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American Morning

Agreement to End Bethlehem Siege May Be Near

Aired May 06, 2002 - 07:02   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, news that the siege in Bethlehem could end as early as today as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gets ready for a meeting with President Bush. Sharon will present a new peace plan at tomorrow's meeting and reveal new evidence that he says proves Yasser Arafat is a terrorist.

Joining us now from Bethlehem with more on the standoff is CNN's Walt Rodgers -- good morning, Walt.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. The 123 people still inside the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus' birth, are still inside that church at this hour, despite some rather premature news reports last night that an agreement had been reached to end the siege. And now the people inside the church, 123, say they hope, they pray, they expect it will end today, but an Israeli source with whom I spoke said essentially don't hold your breath.

Now, again, the devil is in the details. Yasser Arafat has yet to sign off on the outlines of an agreement. So in the point of fact, that's what we have at this point, only the outline of an agreement, not the agreement itself, which is why one of the Israelis remains somewhat pessimistic. The Israeli telling us that it could not -- it might go as long as tomorrow or perhaps even longer.

Again, the problem seems to be the number of Palestinians inside the church, who will be deported to Italy. The Israelis say they want 13 minimum. These are whom people the Israelis call the highest profile, senior terrorists. Those are Israeli words.

On the other hand, the Palestinians say no more than six. Yasser Arafat is said to be adamant about that six; Arafat saying no more than six.

Thus, we have a major sticking point. There are going to have to be more negotiations. Many of the people inside that church, by the way, still don't know whether they are the ones going to be exiled to Italy, or whether they are going to go to Gaza, where they may face a trial in a Palestinian court of justice.

One thing yet to be resolved, of course, the Palestinians still have guns inside that church. They say they will not give up those guns until they hear from Yasser Arafat. What's really interesting here is that the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus' birth, is turning into the site of a duel, again, between Yasser Arafat and Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington. Both men could conceivably stretch out this crisis for their own purposes. Arafat could stretch it out to embarrass Prime Minister Sharon, who is meeting with President Bush at the White House.

On the other hand, Mr. Sharon might try to stretch it out, because he could then stand -- using the White House as a platform and say, look, the terrorists who I have referred to are still holding the Church of the Nativity, the holiest site and one of the holiest sites in Christendom -- Paula.

ZAHN: So once again, Walt, the major sticking point at this point is the future of what he referred to these 13 gunmen as that, or the six that Arafat says that he will only allow to be exiled?

RODGERS: That seems to be the case, but again, we still don't know all the details of the outline of a projected agreement, but still no agreement. The outline -- one of the things in the outline is we have to determine if, in fact, the 30 or so other Palestinians whom the Israelis want, and when they go to Gaza, will they stand trial down there?

Now, a lot of loose ends out there. And there is still a lot of politics, which could be played again. Last night, there was optimism this would end today. The Israelis are now saying maybe today, maybe tomorrow, and there is the possibility it could go even beyond that if it suits one side or the other's political purposes -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Thanks so much, Walt, for that report.

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