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CNN Live Today

Israeli, Palestinian Leaders Host Greek, Turkish Foreign Ministers

Aired April 25, 2002 - 13:09   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now the latest back on what's happening back in the Middle East. Jerrold Kessel today from Jerusalem on the events of Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yasser Arafat welcomes to his compound the unlikely peace allies, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Greece, hoping to enlist them in his effort to break the isolation imposed on him by Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon.

YASSER ARAFAT, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: The peace of paper (ph) which I have signed was my partner, Rabin, had been demolished and (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And as you see, none of my ministers have the ability to come to attend this conference accept my adviser, who are also in the same prison with me.

QUESTION: What is the next step, Mr. President? Where do we go from here?

ARAFAT: You have to ask the Israelis and the Americans who are behind them.

QUESTION: And if you would like to give a message to the world today or to the Palestinian people who don't have the opportunity to see you or the people in Europe?

ARAFAT: Without peace agreement in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), there will be no peace in the Middle East.

KESSEL: At the very same time in a nearby hall within what's left of the Palestinian leader's compound, a makeshift military court sentences four Palestinians for the killing of an Israeli cabinet minister Rechavam Zeevi last October, a move which Palestinians hope will help enlist the United States to push Israel to relieve Mr. Arafat's isolation.

The Israeli prime minister, in what some interpret as pre-empting a Washington reaction, quickly, however, repeats his demand that the killers of Mr. Zeevi must still face an Israeli court.

ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I must say it seems a bit bizarre. It was possible to prevent their trial twice because anywhere they will be brought to trial to Israel.

KESSEL: Mr. Sharon also hosting the Greek and Turkish go- betweens demanded more, the extradition of a top Palestinian official also in the Arafat compound. He is said to have been behind the huge Palestinian arms shipment that Israel intercepted at the Red Sea at the end of last year, a shipment the U.S. strongly condemned.

At the same time, momentum seemed to be picking up towards resolution of the other critical Palestinian/Israeli standoff in Manger Square. Nine young Palestinians walked out of the besieged Church of the Nativity. Two bodies were also released by the gunmen inside, and the Palestinians who proposed what they say could be key to ending the stalemate: their offer that the five gunmen inside most wanted by Israel should be transferred to Gaza for prosecution there before Palestinian courts.

(on camera): Most intriguing perhaps about these moves towards possibly ending the two standoffs at the Arafat headquarters and the church in Bethlehem is that they come on the very day of the summit between President Bush and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, Crown Prince Abdullah, whose peace plan the United States has said could form the first building block in Middle East peacemaking once the elements of confrontation have been removed.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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