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CNN Live At Daybreak

New Snag in Bethlehem Church Deal

Aired May 09, 2002 - 05:06   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: Turning our attention now to the Middle East, where there is a new snag in the Bethlehem church deal.

CNN's Carol Lin is live in Bethlehem this morning -- good morning, Carol -- oh, I'm sorry. It's Walter Rodgers. Let's go to his package now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Behind me in Bethlehem Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity. Gone, however, are the three buses the Israelis parked in Manger Square, buses which were, a short while ago, to take away more than 100 people still inside the Church of the Nativity. Gone also are the tables with bottled water the Israelis had ready for those who emerged from the church.

In their place, the Israelis moved in a main battle tank, a Merkeva, again, to signal their displeasure and disgust with the Palestinians, who they say are now manipulating events, using this crisis for their own ends. Indeed, the Israelis are saying the Palestinians, after having signed an agreement to end the crisis, are suddenly making new demands.

Colonel Olivier Rafowicz.

LT. COL. OLIVIER RAFOWICZ, IDF SPOKESMAN: This morning, again and again, after the agreement has been reached, the persons inside blocked the implementation by asking for more requests by, for more demands. We are continuing to negotiate but we are a bit worried what are the reasons for the refusal to go implementation the agreement.

RODGERS: It's not clear, but it appears this sudden hardening of the Palestinian position is coming from the hardliners inside the church more than from Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Those hardliners are from Hamas, from the Islamic Jihad and the Al Aksa Brigades. It is assumed at this point that they are making considerable mileage for their cause inside the church and thus they are more than reluctant to relinquish it, despite an agreement signed by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority to bring this five week siege to a close.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, Bethlehem.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: And we want to go live now to Bethlehem and talk to Mike Hanna, ask him a couple of questions -- Mike, good morning.

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello there, Carol.

Well, it's on again, off again, on again yet again. It all appears to be off. After 35 days, it does appear that the siege of Bethlehem will continue. We heard Walter Rodgers explain there the problems, the difficulties, the complexities in the negotiations. The fact that at the very last moment, when it seems that a deal had been achieved, new stumbling blocks emerged, stumbling blocks that the parties appear unable to cross at this particular stage.

What we can tell you, having come into Bethlehem within the last half hour, is noticing that it's almost as though it's back to day one. The crane over the Manger Square there, which had been taken away in recent days, has been put back. There is, we believe, a camera in that particular crane. When that was removed, we thought that the whole, it was a real sign that the siege was over. But now the crane is back.

We've seen Israeli forces moving into new positions. And there's almost a sense at this stage that after 35 days of these intricate negotiations, it appears almost as though it's back to step one. Everything about to begin again -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Mike, something Walter Rodgers said struck me. He said this latest snag is coming from inside the church, from the hardliners inside. Are they controlling these negotiations and not Yasser Arafat?

HANNA: Well, the whole heart of the issue is that those 13 people we are talking about who, in the initial negotiations had been agreed would be deported to a third country. Now, the stage of negotiations that had been up to this point is that everybody else in that church was going to come out, apart from the 13. twenty-six of them suspected Palestinian gunmen would have been transported down to Gaza. The other 80 odd civilians within the church were to be set free.

But the whole issue remained about these 13, who Israel says are very senior terrorists.

Now, as far as we can understand, there has been liaison through negotiators between these 13 and Yasser Arafat himself, the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. So we're not clear at this stage whether the sticking point has come from the 13 themselves inside the church, as Walter appears to be indicating was the case, or from the Palestinian leadership itself.

What we do know is that these 13 are seeking guarantees that once everybody comes out, they will not then be attacked by the Israeli forces outside the church. They're asking for a European Union representative in the church with them, which Israel has flatly turned down. They are asking for guarantees that they will not be attacked while their fate is sorted out. But not clear whether it's these 13 who are the sticking point or the wider Palestinian leadership back in Ramallah. What we do know and what we've been saying through the weeks of the siege, though, is that it was going to come down to this point, is that the civilians, some of the Palestinian gunmen, the Palestinian police officers who are inside there, were not really the problem. The problem is the senior militants who Israel says are wanted men and what they were going to do at the last point of negotiation -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And no third country seems to want them.

Thank you.

Mike Hanna reporting live from Bethlehem this morning.

So the siege continues.

We have the Middle East covered on our Web site. Today you can read about the Israeli cabinet approving retaliation for the latest suicide bombings. Our address is, of course, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.

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