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CNN Live At Daybreak

Latest on Bethlehem Church Standoff

Aired May 06, 2002 - 05:02   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: And now for the latest on the Bethlehem church standoff and other Middle East developments, we go live to CNN's Jerrold Kessel, who is live in Jerusalem this morning -- good morning, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Five weeks to the day today that that devastating stand-off at the Church of the Nativity, one of Christendom's holiest sites certainly in the holy land, began when many Palestinian gunmen took refuge with other Palestinians or holed up in the Church of the Nativity and since then the Israelis have been besieging them.

Today may be the day when this siege ends and when this stand-off comes to its final resolution.

A short while ago you reported rightly that the Palestinians are saying it could happen any time. Israel's defense minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer has said he believed it would happen today, that it would be resolved, and if it is resolved, he said the Israelis forces would be withdrawn right away from Bethlehem and that would be the last major Palestinian town after the Israeli big military offensive from which they would withdraw.

We do know that the outlines of a deal have been worked out under the auspices of the U.S. CIA and Jeff O'Connellsman (ph), reported to be presiding over these negotiations over the last few days. Well, the outline of the deal is that of the 123 odd Palestinians who have been holed up in that Church of the Nativity for the past five weeks, some 80 would go out and would immediately be let, set free and go back to their normal lives. Another 40, the question is Israel had said are on their wanted list. They have been gunmen, the Israelis said. They would not allow them to go free straight away.

The agreement would then be that of those 40, around 30 would go down to Gaza and be put on trial before Palestinian courts there and the big question is how many would be, as agreement has been reached in principle over, how many, though, would go into exile, temporary, for some four years, I believe the agreement is now shaping up, in, to go to exile in Italy.

The Palestinians want no more than six or seven. The Israelis are talking about 30. It really is a question of numbers. Now, this development over the Church of the Nativity could factor into the other possible big development in the next couple of days. That's that meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, and President Bush. The question is do they want to have this Church of the Nativity issue resolved before then? Because Arafat, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, has been involved intimately in the talks, want it resolved before then.

The other big issue, Mr. Sharon's arrival for those talks and what he wants to get, strategic cooperation, strategic agreement with the United States. The two sides seem to be agreed on the question of reform of the Palestinian Authority. They are in dispute over, however, over Yasser Arafat's role. The United States saying he still has a potential role for stability. The Israeli prime minister trying to argue with the U.S. administration, saying Yasser Arafat is only a force for instability, not for stability. That could be the focus of those talks in Washington today and tomorrow at the White House -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you.

Jerrold Kessel reporting live for us from Jerusalem. And if anything happens in Bethlehem, we'll check back with Jerrold this morning.

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