U.s. Secretary of State Colin Powell traveled to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday morning to meet with Yasser Arafat at his destroyed headquarters.
Surrounded by U.S. security personnel armed with submachine guns and carrying papers under his arm, Powell entered the compound for the meeting.
Powell said nothing to reporters as he entered Arafat's headquarters, a structure heavily damaged by Israeli shelling and gunfire. A gaping hole was torn in the blackened exterior wall of his compound, which was marked by bullet tracks, AP reported.
Many buildings in the compound have been reduced to piles of rubble.
Powell was met by Saeb Erekat, a top Arafat aide.
Earlier, the US State Department said Powell would see the Palestinian leader Sunday morning after calling off talks for Saturday following a suicide bombing in Jerusalem claimed by a group linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.
"Secretary Powell will meet with Chairman Arafat tomorrow in Ramallah," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher announced several hours after the Palestinian leadership released its statement.
"The secretary will work with Chairman Arafat ... to help make these statements a reality with effective action to bring an end to terror and violence and an early resumption of a political process," Boucher said.
According to analysts, expectations for a breakthrough were low after a series of failed U.S. and international missions.
The Palestinians have said that they are not willing to take any steps until Israeli troops leave the areas they have invaded in the West Bank.
Powell's visit "must lead to a concrete result, at least to an Israeli pullback from Zone A territories (autonomous Palestinian land) that have been reoccupied and an end to the blockade around them," Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath told AFP.
A top Arafat aide, Hassan Abdel Rahman, said in Washington that Arafat wanted to cooperate with Powell, but also needed to hear from the Bush administration a condemnation of Israeli military's actions against Palestinian civilians.
US officials said Powell is likely to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Sunday after his visit with Arafat.
Powell came up empty-handed in talks with Sharon on Friday on a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory.
Meanwhile, a new Time/ CNN poll released late Friday said 60 percent of Americans believe Washington should cut off or reduce its three-billion dollars in aid to Israel if the Jewish state refuses to heed calls to withdraw from the West Bank. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
