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Speculation that Powell may quit caps bad week for Bush cabinet Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, is becoming so frustrated at being undermined by the White House that he may stand down after the mid-term elections, according to some American diplomats. The damaging speculation sweeping Gen Powell's Foggy Bottom headquarters has been dismissed as unfounded by senior State Department sources, but it caps a very bad week for President George W Bush's cabinet.
John Ashcroft, the attorney-general, was reprimanded for his announcement of the arrest of an alleged "dirty bomber". Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defence, was forced to make an embarrassing retreat over claims of al-Qa'eda activity in Kashmir. But the biggest problem has been the simmering internal dispute over Middle East policy, which burst into the open when Gen Powell contradicted Mr Bush and Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, appeared dismissive of the secretary of state. Gen Powell, who led US forces to victory in the Gulf war, is a towering figure in American politics. His domestic approval ratings top even those of Mr Bush. The Foreign Office and continental diplomats view him as the "moderate" and pragmatic face of a unilateralist Bush administration. "It's fair to say that Powell is the one we can do business with," said one British official. His premature departure would be seen as disastrous by the White House, not least because he could become a powerful focus of discontent if he were outside the administration. The tensions between Gen Powell and senior figures such as Mr Rumsfeld have been exacerbated by the White House contradicting the State Department on key foreign policy issues. Officials at the Pentagon privately accuse Gen Powell of a tendency to "freelance" and consider himself the most important figure in the administration. The trouble began on Monday when Mr Bush gave unequivocal backing to Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, and appeared to rubbish Gen Powell's proposed ministerial conference on the Middle East. "It totally undercut what we were trying to do and was very damaging," said a State Department source. "We have spent the rest of the week trying to reassure Arab nations that the president was misinterpreted." There was also considerable State Department anger directed towards Mr Fleischer. On Wednesday, Mr Fleischer answered a question about whether Mr Bush supported Gen Powell's stance on a provisional Palestinian state by saying the president was "listening to a variety of people who have some thoughts to share". He added: "The secretary [Mr Powell] from time to time will reflect on the advice that he gets, and do so publicly. Which is his prerogative, of course." Mr Bush is expected to announce next week that he is in favour of establishing a timetable for an interim Palestinian state. But a titanic battle is going on within the administration, with Mr Rumsfeld's allies saying Mr Sharon should be given a free hand. This appears to be Mr Bush's instinct but, as a president with limited foreign policy experience, he can tend to be pushed one way and then the other by competing advisers. Mr Rumsfeld, who is described by his enemies within the administration as abrasive and arrogant, has annoyed the State Department with his "Rummygrams" - notes that question Gen Powell's policies or offer unsolicited advice. One recent note from Mr Rumsfeld cited a newspaper article suggesting that Gen Powell's officials favoured lifting sanctions against Libya. "Is this true?" he asked. The Pentagon chief has been overhead correcting Mr Powell's pronunciation of Kabul - the stress should be on the second syllable, he insisted - and poking fun at him for describing Afghans as "Afghanis". Officials dismiss this as nothing more than jocular banter and it is true that there seems to be no personal animus between the two men. But this means that the dispute is ideological - which could be more damaging to the Bush administration in the long term. Since September 11, Mr Bush has tended to tilt towards conservative hawks such as Mr Rumsfeld on important issues such as withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and targeting Iraq. "He is intensely loyal to the president but there may well come a point when Gen Powell will wonder whether it is worth being secretary of state if he cannot shape American foreign policy," said the State Department official. "After all, he can earn millions of dollars a year on the lecture circuit and still spend three times as much time with his wife."
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