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Powell Offers Blunt, Dim Assessment Of Israel-Palestinian Peace Chances
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 25 (News Agencies) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell offered an unusually blunt assessment of his talks on Sunday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, predicting it would be "some time" before peace talks resumed.
"It is going to be some time before they can get back to the negotiations, it seems to me ... they're still quite a bit apart," Powell told reporters en route to Kuwait.
Powell said his meetings with Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had gone well, but gave the distinct impression he had been disappointed by Arafat's tough stance.
He described the hawkish Sharon, a fellow retired general, as "very reflective, very thoughtful and very engaged on the issues" while saying his discussions with Arafat had been "solid, to the point" and "no holds barred."
"He held the positions that he has held all along, the conversation was brisk on a number of occasions," Powell said of Arafat to whom he delivered conditions Sharon has laid out for a resumption of the stalled talks.
Those include a public renunciation and condemnation of the violence that has wracked the region for the last five months and an end to the incitement of anti-Israeli attacks.
"I think he understands the situation but did I see somebody that I have never seen before? No," Powell said.
He added that he was unsure Arafat was exerting the appropriate amount of influence to curb the violence.
"The question is: is he exercising the authority he has? We don't know," Powell said.
By contrast, the secretary said that while both meetings left him concerned about the future, he had gotten the impression that Sharon was serious about returning to the peace table and anxious to help revive the collapsing Palestinian economy.
"I come away concerned about the region because of the level of violence but at the same time somewhat encouraged that the prime minister-elect understands the challenge that is before him," Powell said.
"What I heard in my conversations with [Sharon] is that he is going to do everything he can to reach out to the other side and get the violence down."
Before meeting Sharon, Washington had several times expressed displeasure with Israel's continued withholding of more than $50 million in tax revenue owed to the Palestinians, part of a series of economically crippling measures adopted by the Jewish state as leverage to end the violence.
Powell did call for Israel to lift "the siege" against the Palestinians as soon as possible, but Sharon on Sunday made no indication he was prepared to remit the withheld taxes on assuming office.
And Powell said he had not expected Sharon to do so right away, appearing to accept the argument that the money could not be released or the Palestinian economy bolstered unless the violence stopped or abated significantly.
"The violence must be reduced and, when the violence is reduced, I think he is anxious ... to get the economic activity moving forward," he said, adding that improvements to the Palestinian economy were essential to create the confidence needed to make peace.
"There has got to be a demonstration of reduced violence or we are not going to get out of the conundrum we find ourselves in," Powell said.
He added that he had described the status of peace prospects to Arafat as similar to standing outside a locked door at the starting point of an extremely long corridor.
"We are at the beginning of a new, long highway that is waiting for you, at the end is a negotiation for peace," Powell said he told Arafat, urging him and Sharon to decide how to unlock the door.
Arriving in Kuwait, Powell had tough words for Saddam Hussein as he joined celebrations to mark the emirate's liberation from Iraqi occupation a decade ago.
Powell told reporters on his plane from Amman that the Iraqi president was a "dictator" and that Iraq was "trapped in a prison of its own making."
"I never ever have underestimated the power of a dictator ... but we pretty much removed his stings," said the secretary, who was U.S. military chief during the 1991 Gulf War.
"We did exactly what [former president George] Bush, the elder, said: the aggression did not stand and Iraq is trapped in a prison of its own making," Powell said, referring to the expulsion of Iraqi forces from the oil-rich emirate.
Speaking to a local television crew at a welcoming ceremony at the airport, Powell said any new threats by Saddam were nothing but bluster, as the international community would stand by Kuwaitis.
"Kuwait is free, Kuwait has friends, Kuwait has allies," he said. "Saddam has nothing but rhetoric and shooting his mouth off ... You have strength and you have world opinion and so Kuwait will remain free."
Earlier on the plane, Powell said he looked forward to talks on Monday with Kuwaiti leaders on renewed U.S. efforts to contain Iraq, despite international condemnation last week after U.S. and British warplanes bombed Baghdad for the first time in two years.
"We had a marvelous and demanding shared experience, and in the 10 years that have passed, we have all stayed in touch and it will be good to see them," he said.
"It will be good to reflect on what we accomplished and remind everybody this was a guy [Saddam Hussein] who invaded a country that was not doing anything to him."
The general will - along with other Gulf war victors - attend a huge parade billed the "Popular National March" along the Kuwait City seafront on Monday.
Powell has already visited Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and Jordan on a whirlwind tour of the Middle East to bolster Arab support for a tough U.S. line on Iraq.
He is due to fly to Riyadh and Damascus on Monday afternoon.
Driving King Abdullah
car buff Powell took a brief break from his diplomatic duties while in Amman taking time off during a quick stop here to serve as a temporary chauffeur for Jordan's King Abdullah II.
After about 90 minutes of talks focusing on the prospects for Middle East peace and re-energizing U.N. sanctions on Iraq, Abdullah decided he would like to bid farewell to Powell at the airport, summoning a small fleet of powerful Mercedes Benz sedans for the task.
When the young, populist monarch moved to take the wheel of the lead car, U.S. officials said Powell mentioned jealously that he had never driven such a vehicle and Abdullah offered to let the secretary drive.
"They wouldn't let us go fast unfortunately," Powell told reporters later aboard his plane en route to Kuwait City, referring to U.S. and Jordanian security agents.
"Great car, the Mercedes Benz V-12," he added with a smile. "It's good to be the king."
Powell, who has told U.S. diplomats of his love for driving, joked that he had wanted to drive himself earlier Sunday when he visited the West Bank in a heavily armored motorcade on a visit to the Palestinian territories.
"I wanted to drive to Ramallah but they said 'no'," Powell said, grinning at the protectiveness of his security team.
Powell's visit to Ramallah, where he saw Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, went off smoothly, without incident although days of anti-U.S. protests that included the burning of his picture had raised concerns.
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