Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser on Thursday said the United States and Britain were now involved in negotiations aimed at lifting the Israeli siege on Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and that drastic changes would take place within 72 hours. Back-channel negotiations are taking place at the highest level. The Americans and the British are now involved to solve the crisis" Nasser told journalists at a press conference in Bethlehem.

He said existing Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams would "not be able to solve the situation locally," and that (Palestinian leader) "Yasser Arafat is interested in resolving the crisis.

"If the US and the British are convinced" of the urgency of dealing with the one-month siege of the church, "the Israelis will not say no. Drastic changes will take place within the next 72 hours," he confidently concluded.
"I can't see an escalation of the situation. The army will not storm the church, the Vatican has received guarantees from Israel in that regard," he said, adding there would not be "a military solution" to the crisis but "a negotiated one." Bureau Report