After failing to secure a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians, US Secretary of State Colin Powell ended his 10-day peace mission to the Middle East Wednesday by calling on both sides to act so the issue could be returned to the negotiating table.
"Cease-fire is not a relevant term at the moment," Powell told reporters in Jerusalem after a two-hour meeting with besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - a get-together that Palestinian sources described as "catastrophic."
Powell met with Palestinians, Israelis and leaders of other nations, making a final stop in Egypt, before leaving the region.
However, Powell said CIA chief George Tenet and US special envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni would return to the Mideast to work on peace initiatives.
Calls to Both Sides
Even as he again called upon Israel to end its current occupation of several West Bank towns and villages, Powell delivered a strong admonition to Arafat to crack down on terrorism.
"In my meetings with Chairman Arafat, I made it clear - and the Palestinian Authority can no longer equivocate - they must decide as the rest of the world has decided that terrorism must end," he told reporters at a Jerusalem hotel before his departure.
Despite Powell's failure to clinch a Mideast cease-fire deal, President Bush said the secretary of state had made progress toward Middle East peace.
"I want to thank Secretary Powell for his hard work at a difficult task. He returns home having made progress toward peace," Bush said in a speech to cadets at the Virginia Military Institute.
Bush called on Israel to continue its withdrawal from the West Bank territories and said Palestinians must act on Arafat's recent condemnation of suicide attacks.
Arafat: 'I Cannot Go Out the Door'
Speaking to reporters after meeting with Powell in Ramallah, a visibly angry Arafat voiced outrage over the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
"They are continuing their aggression against the Palestinian people," Arafat said in a darkened hallway of his destroyed headquarters. "I cannot go out the door."
One senior Palestinian official told reporters the situation was much worse now than it was before Powell came and senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of torpedoing Powell's emergency trip to the region.
Arafat also called on the United States and other nations to end the blockade around the compound, where he has been confined since March 29.
"I have to ask the Bush administration, the international community, is this acceptable that I cannot go out the door?" Arafat was quoted as saying. "Who can accept this?"
Mubarak Cancels Powell Meeting
Earlier this week, Powell said he believed he was making progress, but he refused to provide details about "what I'll be able to achieve or not be able to achieve."
On his way home to the United States today, Powell stopped in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where he met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.
Powell was to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, but he told reporters in Jerusalem the meeting was canceled because Mubarak was "indisposed," before adding that reporters should not "read anything into the cancelation."
Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab nations that have a peace treaty with the Jewish state.
Before leaving Jerusalem, Powell said he believed the Israeli incursion would end, but he had no timetable for a withdrawal.
"I came here not knowing how long the operation would go on," Powell said. "We had heard everything from a couple more weeks to a couple more months. I leave here able to say to the president, it wasn't immediate but it is now coming to an end."
Earlier this week, Sharon indicated he would ease the restrictions on Arafat to enable the Palestinian leader to participate in a regional conference, should it take place.
Death and Devastation
As diplomatic efforts appeared to yield no immediate hopes for peace, Israeli troops swept into a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem and two villages in the West Bank overnight, making arrests before ending the operation early Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the dangerous standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem - where hundreds of Palestinian civilians and gunmen have been holed up with clergymen and women - continued. Gunfire could be heard from the Manger Square area.
"One mistake from one of the both sides, it would be a problem," Father Amjad Sabara, a parish priest, said from inside the church. "It would be a massacre inside the church itself, and for this reason we are hoping that God will give the wisdom to the two leaderships that they will seek more for peace and for a peaceful solution."
Reporters have been barred from the scene.
Meanwhile, international rights groups have been especially concerned about the situation in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin, which was the scene of heavy fighting earlier this month.
Red Cross teams and Israeli troops were searching through the rubble of destroyed homes for bodies of Palestinians killed during the offensive. Palestinians say an estimated 500 people, including civilians, were killed in Jenin, and have called for an investigation into what they called a "massacre." But Israeli military officials say the death toll is much lower.
Reporters who visited the camp said there was a stench from rotting bodies below the rubble and Red Cross officials said they were not in a position to come up with a death toll until rescue crews had combed through the rubble. But they warned that it would be slow and hard work.
And in Nablus, one of the most heavily populated West Bank cities, hospital records showed that 71 Palestinians had died since Israeli tanks and troops rumbled into the city on April 3.
Man Freed in Synagogue Blast Probe
In other developments:
** German police released a man arrested in connection with an explosion at a synagogue in Tunisia earlier this month. Sixteen people, 10 of whom were German citizens, were killed in the blast. The man was released without charges, officials said
** Lebanon's most prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, said Powell's Middle East peace mission was providing political cover for Israel's military assault on the West Bank. Fadlallah's statement came amid fears that the current crisis would spread across Israel's volatile northern border with Lebanon.
** The Bush administration announced it would tie future aid to the Palestinians to their success in fighting terrorism. In a memorandum signed by the president, the administration agreed to let the Palestine Liberation Organization maintain its offices in Washington.
** The White House announced that Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah will visit President Bush at his Texas ranch on April 25, amid questions about the Saudis' commitment to fighting terrorism. Saudi officials have defended the legitimacy of Palestinian suicide bombers that Bush has condemned as terrorists.
(China Daily April 18, 2002)
