Powell calls for understanding in Middle East
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said today that peacekeeping moves in the Middle East cannot be delayed indefinitely.
ut he said preliminary steps to peace cannot be made until violence between Israel and the Palestinians ends.
Powell met Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and then headed for the West Bank to confer with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
He told reporters outside Peres’s office in Jerusalem that he had his own ‘‘sense of timing’’ to move ahead with recommendations by a commission headed by former Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell.
Powell said he wanted to see ‘‘if we can come to a common understanding’’ between Israel and the Palestinians on what he calls a timeline.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whom Powell was due to see tonight in Jerusalem, has demanded a 10-day period of quiet to be followed by a six-week cooling off period recommended by the Mitchell commission.
Powell suggested that more needed to be done to lessen violence.
‘‘I am particularly anxious to see if we cannot build upon the somewhat lowered levels of violence we’ve seen in recent days and create a quiet period ... and give us the option of moving into the Mitchell Committee cooling off period,’’
Pwell said earlier today, after a meeting Israeli President Moshe Katsav.
Later, at a joint news conference with Peres, Powell said he wanted to ‘‘move quickly’’ but he also has said during his three-day trip that the timing was up to the two parties.
Peres, who is on the dovish side of the Israeli political spectrum in contrast to the hard-line prime minister, called on Arafat to issue a clear order to halt violence and incitement to violence.
‘‘I am aware of all the difficulties, but I don’t think the situation is hopeless,’’ Peres said.
‘‘It’s not an easy road or an automatic way. But I think we can reach it,’’ he said of his hopes for a Palestinian-Israeli accord.
Peres said it must be based on UN Security Council resolutions adopted after the Mideast wars of 1967 and 1973. These call for Israel to give up territory in exchange for peace with secure borders.
