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: Back now to the Middle East, and a look at one of the difficult problems in the conflict. President Bush says ending the Israeli siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is a top priority for Secretary of State Colin Powell. And for two weeks now, some 200 Palestinians have been holed up inside the church, surrounded by the Israeli Army. And Ariel Sharon has offered a deal to the gunmen inside and yesterday in an interview with Wolf Blitzer, he repeated his solution to the stand-off.
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ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The agreement is a very simple one. They have to leave their weapons behind. They must come out. Those that have the relations or were connected or participated in acts of murder and have, say, been members of terrorist organizations, they will have two possibilities. One, to be tried in Israel. And the other one, to be expelled or deported from the area.
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ZAHN: But Palestinians say no way. They say they will only agree to terms negotiated by Yasser Arafat.
And joining us now from Jerusalem are two men who are trying to help mediate the situation at the church, Archbishop Aristarchos of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchy, who met with Secretary Powell on Saturday, and Canon Andrew White, the Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy to the Middle East.
Welcome, gentlemen. It's an honor to have both of you with us this morning.
CANON ANDREW WHITE, MIDDLE EAST ENVOY: Good morning.
ARCHBISHOP ARISTARCHOS, CHIEF SECRETARIAT, GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH: Good morning.
ZAHN: Good morning. Canon White, how do you think this will be resolved?
WHITE: Well, I know that both the Israelis and the Americans are working very hard at trying to negotiate a settlement for the Church of the Nativity. There is, as I have said on previous occasions, a potentially explosive situation there. It really is like a volcano waiting to erupt.
But I think there has to be some engagement, particularly with the patriarchs of Jerusalem. And at the moment there doesn't appear to be any real engagement over the issues regarding the status quo and the way that the church leaders actually hold ultimate responsibility for the Church of the Nativity. People like Archbishop Aristarchos of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenians and the Custas (ph) of the Franciscans. They are the three groups that under the status quo have responsibility.
So something needs to happen urgently and there must be an urgent engagement with the religious leaders.
ZAHN: But Archbishop, given what the prime minister of Israel's had to say, which is his offer of military trial if these militants turn over their weapons or permanent exile in another country, where do you see any compromise here? The Palestinians say that is a no go.
ARISTARCHOS: I think that we as clergymen have tried, and we try our best, to contribute to a peaceful solution. The church uses its language, which is the language of reconciliation. Christ the crucified, reconciliated two different and opposite worlds, the Greek and the Jewish world. The church speaks the same language of reconciliation and tries to bring reconciliation to the two peoples, to the two nations, Israel and Palestinians.
And from the place where the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ was born, speaks the language of peace and says to each side to restrain and to show a mutual understanding for a peaceful solution of the problem of the Nativity without bloodshed and without loss of human lives from every side.
ZAHN: Archbishop, I know that you are in constant touch with some of the Franciscans inside the church. What are they telling you about what the conditions are like?
ARISTARCHOS: Of course we are in connection with Franciscans inside. I was not directly with them, but I was in directly contact with our monks inside the church. The four monks, Greek Orthodox monks, and I was in direct contact with them. And I know about the situation in the church from them. This is a difficult situation. They still survive the situation and they wait from us outside to bring a solution the soonest.
ZAHN: Canon White, I know the archbishop described how hopeful he is that this won't be solved with any loss of life, with any bloodshed. How nervous are you about the potential of this being a powder keg?
WHITE: Well, I think we all realize and all sides realize how enormous the catastrophe could be if anything went wrong in this, one of the most holy sites of Christianity. No, as Archbishop Aristarchos has said, as Christian leaders we have hope and we do not give in and we believe in reconciliation and we have been very much involved in a process here with people like Archbishop Aristarchos, with the Muslim and Jewish leaders, to try and bring some reconciliation because this is potentially one of the most dangerous situations in this present crisis and we really do need all the help that is available to try and solve this what appears to be insolvable problem.
And in reality, we are only going to move forward if one side or the other is willing to make compromises. And sadly it appears at the moment that it's too difficult for either side to make compromises.
There is not any solution which will be acceptable for all sides. There is no way that, however hard you negotiate, that you will find a means of pleasing all sides because as far as Israel is concerned, many of these people inside the church, not all of them, and they have said that, but many of them are wanted. And on the Palestinian side, they're either seen as freedom fighters or else they're religious leaders who have been told already that they may leave, but are insistent that they will stay there with their people and they will stay there worshipping in this holy place and maintaining its sacredness until the end.
ZAHN: Meanwhile, Canon White, how bad are things inside there?
WHITE: Well, we know that some humanitarian aid has actually got in. I have literally just returned from Bethlehem a few moments ago and things are very bad in that whole region. But we can only begin to imagine what the situation must be like within the church.
There are still two bodies of people that need to be buried. There is limited water. We know that water and food has been taken in. The sanitary conditions, we are told, are now in an absolute desperate state.
So it's difficult to quite imagine what it must be like for a group of people held up without facilities for such a long period of time.
ZAHN: Well, I know this has been personally painful for both of you to have to endure this process and Archbishop Aristarchos and Canon Andrew White, we really appreciate your perspective here this morning. Thank you very much for joining us.
WHITE: Thank you very much.
ARISTARCHOS: We thank you very much and I, let me convey you the blessing of the Holy Sepulcher and of his beatitude, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ernaous (ph). We seek a solution, peaceful solution of the whole problem. Thank you.
ZAHN: It's very generous of you to share that with us this morning.
Thank you, gentlemen.
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