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American Morning

Church of Nativity Standoff Ending

Aired May 07, 2002 - 09:01   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, addressing the crisis in the Middle East from Washington to Bethlehem. President Bush meets today with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, while at the Church of the Nativity the 36-day standoff appears to be all but over.

CNN's Walt Rodgers is joining us from Bethlehem right now with the very latest on that. When might this happen -- good morning, Walt.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

The door to the Church of the Nativity, the so-called door of humility, the very small door main entrance to the church remains closed. One hundred twenty-three people still remain inside. But don't lose heart. We have every indication that this is well on its way to being solved.

As you can see by our camera focusing on the door to the Church of the Nativity, traditional site of Jesus' birth, the Israelis have put up barricades so that the Palestinians inside that church can emerge when the ink is dry on an agreement. You can also see that the Israelis have put up three or four white screens, which actually block our direct visibility of the exit to the church.

The reason for that we're not sure of, but the Israelis obviously want to take a close look at any of the Palestinians emerging from the church before they walk them through two separate sets of metal detectors. The very same things people walk through at airports.

Now we understand that everyone was ready for a release in the not too distant past, but as with every major Middle East negotiations, there's always that last-minute hiccup. Israel is now saying it will not proceed until a country -- a third country -- is willing to accept the 13 hard-lined Palestinian deportees. That is those, the Israelis say, are senior terrorists inside the church.

Now we thought we had an agreement on that earlier and that the 13 would be going to Italy. The Italians are now objecting. They are quite offended by the fact that they say they were not consulted until the negotiations were almost over. The Italians say before they accept the 13 deportees who are inside the church, the Palestinian hard-lined fighters in there from the Islamic Jihad from Hamas and from the Al-Aqsa Brigades.

The Italians say they want to see the conditions of confinement. In fact, the Italians were very irate about it. They said that the British, who represented the European Union in those negotiations, were arrogant. They say the British never informed them of the details of the release. So the Italians have to have their feathers smoothed and soothed at this point before we proceed much further.

Also, there may be yet another last-minute glitch. While the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators apparently agreed to 13 Palestinian deportees to Italy, some of the people inside the church don't like that number. So, again, that number 13 is kicking around, maybe a bit of a problem.

Again, everyone is ready. The preparations are in place. There are just these few last-minute details which have to be worked out at this time. But, again, we're expecting it any time, just as soon as the Italians say, Yes, we'll take them -- Paula.

ZAHN: Well that's a significant objection on the Italians' part. This is not expected to drag on for many, many hours? You think this could be resolved shortly?

RODGERS: Well, the Americans are working with the Italians trying to ease their concerns, trying to reassure them that they were not left out. But, again, the Italians were extraordinarily angry at the British, because this was essentially a four-party negotiation: the Americans, the British, the Israelis and the Palestinians. It was the British' responsibility to inform their European Union partners -- in this case, the Italians -- the terms of the confinement, the terms of the release and deportation of these 13 hard-lined fighters.

The Italians are offended because they feel they were diplomatically excluded. The Italians will have to be soothed and reassured and be convinced that the details of their deportation and confinement are satisfactory to the Italian government. Again, it's just that last-minute hiccup that you always see in Middle East negotiations. Just when you think you're over the finish line, somebody pulls you back.

And that's what we're seeing here. Not serious, it can be worked out -- Paula.

ZAHN: I guess we shouldn't be surprised by it. Walt Rodgers, thanks so much for that update. Keep us posted.

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