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Powell Ends Mideast Tour Amid Growing Tension
AMMAN, June 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell left Jordan for France after discussing with Jordan's King Abdullah II Friday ways of consolidating a fragile truce between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as imposing new U.N. sanctions on Iraq.
Powell had flown in from Tel Aviv a day after announcing a seven-day test period to end violence following intense and separate talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
During talks, Jordan's Abdullah informed Powell that his country backs "the full implementation of the Mitchell report", a high ranking official told the French news agency AFP.
The Mitchell report calls for a six-week cooling-off period, followed by confidence-building measures, such as a freeze in Israeli settlement building, followed by an eventual return to the negotiating table.
But the King stressed, "there should be an Israeli commitment on the implementation of the report."
Abdullah also called for "immediate and concrete steps to end the sufferings of the Palestinian people and to lift the Israeli blockade, reopen crossings and end Jewish settlement-construction."
The monarch also stressed that "a mechanism of control was necessary to implement the Mitchell report's recommendations in order to secure the success of the current efforts" to consolidate the truce, the official said.
The official further criticized Israel for "dragging its feet so far".
Abdullah and Powell also discussed Iraq and a British-U.S. bid to secure U.N. Security Council backing for the so-called "smart sanctions" to replace sanctions imposed on Baghdad after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
The King reiterated Jordan's demand for a total lifting of sanctions on Iraq and for a direct dialogue between Baghdad and the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the occupied Palestinian territories suffered another territorial
breach under the so-called ceasefire as hospital sources said a 19-year-old Palestinian was in emergency surgery after being shot by Israeli troops as clashes erupted in the West Bank town of al-Khader, near Bethlehem.
The Israeli army denied reports Friday that one of its soldiers had been wounded in al-Khader, but said Palestinians had attacked a patrol in clashes between occupying Israeli troops and Palestinians.
An army statement said a bomb went off near the soldiers but that no one had been injured, while witnesses said an Israeli soldier was hurt when a petrol bomb was hurled at a jeep.
Local Palestinian television reported that the armed wing of Arafat's Fatah group, the Martyrs of Al-Aqsa, claimed the jeep attack.
Sources also said Israeli troops arrested six Israeli activists from the pacifist group Peace Now and detained two journalists and several members of the Red Crescent aid agency.
The clashes appeared less than 24 hours after Powell said there would have to be a seven day period of "total" calm before Israel and the Palestinians could move forward with an internationally backed peace plan.
Powell on Thursday had given U.S. backing to Palestinian demands for international observers to monitor any future Israeli-Palestinian steps toward a peace accord.
Israel strongly opposes such a mission and the United States in the past has demurred on the issue, refusing to take a public stance until the Jewish state agreed to at least consider it.
But Powell said he believed an observation team would be an appropriate method to ensure both Israel and the Palestinians complied with any agreement they might reach on the timing of confidence-building steps aimed at bringing the parties back to the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, earlier Thursday, Israeli police arrested the teenage son of Fatah's West Bank chief, Marwan Barghouti, public radio reported.
The lad spent the night in jail for throwing stones at armed Israeli troops.
Kassam Barghouti was arrested near the village of Surda and taken to jail the moment his identity was revealed, the radio said.
Kassam - released Friday - was arrested because Israel accuses his father of being one of the main people responsible for the Intifada, or uprising.
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