WASHINGTON (voa) – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is on his way back to Washington after a 10-day mission to the Middle East that failed to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.
The White House says he will brief President Bush on his trip later Thursday.
Wednesday, Secretary Powell told reporters in Jerusalem that “ceasefire” is not a relevant term while Israel continues its military incursion into Palestinian areas. He said Israel must end the incursions, and that Palestinian leaders must act against terrorism.
Mr. Powell also said he takes Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his word that Israeli troops will withdraw from recently occupied West Bank Palestinian areas within “a week or so.”
A senior State Department official said Mr. Powell could return to the Middle East in two or three weeks to follow up on his mission. The official made the comment in Shannon, Ireland, where the secretary’s plane made a brief refuelling stop on its way back to the United States.
In a statement released after Mr. Powell’s departure, the Palestinian leadership accused Israel of blocking all peace opportunities. The Palestinians say Israel is solely to blame for Mr. Powell’s failure to achieve a pullout of Israeli troops from the West Bank. They also called on the U.N. Security Council to convene and condemn the Israeli operation.
President Bush says he believes Mr. Powell’s mission made progress toward Mideast peace. Speaking in the U.S. state of Virginia Wednesday, the president said the United States is confronting hatred and disputes that go back for generations — but said he will continue to work toward what he called a “vision of peace.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Powell met for a second time with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. He said he made it clear to Mr. Arafat that he must decide, as the rest of the world has decided, that terrorism must end. Speaking to reporters afterwards, an outraged Mr. Arafat appealed to the United States and the international community to break Israel’s siege of his headquarters. He asked “Is it acceptable that I cannot go outside from this door?”
