Sharon to Powell: No real steps by PA to end terrorism
23:45 21/11/2001 Last update - 23:45 21/11/2001
By Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz Correspondent, and agencies
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke by telephone to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday night and told him that the Palestinian Authority has made no effort to end the terrorism.
"The terror has not stopped, even for an instant," Sharon said. "We have seen not any real steps or actions taken by the Palestinian Authority to stop the terror."
In response, Powell told Sharon that a new U.S. envoy would be arriving in the Middle East in the coming days.
Retired general Anthony Zinni, who was recently named by Powell as the new Middle East envoy, has said he will remain in the region until a truce is worked out. Zinni and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns are expected to arrive in the region at the beginning of next week.
Sharon and Powell also made plans to meet during the prime minister's upcoming visit to Washington on December 3.
The Palestinians demanded Wednesday that the envoys force Israel to implement an agreed truce without the seven-day period of calm that Israel is demanding before negotiations take place.
The Palestinian Authority also warned that Israel's insistence on a week of calm before a U.S.-backed truce-to-talks plan is put into motion would doom Washington's new efforts to revive peace negotiations.
"I challenge Mr. Sharon to find any part in this record that calls for a seven-day period of quiet," said Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat.
Meanwhile, the militant Hamas movement called on Palestinian leaders not to cooperate with the new U.S. initiative. Ismail Hanayeh, a Hamas official, said the U.S. aim is to sabotage the Palestinian struggle. Hamas, which opposes peace with Israel, has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks, including suicide bombings, that killed dozens of Israelis and wounded hundreds since violence erupted in September 2000.
Both the Palestinians and Israel have welcomed a Middle East policy speech Monday by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who announced the dispatch of two envoys to try to end more than a year of bloodshed and lead both sides back to peacemaking.
But Palestinian cabinet minister Nabil Sha'ath slammed Israel's refusal to immediately implement the plan, charted by an international committee led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, until violence is halted for at least a week.
"This is exactly the Israeli trick to torpedo any return to the peace process by insisting on seven days of quiet," said Sha'ath.
"Even if one single bullet is fired in the air, Israel will consider it an operation and take it as an excuse and say quiet was not achieved. So how come we can reach any result?"
The Mitchell Report calls for a truce, followed by a cooling-off period, then confidence-building measures - including a freeze on construction in Jewish settlements - and eventually a resumption of final-status talks.
Powell's speech marked the first time President George W. Bush's administration has outlined ideas for ending the conflict, a move coinciding with U.S. efforts to bolster Arab backing for the anti-terror war in Afghanistan.
Sha'ath said his call was in line with U.S. and European demands to immediately begin implementing the Mitchell plan.
"Mr. Powell and the Europeans have discovered that this is the only way to revive peace talks," said Sha'ath.
No public calls to abandon seven days of quiet
Powell did not publicly call on Israel to abandon its demand for seven days of calm before moving on to the rest of the phases of the Mitchell plan.
When asked on ABC's "This Week" if he would demand Sharon waive his position, Powell said: "I didn't impose the seven days, so therefore, I can't waive it."
Sharon insists he will not hold peace talks so long as violence rages. Palestinians say Israel must lift a crippling blockade and remove its troops from populated areas for a cease-fire to hold and negotiations to resume.
Sha'ath said he and other Palestinians officials expected to meet the envoys as early as next Monday to discuss implementing the Mitchell Report and a U.S.-brokered truce hammered out in June by CIA Director George Tenet. |
