Powell criticised for peace mission failure
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has been criticised by Palestiniains ahead of his meeting with Yasser Arafat today.
Powell meets Arafat as his his Mideast peace mission today winds down. Palestinians have expressed their disappointment at Powell’s failure to influence Israel to withdraw from the West Bank.
A top Arafat adviser expressed disappointment ahead of the meeting that the secretary of state had not engineered a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.
‘‘The situation is very grave,’’ Saeb Erekat said. ‘‘I do not know if we have a Palestinian Authority anymore.’’
Israel ‘‘is deepening the occupation,’’ he said. ‘‘The situation is worse than it was seven days ago.’’
So far Powell has failed to get Israel to make a withdrawal from the West Bank, or won new assurances from Yasser Arafat to commit to a full ceasefire.
Powell is holding this second meeting with the Palestinian leader in Ramallah before flying home via Cairo, where he will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
He was upbeat about making further progress today.
‘‘I think we are making progress and are looking forward to making more progress in the next 24 hours,’’ Powell said.
But his trip has produced few results for him to take back to Washington.
In Bethlehem, heavy gunfire could be heard near the Church of the Nativity last night, as flares and thick grey smoke hung over the compound.
The Israeli army confirmed that shots were exchanged, but said its forces had not stormed the compound, where Palestinian gunmen have been sheltering for two weeks.
Earlier yesterday, Israeli forces moved into a West Bank town and three villages near Jerusalem, imposing curfews as part of high-security measures accompanying Israel’s Independence Day.
Palestinians condemned the new incursions, but Powell has tempered his public calls for an immediate and total withdrawal now Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said troops will pull out from all but Ramallah and Bethlehem within a week.
Israeli officials said the withdrawal would not stop their efforts to arrest Fuad Shobaki, whom they accused of overseeing attacks on Israel and the seized shipment of 50 tons of Iranian weapons to the Palestinians.
The officials said they also remained determined to arrest the plotters of the assassination last October of hard-line Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
Powell does leave the region with at least a rough outline for Mideast peace conference.
Sharon said the conference would probably be held in June somewhere in the United States.
The Israeli leader also appeared to drop his opposition to involving Arafat in the summit. Sharon said that who represents the Palestinians is ‘‘a secondary issue’’.
‘‘It is not important to me which of them will be here,’’ he said.
Sharon’s spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said a peace conference was not a certainty. But, ‘‘the Americans think this is very important,’’ he said.
Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and perhaps Morocco were possible participants, Sharon told Israel TV.
An alternative is to have the Arab League represent the Arabs and possibly invite the EU and Russia. The United States would be represented as well.
Powell had hoped for a ceasefire and an immediate Israeli military pull-back from Palestinian cities and villages as President George Bush has demanded more than once.
