U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the American decision to abandon Yasser Arafat and call for a new Palestinian leadership was made "reluctantly" and only after giving him numerous chances to renounce “terrorism” and implement reforms.
"What I said at that time was that Mr. Arafat had been anointed, but what we're saying this time, and what we have come to the conclusion on, is that he is not giving the Palestinian people, and his associates along with him are not giving the Palestinian people, the kind of leadership that they deserve, that they need really to move forward and find peace," Powell said.
"And it was reluctantly that we came to this conclusion, but it was the only conclusion we could come to," he said in an interview with National Public Radio.
Speaking to the New York Times, Powell disclosed President George W. Bush’s anticipated public demand that Arafat be replaced began in private some ten weeks ago in the Palestinian leader’s besieged headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, with rough talk coming from him.
"I told him the direction in which they were moving had to change in a very fundamental and strategic way, and we had to see that if he wanted the United States to be a partner in this moving forward," Secretary Powell said in an interview published Tuesday. "To be blunt, we haven't seen enough of that."
"I'm very pleased," Powell said of Bush's long awaited announcement. "I've been working with my colleagues on this almost nonstop."
Powell's remarks shed some light on how talks with Israel and Arab and European allies, continuing waves of suicide bombings and Israeli reprisals, and months of intense internal debate finally led the US President and all of his top national security advisers to agree - Arafat would have to go.
Powell said of the new approach, "It really captured not only our disappointment with the current leadership, but expressions of disappointment and regret we've heard from Arab leaders, as well as within the Palestinian community."
In return for a change in Palestinian leadership and a crackdown on “terror,” Powell added, Bush has committed his personal and official prestige to establishing a Palestinian state within a timeframe of three years.
"Toughness is like a windshield wiper," he said. "It can swing from one side to the other. If they do what is necessary, then obligations will fall on the other side, and I am quite confident the president will expect all parties - the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Israelis - to meet their obligations."
Powell further said that he expected to travel to the Middle East region for consultations soon, though not immediately, and that a planned ministerial conference on Middle East peace "has to wait, I think," in wake of ongoing suicide bombings and Israeli occupation of several towns on the West Bank.
"It's hard to conceive of circumstances in which we should be having a meeting in the next few weeks," Powell said. "But the president still felt it was important to put out this vision and way forward."
Powell further acknowledged that Bush had "some tough medicine in the speech, especially in the first part," in which he talked about the Palestinian leadership.
He emphasized that the speech also put demands on Israel, stating, "You'll also see some serious obligations that are expected from Israel, including an end to the occupation that began in 1967," through negotiation on the basis of two United Nations resolutions, 242 and 338. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
