Posted on 04/16/2002 11:33:39 AM PDT by The_Victor
Powell Hopes for Partial Cease-Fire
Tue Apr 16, 1:00 PM ET
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Tuesday he is making progress in talks with Israel and Palestinian leaders and that he hopes to work out some kind of cease-fire within 24 hours.
Powell said it probably would be something less than a formal cease-fire, but he did not spell out what might be in the offing.
He met Tuesday one-on-one for an hour with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), their third get-together since Friday. Powell plans to see Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) for a second time Wednesday at his battered Ramallah headquarters, where Israeli troops have him confined.
"I'm going to have a good discussion with the prime minister," Powell said during a photo-taking session before the Sharon meeting when he was asked to elaborate on any progress he was making toward a cease-fire.
Earlier, Powell said he would return to the United States after a stop Wednesday in Cairo, Egypt. He plans to meet there with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites), a key Arab moderate.
The focus of the talks is how to stop the fighting and security arrangements to maintain calm. Israeli officials said.
Israel wants assurances from the Palestinians they would assert control, but the Palestinians say the Israeli incursion has riddled their security apparatus, said the Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israel's response is that there are enough Palestinian security forces to get the job done, the officials said.
U.S. and Palestinian officials were holding "good conversations," Powell said before meeting with a group of Palestinian professionals.
"I think we are making progress and are looking forward to making more progress in the next 24 hours," he said.
However, Palestinian and U.S. officials failed to agree on a statement condemning suicide bombings and calling for an Israeli withdrawal from West Bank areas, said a senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The United States objected to a Palestinian addition "calling for an end to Israel's occupation, for the establishment of the state of Palestine in the June 4, 1967, borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital, and a just solution for the refugee problem, with the needed mechanism to guarantee the implementation within an agreed timeline." That plan also would have asked additional action by the U.N. Security Council.
In Washington, presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said Powell is exploring a number of avenues to create an environment in which political negotiations can begin. "He's hard at work and doing an excellent job at it," Fleischer said as White House officials were saying privately that Powell's reports to President Bush (news - web sites) had become slightly more optimistic.
Nearing the end of his peace mission, Powell would like to nail down at least one solid gain. But Sharon has vowed to keep Israeli troops in Ramallah indefinitely and Arafat is hedging on his commitment to curb violence until Israel pulls out.
Powell has said his priority is securing a cease-fire and restarting security talks, although he also would like to get the two sides back to negotiating political issues such as borders, the fate of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and creation of a Palestinian state.
"We will maintain close contact with both sides in the coming days," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday.
But that may be through senior U.S. officials, not Powell.
Bush, who hasn't spoken with Arafat, called Sharon on Monday.
In their 15-minute conversation, Sharon told Bush that Israeli troops would pull out of Jenin and Nablus within a week, Fleischer said. Sharon, in a CNN interview, said Israeli forces would remain indefinitely in Ramallah, where they surround Arafat's headquarters, and in Bethlehem until terrorists surrender.
Bush told Sharon that ending the siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was one of Powell's most urgent priorities, Fleischer said.
Powell, searching for new ideas, also is considering an international or regional conference aimed at stopping Middle East violence and restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
"It's a way to get the parties together and talking," Powell said.
Sharon suggested a conference to Powell at their meeting in Tel Aviv on Sunday, though Sharon objected to including Arafat.
A peace conference was rejected by the ruling party's newspaper in neighboring Syria as a "dirty maneuver." Al-Baath said Sharon's actions have "destroyed all possible chances to revive the pace process in the Middle East."
Hassan Abdel Rahman, the top Palestinian official in the United States, said Sharon should first stop his incursion into the West Bank. "Nothing can happen before that," he said in an interview from Washington.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, on CNN's "Larry King Live," noted Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinian people.
"Nobody can fire him and we cannot replace him. But what we can demand is that he will change his policies and behavior. This is a must," Peres said.
Powell said he did not broach the idea of who would attend a conference except that representatives of both sides would be there. He said of Arafat, "It doesn't necessarily require his presence to get started."
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi endorsed a conference, saying such a gathering must include the United States, the European Union (news - web sites) and the Arab League as well as Israel and the Palestinians.
French President Jacques Chirac expressed cautious optimism, saying a conference could be a "new road leading us in the right direction." But Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said the conference wouldn't make any sense if it excluded Arafat.
A British government official said Monday that Arafat would have to be included in Mideast peace talks if there were to be any hope of solving the present crisis.
Kinda like being partially pregnant.
In the past it has meant that Israel stops fighting and pulls back while Arabs murder civilians. It is the preferred formula of State Department Arabists and Euro weenies.
Yeah, he probably hopes that he can browbeat the Israelis into laying back and take it so that he can share another piece prize with Yazzer, the "peace partner".
Actually, I think your mixing up the newer policy of the "partial cease-fire" with the old policy of the "peace process."
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