Powell has some things to say to both sides as he leaves the Middle East...
Powell Promises to Return to Mideast
Wed Apr 17, 7:19 AM ET
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - Winding down a 10-day Middle East peace mission with limited results, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Wednesday that Israel had promised to withdraw troops from Palestinian towns and villages within a few days. He bluntly admonished Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) that "terrorism must end."
In a news conference before departing Israel, Powell said he would return to the region "to move ahead" with efforts to get peace negotiations on track. He said other U.S. diplomats will remain behind to follow up on his talks and that President Bush (news - web sites) is prepared to send CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet "in the near future" to promote security cooperation between Israeli and the Palestinians.
Powell was unable to get both sides to agree to a cease-fire, which he said is impossible to achieve while the Israeli military remains in the West Bank. He said the Palestinians argue they can't crack down on militants while their security apparatus isn't able to function in the face of the Israeli incursions.
"Cease-fire is not a relevant term at the moment," Powell said, adding that conditions may allow for that later "so one can have not just the statement of a cease-fire but the reality."
Powell said that while the Israeli pullback "wasn't as quickly as we would have liked, it is under way."
"I take the prime minister at his word that he is going to conclude it in the next few days or week or so," Powell said. He called the Israeli offensive the obstacle "that keeps us from moving" into a framework for peace negotiations.
Powell said he made it clear to Arafat that the world is looking for him to move beyond condemnations of terrorism and take action against militants and suicide bombers who attack Israelis.
"It's time for him to make a strategic choice and lead his people down the path of peace," said Powell, who refused to say whether he personally believed the Palestinian leader was ready to take action.
"Statements as we all know now are not enough. It's not what I believe or don't believe. It's what we see him do that will be the important measurement as we move forward."
After their meeting, an angry Arafat focused on Israel's siege of his Ramallah compound and appealed for international help.
"I have to ask the Bush administration, the international community, is this acceptable that I cannot go out the door," he said, his voice rising with apparent exasperation. Just next door, Israeli gunners peeked through half-opened windows and Israeli tanks ensured the confinement of the Palestinian leader.
"Who can accept this?" Arafat asked. "They are returning back," he said, referring to Israel's latest surge into Palestinian areas, after Sharon had said he would withdraw Israeli troops within a week from all towns and villages except Ramallah and Bethlehem.
Powell said he urged Israel to ease its confinement of Arafat at his Ramallah headquarters, and allow the Palestinian leader the ability to communicate with the outside world and his people.
"It also seems a better course of action to allow him a better opportunity to communicate with the rest of the world," Powell said.
The secretary of state said any progress is difficult because confidence between Israel and the Palestinians is gone.
"Both sides will have to shift from long-held positions ... but we will never get to negotiations and we will never be able to move forward until we bring the violence down," Powell said.
Powell closed his visit to the region with tough questions to both sides.
To the Israelis, he said, "The question is whether the time has come for a strong, vibrant state of Israel to look beyond the destructive impact of settlement and occupation, both of which must end."
And to the Palestinians, "The question is whether violence and terrorism can be renounced forever and whether your sights can be set squarely on peace through negotiations. Terrorists and purveyors of violence must not hold the Palestinian dream of independence hostage and prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state."
As for the possibility of a peace conference, Powell said both Sharon and Arafat had expressed interest, as had other Arab leaders, but there was no timetable. Its purpose, he said, would be to "restore hope, reaffirm the urgency of a comprehensive settlement and resume direct negotiations in order to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
He said he would be discussing the idea with Bush when he got home. Powell was returning to Washington via Cairo, but a planned meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) was abruptly canceled without explanation.
Inside Arafat's headquarters, guards reported that conditions had improved somewhat since Powell's first visit on Sunday. They said Israel had turned up the water pressure, permitted more electricity to flow and allowed limited deliveries of food, bottled water and medical supplies.
Still, Makmoud Issa, in charge of Arafat's security force, said that conditions in "jail would be better."
As Powell and Arafat talked, an Israeli soldier briefly waved his country's flag from the window of a building that troops have occupied adjacent to Arafat's headquarters, countering a Palestinian flag suspended from the windows of the besieged compound. It was Israel's Independence Day.
Israeli troops continued their operation in a Palestinian village inside Jerusalem's expanded city limits, removing residents from their homes and making arrests, witnesses said. Israeli forces had moved into a West Bank town and three villages near Jerusalem on Tuesday and imposed curfews as part of a high-security alert timed to Independence Day.
Palestinians condemned the new incursions, but Powell has tempered his public calls for a total and quick pullout now that Sharon has announced a pullout from all but Ramallah and Bethlehem.
In at least one major respect, Powell has made gains.
He started out determined to push Israel and the Palestinians toward a peacemaking process, and he departs the region with a conference quickly taking shape.
In an interview with Israel TV, Sharon appeared to drop his opposition to involving Arafat. Sharon said that who represents the Palestinians is "a secondary issue."
"It's not important to me which of them will be here," he said.
Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abul-Ragheb, quoted in an interview that appeared in Wednesday's edition of the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, said that if Powell's mission failed, it would have "grave consequences on the region as a whole, on the peace process and will cause chaos, and the interests of the U.S. and the West will be affected."
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