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Powell-Arafat
Meeting A "Catastrophe": Palestinian Minister
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| Palestinian officials are frustrated with Powell’s failed mission |
DOHA,
April 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Talks between U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat Wednesday, April 17, were a "catastrophe,"
Palestinian information minister Yasser Abd Rabbo said, quoted by the
Qatari-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
"The
meeting was a catastrophe", Abd Rabbo said, according to
Al-Jazeera. "It ended with no concrete result," Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"There
is no intention to stage an Israeli withdrawal," the official
added. "Powell transmitted to the Palestinian side false promises
about a withdrawal."
On
another front, a meeting due Wednesday between Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak and Powell has been cancelled, Egyptian presidential
sources said.
The
sources said Powell would instead meet here the same day with Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan
Moasher, and possibly their Saudi counterpart Prince Saud Sl-Faisal.
Meanwhile,
chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, accused Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon of "torpedoing” Powell's week-long
mission in the region, due to end later Wednesday.
"It
is unfortunate that Sharon has not withdrawn (from reoccupied
Palestinian towns). Sharon is defiant and it is very unfortunate that
every effort by the secretary has been torpedoed by Sharon,"
Erakat said.
The
situation in the Palestinian territories is worse now than when Powell
started his mission a week ago, Erakat said Wednesday, AFP reported.
"Honestly,
the situation is worse today than it was seven days ago," said
Erakat, talking before Powell arrived for a second and final round of
talks with Arafat in his Ramallah base, besieged by the Israeli
occupation army.
He
said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had ignored U.S. President
George W. Bush's calls for an immediate withdrawal, and said he was
not sure the Palestinian Authority even existed as an administrative
body after the occupation of city after city in the West Bank.
"I
don't know if we have a Palestinian Authority any more. Everything of
our civil infrastructure and security infrastructure has been
destroyed," Erakat told reporters.
"I
heard President Bush speaking about an immediate (Israeli) withdrawal,
I heard him say to Sharon 'I mean what I say' and today, seven days
later, Sharon is deepening the occupation. Yesterday he made 12
incursions into our areas," he said.
"The
situation is very grave and deteriorating," warned Erakat, before
greeting Powell and escorting him inside for another round of talks
with Arafat.
Arafat
however told reporters at his besieged West Bank headquarters in
Ramallah that his two-hour session with Powell was "very warm,
very important". But he protested he was still a de facto
prisoner of the Israelis.
Arafat,
talking to Tunisian television from his office, expressed frustration
at U.S. progress so far.
"Powell
had spent more than one week in the region, a week and a half in the
region, but nothing has happened," he said. He urged swift action
to force Israel to withdraw.
"International
and Arab action is needed as quickly as possible because the situation
is highly dangerous," he said. Arafat also termed Israel’s
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "bloodthirsty."
Powell's
Middle East mission has "not yielded any result" because it
did not lead to an Israel withdrawal from occupied West Bank towns,
number two of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mahmud Abbas,
known as Abu Mazen, told AFP.
"We
expected a response on an Israeli pullout, but (Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel) Sharon closed all the doors, which means that the visit of Mr.
Powell did not yield any result.
"You
cannot talk about progress when there is no question of a
pullout" of Israeli forces from the territory occupied following
their March 29 invasion of the West Bank, Abbas said.
Israel's
occupation army unleashed a military offensive against Palestinian
towns and other strongholds on the West Bank on March 29 and it
has refused to withdraw despite public pleadings from the
international community and U.S. President George W. Bush.
Powell
arrived in Jerusalem on April 11 to try to ease the crisis, as
Sharon's forces stormed through the West Bank in what the Israeli
occupation government said was a search for Palestinian resistance
activists behind a series of retaliatory bombings.
The
Palestinians have accused Sharon of trying to destroy the autonomy
granted them under the 1993 Oslo accords and smash Arafat's
Palestinian Authority.
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