US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday agreed with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on the need for international observers to monitor future Israeli-Palestinian steps toward a peace accord.
"I think if we get into the confidence-building measures, there will be a need for monitors and observers to go to points of friction and make independent observations," Powell said at a press conference in Ramallah after meeting Arafat.
The Palestinian president said that he had stressed during the talks "the real need to provide monitoring for the implementation of the Mitchell report," the internationally backed blueprint for getting the two sides back to peace talks.
Arafat also repeated his call for an end to Israeli settlement-building, one of the thorniest issues dividing the two sides.
The US secretary of state also said he had outlined the need for a "calendar timeline so we don't get stuck" in trying to move forward with the Mitchell plan.
Under the plan, both sides must carry out confidence-building steps such as a freeze of Jewish settlement-building and a Palestinian crackdown on suspected terrorists after a ceasefire and cooling-off period have been completed.
Arafat pledged that the Palestinians would honor their commitments under the Mitchell plan.
"We will do all our best from now -- I say this in front of you -- to honor all our commitments. I'm sure our people will follow up what I am promising now," he told Powell in English in front of reporters.
PERES SETS CONDITIONS FOR MITCHELL IMPLEMENTATION
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres requested three things from Powell during their meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday morning, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Peres told Powell that Israel accepted the Mitchell Committee recommendations, but said three conditions must be met in order to move onto the next level:
· Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat must direct all his forces to cease violence against Israelis.
· Palestinian incitement against Israel must cease.
· Arafat must also arrest wanted terrorists.
SHARON PRESENTED PLAN TO BUSH
Israeli sources say Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has presented US President George Bush with his proposal for a small Palestinian state in "part" of the West Bank that would be forbidden to have an army.
Sharon reportedly made the proposal to Bush at their meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
The sources told Haaretz that Sharon’s map makes room for the establishment of “a small, but territorially-contiguous Palestinian state in part of the West Bank. The new state would enjoy economic cooperation with Israel, but would be subject to various security restrictions; for instance, it would be forbidden to maintain an army.”
Meanwhile, two chunks of the Occupied Territories that Sharon views as strategically important would remain under Israeli control: a wide strip in the Jordan Valley and a narrower strip on the western slopes of the Samarian hills, near the pre-1967 border of Israel. The former, Sharon told Bush, “would also help preserve Jordan's stability by separating it from the nascent Palestinian state.”
The sources declined to say whether Sharon spoke of evacuating isolated settlements as part of such an agreement. One source noted that the Mitchell Commission's report, which Israel has adopted, recommends that Israel consider evacuating certain settlements; but another said “it was too early to propose such concessions, given that negotiations had yet to begin.”
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that Sharon would be the one to decide if and when diplomatic talks should begin. Powell, who kicked off his visit to the region with a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said shortly before landing in Alexandria that although the violence appeared to have declined in recent days, Sharon had made it clear that he demanded an absolute cessation of “hostilities” before resuming talks.
Speaking at a press conference after the meeting with Mubarak, the US secretary of state added: "Nobody is claiming that the level of violence is down to a point where anybody could say it was either realistic or zero... But at the end of the day, it is Sharon who will make that judgment."
Sharon has said that he wants 10 days without violence before declaring the start of a six-week cooling-off period. The main purpose of Powell's visit is to try to speed up this process.
Powell meets Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Thursday hoping to build on the fragile ceasefire agreed two weeks ago without putting too much pressure on the two sides.
Powell will hold talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah, before meeting Sharon at his residence in the evening.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said his side would push hard to restart the peace process when it met with Powell, according to AFP.
"We have only one demand to submit to Powell, that is to establish a calendar defining the stages in the application of the (Mitchell) report," Erakat said.
"Sharon does not have the right to dictate to us his calendar nor his conditions. The United States, the European Union, the Arab World, the Palestinian Authority and Israel have said 'yes' to the report, and it is time to implement it," he said.
As Powell arrived in Israel, Israeli and Palestinian security officials resumed talks late Wednesday aimed at resolving outstanding questions about the ceasefire, a Palestinian security official told AFP.
The meeting in Tel Aviv, held with US representation, was the first between them since June 20. Resumption of security cooperation was one of the elements laid down in the accord.
Powell travels to Jordan to meet King Abdullah on Friday and will stop off in Paris on the way home to visit Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, who is often critical of US policies.
PERES DENIES HE WILL MEET ARAFAT IN LISBON
Peres said he is not planning to meet Arafat during the International Socialist Committee meeting this weekend in Portugal, according to The Jerusalem Post .
Peres added he didn’t foresee a possibility that such a meeting could take place, he told Israel Radio.
Peres was quoted earlier Thursday as saying he would not rule out talks with Arafat when the two men attend the meeting in Lisbon.
"The Socialist International meets once every two years, and this will be the case at the end of the week in Lisbon. I am honorary president of this important group, and I have agreed to take part in the meeting," Peres said on Israeli radio.
"Yasser Arafat has also agreed. We have not organized a meeting, but I do not rule one out."
Peres also recommended that people be removed from any Jewish settlements that have been expanded without government approval.
When asked about the visit to Israel by Powell, the foreign minister said "it is aimed primarily at calling on Yasser Arafat to make a 100 percent effort in the fight against terrorism."
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, CNN reports that Palestinians have killed over 112 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and over 458 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded, and over 520 killed.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
