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CNN Live Today

Shimon Peres to Talk to Italian Prime Minister Regarding Exiles

Aired May 09, 2002 - 11:06   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Now to an actual physical church in the center of a controversy. Another deal to end the standoff at the historic Church of the Nativity has fallen through.

CNN's Carol Lin joins us live from Bethlehem this morning -- hello, Carol. What's the word there?

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Leon.

Well, in the last hour, you both were asking whether there was any hope for any developments in this standoff here at the Church of the Nativity. And just in the last hour since I spoke to you guys there has been a development according to Israeli reports. And according to those reports, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is expected to be meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome tomorrow.

Specifically, it is a courtesy visit and a diplomatic visit to sit down eye to eye. Shimon Peres expected to ask the Italian prime minister formally to accept 13 Palestinians still inside the Church of the Nativity. Thirteen men whom the Israelis claim are militant gunmen holed up inside. This whole deal has broken down over these 13 men.

Originally, as you might recall, that it was agreed that these 13 would be exiled to a third country. Only no third country stepped up to the plate. Italy and Spain said that they were not properly asked. Twenty-six Palestinians also in the Church of the Nativity would be sent down to a Gaza jail under the Palestinian Authority. And 85 civilians, just regular folks, would be set free.

We all thought that that deal was going to happen overnight. All indications were that it would be. In fact, I'm going to push in right now behind me. You can look in to Manger Square; a very different scene. They had set up tables with bottled water and driven buses into Manger Square to pick up all those people since the deal was supposedly done.

Now, as you're seeing right now, a tank is in place. The Israelis have sent in their armor and their weapons, set up barricades there. What happened was the deal broke down overnight and actually into the early morning hours. Two sort of different stories. The Palestinians saying that they wanted -- or saying, rather, that the European Union had agreed to send a representative inside the church, offering special security guarantees so that the 13 Palestinians who would remain inside the church, until a third country could be found, would be secure from any assault by Israeli forces while everybody else was set free.

That was the hanging note, but the Israelis were telling us this morning that, "Wait a second, we had a deal and now you're making all these extra demands." So much of this hinges right now perhaps on that meeting tomorrow between Shimon Peres and Silvio Berlusconi, where these two men can sit down in Rome outside of the region to see whether a deal can be made so that Italy would accept these 13 Palestinians in a deal that can resolve this whole situation, which still remains at a standoff for the last five weeks -- Leon.

HARRIS: Very interesting. Carol Lin reporting live for us from Bethlehem. Thank you very much, Carol.

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