BILL CLINTON SUGGESTS LEAVING MOST OF THE JERUSALEM’S ARMENIAN QUARTER UNDER ISRAELI CONTROL

27.12.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. The Israeli radio reported some elements of US President’s peace plan on solving the old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. In accord with this plan Bill Clinton suggests that “most of the Armenian quarter of the Old City” should remain Israeli.
On December 26 the Foreign Minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian stated at a press conference in Yerevan that Armenia speaks out against the separation of the Armenian and Christian quarters of Jerusalem. “We think that at any settlement of the conflict regarding the status of Jerusalem the Armenian quarter of the city should not be separated from the Christian. Together with the Greek and Latin patriarchies the Armenian patriarchy has been the “Christian face of Jerusalem” in the course of centuries,” the minister said.
On August 27 the Leader of Palestinian Autonomy Yasser Arafat denied the information of Israeli sources that he had agreed that the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem remained under the control of Israel. Arafat declared that he absolutely rejected this proposal. “The Armenian quarter belongs to us”, Arafat noted. -0-