates began arriving about three hours ago, a few hours ago now. They are being taken to the Peace Center, which is a building just on Manger Square. It's just north of the Church of the Nativity. It's only a few -- not even 100 feet from the Church of the Nativity.

Now, that building was built as part of the millennium celebration, and it is in that building, we understand, that the Israelis and the Palestinians are sitting down, along with some international observers -- one of them, we understand, is from the European Union -- to try and sort out an end to this siege, which began on April 2.

And of course, these negotiations now are taking place, because of a meeting yesterday between the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and the assistant secretary of state, William Burns. He managed to get Mr. Arafat to drop a demand for the presence of clergy at these negotiations, and they are, in fact, taking place.

But as far as optimism, well, there isn't a great deal of optimism out there. That's because these talks had been planned in the past and never went ahead, but still there is hope now that there will be some resolution. And speaking on that, we have some sound from the Canon Andrew White from the Anglican Church. He spoke a little bit about that -- here is what he had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANON ANDREW WHITE, SPECIAL ENVOY FOR ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: It's very difficult in a situation like this, where you regularly (ph) think you have made some progress, only to find you have taken two steps backward. It's very easy to give up hope. We continue to hold hope, but we are not over-optimistic. I cannot say that I feel total confidence that the meetings today will bear fruit, but we very much hope and pray that there will be a positive result very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Now, of course, one of the reasons why Canon Andrew White, amongst many others here, are not overly optimistic, just take a look at what happened here last night. There was gunfire. There were stun grenades being thrown into Manger Square. This exchange of fire lasted for nearly two hours.

There was a lot of gunfire in this vicinity. The Israelis say the Palestinians fired first. The Palestinians say it was the Israelis who fired first. It's difficult from our position to work out who, in fact, fired first. But all we know, Carol, last night is that there was a lot of gunfire here.

COSTELLO: And we're glad you are safe from it. Thank you -- John Vause reporting live for us from Bethlehem this morning.

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