Powell Announces Aid for Palestinians, Asks for Further Israeli Withdrawal

(Says U.S. ready to "be more aggressive" in backing Palestinian state
if terror ends) (1110)
By Thomas Eichler
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States is sending tents and water
purification and disease control units to the Jenin Palestinian
refugee camp to assist persons displaced by the Israeli incursion into
the camp, says Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation" April 21, Powell said the
United States also is working with the international community to send
unexploded ordnance disposal teams into the camp. Powell said
Assistant Secretary of State William Burns visited the camp April 19
and sent back "a disturbing report about the human tragedies that have
taken place there, of people who were in desperate need."

Powell noted that the U.N. Security Council, responding to a U.S.
proposal, is sending a fact-finding team to Jenin, and said he is
pleased that Israel has agreed to the move.

Asked whether he was satisfied with what the Israeli government was
doing at that moment in the Palestinian areas, Powell said: "I'm not
completely satisfied. I would like to see the withdrawal continue
until there is no question about it, and I would ultimately like to
see those units back in their garrisons and not poised in the way they
are, and I would like to see the cities opened up so that we can start
to see normal life resume and so that there are no restrictions with
respect to the provision of humanitarian aid."

Powell referred to statements he made at a press conference April 17
in Jerusalem, outlining a three-part strategy for moving forward to
deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on the security, political
and humanitarian fronts. On the first, Powell said the need is to "get
the violence down, hopefully to zero, but at least down to the point
where people can start talking to one another again on security
cooperation, have the confidence to move forward."

On the political element, "We have to get into discussions and
negotiations early so that people can start to see that there is hope
out there, there is a future out there, there is a Palestinian state
waiting for them, if only they will move away from violence," he said.

The third, the "humanitarian, reconstruction, economic" element, is as
important as the other two, he said. "We will have a major challenge
in front of us to rebuild the Palestinian economy, to help the Israeli
economy get going again. It has suffered as well during this time of
crisis."

Powell said he is pleased that "so many of my colleagues within the
international community have spoken up about their willingness to
help, and Jim Wolfensohn of the World Bank has been especially
forthcoming in the role that the World Bank might play."

Asked about the role of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat,
Powell said "one of the most powerful things he [Arafat] could do is
to use his position of leadership within the Palestinian movement,
among the Palestinian people, to speak out against violence, to speak
out against incitement, to tell his people that the way to the state
that they want, the Palestinian state called Palestine, is through
peace and negotiations with Israel and with the help of the
international community.

"I told Chairman Arafat that the United States stands ready, as
always, to help, and to help even more, to be more aggressive in
seeking that outcome, but only if there is a clear, clear signal, and
clear action, on the part of the Palestinian leadership and the
Palestinian people that they're moving away from terror and violence."

Powell added: "I recognize that he is rather isolated in his current
circumstances, and we are trying to find a way to solve that, and it
has to be solved in a nonviolent way. But even in his constrained
circumstances, he has the ability to reach out and talk to leaders
within the Palestinian Authority and units within the Palestinian
Authority to begin security cooperation with Israel, to put down those
who are fomenting violence, and to go after those organizations that
are not only killing innocent Israeli citizens, but who are killing
the dream of a Palestinian state through such actions."

Interviewed on another program, NBC's "Meet the Press," Powell said he
does not have immediate plans to return to the Middle East, but said
"I expect I will be returning to the region in the not-too-distant
future."

Powell said of his recently concluded trip to the region that "I
didn't go over there expecting I would come back with peace at this
time, and it was a difficult mission, but I think we made some
progress."

Asked on another program, ABC's "This Week," about prospects for an
international conference on the Middle East, Powell said that is "one
way" to work towards a political solution to the conflict. "There is
no shortage at the moment of nations willing to serve as the host of
such a conference," he said, "but we are a long way from such a
decision. We have to consider, one, is it the right thing to do? Two,
who would the conveners be, who would attend? Lots of issues have to
be discussed. What's the agenda? Why are we doing it? And what's the
follow-on to a conference? Having a meeting, everybody comes together
and it goes successfully, is not enough. What's the process that we
begin by such a conference?

Appearing on a fourth program, "Fox News Sunday," Powell said "We all
have a common vision of a Palestinian state living side by side in
peace with a Jewish state, Israel. It is now the vision of the Arab
League; 22 nations came together and embraced Crown Prince Abdullah's
vision of 22 Arab states living together with Israel."

Powell said "There will still be those in the Palestinian movement who
want to destroy Israel. That is not going to happen. Israel is strong,
and Israel has a strong friend in the United States. But the
Palestinians can have a friend in the United States as well. We want
them to achieve what they want: a state. President Bush is the first
president who went before the United Nations and spoke its name:
Palestine. So we are there to help the Palestinian people, not only
with that goal of a state, but also in reconstructing their economy,
reconstructing their infrastructure and their society."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)