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CNN Live At Daybreak
Interview With PLO Leader Yasser Arafat
Aired May 02, 2002 - 05:04 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: Shortly after the Israeli siege of Yasser Arafat's compound ended, the Palestinian leader spoke to CNN's Matthew Chance. But in the interview, Arafat was more interested in talking about events at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem than the ending of his detention by the Israelis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This must be a massive relief that this siege around your compound has come to an end. It's an obvious question, but how do you feel right now?
YASSER ARAFAT, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: What is important now is this big crime which had happened against this holy sacred place for the Muslims and for the Christians, the Nativity Church. You had followed what they had done, two big burn, places who had been burned, in the Franciscan area and in the Orthodox room, Room Orthodox. And we succeeded just now, just now, handela (ph) you say in Arabic, delia (ph).
CHANCE: Were you hoping...
ARAFAT: They succeeded inside to control the fire, but to control it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To put off the fire.
ARAFAT: To put off the fire. They control and put off. But they are continuing still now the attacking against the Nativity Church. What you call it, I am asking you personally, this has happened the same, if you remember some years ago, against Aksa Mosque (ph) and now against the Nativity Church. Who can believe it in the whole world?
CHANCE: President Arafat, let me ask you, did you hope that there would be some resolution to that stand-off at the Church of the Nativity similar to the resolution that we've seen here today?
ARAFAT: It was approval, the approval which I had started when the American consulate and when the British consulate came to me. I am not, we are, I was not discussing with them only my headquarters. I was discussing with them the Nativity Church before my headquarters. And we agreed upon that the two sides and the two places would be, we'll find a solution for it. And you followed what they have done against me here? Three explosions, three buildings have been destroyed. But I kept silent because for me it makes a difference even if they had destroyed this room in which I am working. What is important for me and for the whole world is this Nativity Church and what have done against the Church of St. Mary.
CHANCE: Leaving aside your plans...
ARAFAT: You remember, the whole world moved when Buddha, the statue had been done...
(CROSSTALK)
ARAFAT: ... in Afghanistan, the whole world had moved. Why are not moving against what is going this church, holy sacred place for the whole Muslims, for the whole Christians all over the world?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: An Arafat spokesman says Arafat plans to stay in the Palestinian territories for at least the next few days. Then the aide says Arafat will begin traveling abroad.
But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggests Arafat may not receive a free pass to return if he does leave the country. Mr. Sharon spoke to Ted Koppel on ABC's "Nightline."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We are not giving any guarantees for that. We're not asked to give any guarantees and we're not going to give any guarantees because usually in the past when he left, it was always a sign for a wave of terror. So if there will be a wave of terror and if he will be going around the world inciting then we'll have to consider and discuss what to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: More on the fire at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. It was put out after about a half hour early this morning. Still, tensions are running very high in Bethlehem.
CNN's senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers describes the scene there.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Bethlehem, there was a near tragedy of almost monumental proportions this evening. What happened was fires in the Church of the Nativity in Manger Square, the traditional site of Jesus' birth.
You'll recall that inside that church there are between 120 and perhaps 200 Palestinians, some of whom have taken refuge. The Israelis say some of those Palestinians inside that church are hard core fighters, Palestinian gunmen. These are men who are wanted by the Israelis. About midnight local time there was an exchange of fire from Palestinians inside the church shooting out. The Palestinians claim the Israelis were shooting into the church. The Palestinians, indeed, allege that the Israelis were going to storm the Church of the Nativity to try to root them out.
Then, according to an Israeli government spokesman, what the Palestinians did -- and this is the Israeli claim -- the Palestinians set three fires in the area of the Church of the Nativity because the Palestinians felt that the roof was about to fall in open them in a figurative sense, that the Israelis were going to try to overrun them.
Again, the Israelis allege Palestinians set fires. The Palestinians are claiming that the Israelis shooting at the church are what ignited the blazes. What happened, of course, was that in the course of about an hour or an hour and a half, there was considerable shooting here in Bethlehem. The Palestinians inside the church did manage to extinguish the blazes which, again, as I say, we don't know the actual source of and we're still not sure at this point because the Palestinians control the church, the extent of the damage in the Church of the Nativity here in Bethlehem.
But it, again, highlights the very tense situation which has now lasted for exactly one month with the Israeli armored troops and armored personnel carriers surrounding this sacred church to Christians and Palestinians inside, many of them Yasser Arafat's own soldiers and gunmen, refusing to let the Israelis into the church. The stand-off continues.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, Bethlehem.
COSTELLO: And be sure to check out our special on the crisis in the Middle East, "Centuries of Conflict." Learn about the issues, get the profiles of all the key players. Our address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
You know, more on the damage inside the Church of the Nativity. As far as we know, the fire damages the dormitories, not the church part or the part where Jesus was born, at least as far as we know. And you were pointing out another fire in a tower and we just don't know what that was.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seemed to me, I was watching this on "Wolf Blitzer" last night, it seemed to me that there were two separate fires. There was one here that you could see long because you could see it here in the...
COSTELLO: And those were probably the dormitories.
MYERS: Right. And then there was another fire that seemed to be like in a bell tower or something that was at least two or three stories higher. And I couldn't see, it was such in the dark.
COSTELLO: Yes.
MYERS: And Wolf Blitzer did, by far, just a fantastic job with that.
COSTELLO: Yes, he did. It was fascinating watching him.
MYERS: My wife said to me, she said is Wolf reading all of this? And I said no.
COSTELLO: Oh, no.
MYERS: Oh, no. This is off the top of his head and that's why we pay him the big bucks, because he did a fabulous job with that yesterday. It was amazing.
COSTELLO: Yes, he did. A good job. You know, the other weird thing that happened during Wolf Blitzer's live coverage was the church bells were ringing and the gunfire was erupting at the same time.
MYERS: Oh, I didn't hear that. Oh, I didn't hear that.
COSTELLO: And the person who rang the church bells at the Church of the Nativity was a guy who just got out of the church after being holed up in there for a long time.
MYERS: I didn't know that.
COSTELLO: OK.
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