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Powell Says "Starting To Come Together" For Mideast Truce
WASHINGTON, June 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday he believed the elements to cement a shaky Middle East truce were "starting to come together" despite new violence threatening the ceasefire.
There are "concrete pieces that are out there right now waiting to be connected," he told reporters after meeting Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher at the State Department.
"These pieces are starting to come together and it seemed appropriate to make a trip," said Powell, who heads to the region next week to press Israel and the Palestinians to take whatever steps necessary to return to the table.
Powell referred to the truce brokered last week by CIA chief George Tenet and the recommendations of the Mitchell commission, an international panel that called for the ceasefire followed by a cooling off period and then confidence-building measures before a resumption in peace talks.
"I hope to use those elements to keep the process moving forward," he said, adding that he was optimistic about his mission despite flare-ups of violence that have left 10 people dead since the truce was signed.
"I have seen some improvement in the situation with respect to security coordination," he said. "There has been some dropping the level of violence although it is nowhere near the level we hoped for."
Although his itinerary has not yet been finalized, Powell is expected to arrive in the region on Wednesday for talks in Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"It seemed an appropriate time for me to go over, take a look on the ground, speak to the leaders in the region and make an assessment of where we are with respect to the [Tenet] plan and at what point might we able to get started on the formal beginning of the Mitchell report recommendations," he said.
Israel's second television channel reported Thursday that Powell would call on Israelis and Palestinians to give a definitive written answer to the Mitchell report recommendations.
It said Powell is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on June 28th on the latter's return from Washington where he is due to meet U.S. President George W. Bush, and then with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Sharon's trip to Washington has been preceded by a reopened investigation into the former general's accountability for the Sabra and Shatilla Palestinian refugee camp massacres in 1982, an issue revived by a BBC program aired Sunday that looked at the investigation.
Recently, some survivors of the massacres brought war crimes allegations against Sharon; the suits are pending in a Belgian court.
But Powell said that the allegations would not affect Sharon's treatment on his visit to the United States next week, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.
Sharon "will be received as the elected prime minister of Israel and that's the capacity in which I speak with him almost every day," Powell said.
Maher applauded Bush's Wednesday decision to send Powell to the region and said Egypt looked forward to his mission.
"We are very encouraged by the fact that [Powell] is going to the region next week because his personal involvement and the involvement of the United States government is extremely important in helping to see this process through," Maher said.
The minister called for Powell to press the parties to put into place and solidify as quickly as possible both the military measures contained in the truce agreement and the political steps in the report by the Mitchell commission, which was led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell.
"We consider the two aspects - the political aspect and the military aspect - are linked," Maher said. "They have to be implemented as quickly as possible in order to ... bring the parties again to the negotiating table."
Powell agreed and said a critical component for bringing the two sides back to talks was the creation of a timetable identifying when the Mitchell recommendations would be put into place.
However, he said the creation of such a schedule was not a prerequisite for his trip to the region which will be preceded by a visit there beginning Friday by William Burns, the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs.
"At some point, a timetable will be necessary ... but it is not a condition of my trip," he said.
Meanwhile, violence continues to puncture the fragile ceasefire. Palestinian hospital sources reported that three Palestinians were wounded Thursday, one seriously, by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip. Six Palestinians were wounded Wednesday in the same area.
And Sharon said Thursday that that the Israeli army has a free hand to act, in an apparent warning to the Palestinians over the ongoing violence.
"The army has a free hand to take action against those who harm Israel's natural rights," Sharon told members of his Likud party in talks broadcast on Israeli television.
"We have to focus on the defense of Israeli citizens and on the security of drivers on our roads," he was meanwhile quoted as saying by state radio, referring to fatal shooting attacks on settlers by Palestinian gunmen. "I'm sure we'll do it."
Since Wednesday, some 850 Palestinians, 11 of whom were injured, have crossed into Egypt from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah checkpoint, an Egyptian official said Thursday from his side of the border.
"It's the largest number to have crossed through Rafah since it was re-opened last Thursday by the Israelis," the official said.
Some 150 Palestinians have headed the other way since Wednesday, he added.
The re-opening of the crossing was one of the measures decided by Israel to alleviate its blockade of Palestinian territory in the wake of the ceasefire.
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