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CNN Live Today

Gunshots Heard at Arafat Headquarters

Aired April 30, 2002 - 10:05   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go ahead and check yet another flashpoint in the Middle East, the Ramallah headquarters of Yasser Arafat. Israel has said it will lift its confinement of Arafat, but that has not yet occurred. In fact, gunshots were heard in the area in the last hour.

Our Matthew Chance is in Ramallah, and he has the latest -- Matthew, hello.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn -- hello to you too. A lot of tension here on the streets of Ramallah, a lot of anticipation too about the possibility, of course, that Yasser Arafat could be walking out of his besieged presidential compound here in the West Bank city of Ramallah for the first time since he was effectively placed under siege there by Israeli forces at the end of March.

First though, the terms for the agreement has to be that the U.S. suggested, initiated, about the possibility of ending that siege. Those terms have to be agreed already. The second round of security talks and meetings have got under way between Palestinian officials and security experts from Britain and the United States. They have been in the West Bank town of Jericho inspecting a Palestinian prison facility, where it's hoped British and U.S. guards or monitors will be placed to oversee the securing of the six Palestinian men currently holed up inside Yasser Arafat's compound, oversee their prison sentences to ensure that once the Israeli army is given the order to withdraw from the presidential compound, those people won't simply be able to walk free.

The Palestinians have concerns too about the future of these men who remember (AUDIO GAP) who were convicted in a Palestinian court for killing Israel's tourism minister last October. Palestinian concerns include calling for a letter of guarantee from that British and U.S. team guaranteeing the security and the safety of those prisoners and guaranteeing, of course, that they will not ever be placed back in the hands or in the hands of the Israeli authorities -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And then, Matthew, on the other side, they are going to make sure that the Palestinians just can't walk away, this kind of revolving door of justice that the Israelis accuse the Palestinians of.

CHANCE: That's right. The revolving door scenario is one that Israel has been very keen to avoid for obvious reasons. There is -- this is why this compromise suggested by President Bush just days ago is being so helpful in bringing this standoff to an end, because it would, of course, put these six wanted men under the responsibility effectively of the United States and of the British team to ensure that they simply did not walk free, once the Israeli troops were called off from their positions outside Yasser Arafat's compound. Once Israel is satisfied that will happen, the belief here is that we will see the Israelis pull out of Ramallah.

KAGAN: All right. Matthew Chance in Ramallah -- thank you for the latest on that.

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