AP Photo/Hussein Malla
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks at a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Southern Shuneh on the Dead Sea, Jordan, Sunday.
Posted on 05/16/2004 9:35:52 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell blamed Yasser Arafat on Sunday for blocking U.S. efforts to make Palestinian security forces strong enough to end terror attacks on Israel.
Winding up his latest effort to push peacemaking forward, without any apparent concrete results, Powell also criticized Arafat for a statement the Palestinian leader made Saturday to his people urging them to "find whatever strength you have to terrorize your enemy."
"Mr. Arafat continues to take actions and make statements to make it exceptionally difficult to move forward" on peacemaking, Powell said at a news conference before returning to Washington from the World Economic Forum held at an isolated Dead Sea resort.
He said Arafat "refuses to allow consolidation of security forces" among the Palestinians, a key U.S. demand intended to curb terror attacks and motivate Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to push ahead with efforts to reach a settlement with the Palestinians.
"What I need from the Palestinians is for them to get themselves ready to exercise solid political control over Gaza when it's turned back to them and to put into place security forces that can do that," Powell said later in an interview taped with ABC for broadcast on the network's "This Week" show. "What they need to do is to wrest control of the security forces from Chairman Arafat. ... The Palestinian leaders can do it and the leaders of the Arab world can do it by saying to Chairman Arafat that your policies have not been successful, your leadership has not be successful in moving this process forward."
In a separate interview for the same ABC show, King Abdullah II of Jordan avoided a direct answer when asked whether Arafat was an obstacle to peace, but said: "There is this unfortunate competition between Palestinian political society, and that is weakening the Palestinian position. Until they can unify and come up with strategy that allows the international community to help them, then they will be in a very weak position. Arafat will have to decide how he is going to sort of implement himself in the future of Palestine."
On the broader Middle East tableau, Abdullah described U.S. military action in Iraq, with a goal to spur democracy throughout the region, as "the sideshow ..., a secondary issue" to the Palestinians' confrontation with Israel.
"You talk to the overwhelming majority of the Arab population. You ask them, 'What is the most important thing? Democracy? Freedom? Civil liberties?' And every single person will go back to you and say: 'The Israeli-Palestinian war,'" Abdullah said.
Powell also had some criticism for Israel at his news conference.
"We oppose the destruction of homes," said Powell. "We don't think that is productive. We know Israel has a right for self-defense, but the kind of actions that they're taking in Rafah with the destruction of Palestinian homes we oppose."
Powell met Saturday with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and urged him to seize the opportunity for dismantling Israeli settlements in Gaza and some on the West Bank under a proposal offered by Sharon.
Qureia was noncommittal in his public statements afterward, but Powell said the prime minister, on whom the Bush administration has pinned much of its hopes for a reversal in lagging peace efforts, had agreed to look at whatever refinements Sharon makes in his proposal to evacuate all soldiers and the 7,500 Jewish settlers from the coastal strip following its rejection by hard-liners in his own Likud party.
President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is due to meet in Berlin on Monday with Qureia as part of the renewed Bush administration effort to bring about Palestinian statehood sometime next year, a goal the president himself recently acknowledged was in danger of not being met.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher, standing beside Powell at a joint news conference, said he hoped the meeting with Rice "will be a step toward moving the process forward."
Powell, again endorsing Sharon's proposal, called it "a way to get us out of this circle" and said the Israeli people want to move ahead on coming to terms with the Palestinians.
On the touchy issue of U.S. soldiers mistreating Iraqi detainees at a prison in Baghdad, Muasher said "there was an uproar" among Arabs, while Powell said "we are doing everything we can to deal with the frustration in the Arab world."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks at a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Southern Shuneh on the Dead Sea, Jordan, Sunday.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, center, talks to reporters outside his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah Sunday.
Hmmmm. Who should I blame for allowing Arafat to continue to waste valuable oxygen?
Powell also criticized Arafat for a statement the Palestinian leader made Saturday to his people urging them to "find whatever strength you have to terrorize your enemy."Um, doesn't mean that Arafat is a terrorist? I'm not sure this light scolding by Powell will accomplish more than a moment's pout, if that.
So, Colin is finally calling the kettle black?
His diplomacy has apparently brought him to the point of using all other colors up and finally has come to black and has used it for lack of colors available.
Often the terrorists do not bother to take off their police uniforms when they attack Israel. Arafat is a block to peace because he is keeping the terrorists from being strong enough to shoot themselves?!
Nobody can be that stupid!Bowel is an embarassment, no wonder the Islamics think they have a chance to defeat America.
FINALLY!!
Powell finally gets a clue.
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