Shortly before departing to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday he would meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "if circumstances permit" and urged Arafat to call publicly for a halt to violence.
In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Powell said he would spend "whatever time and effort" is necessary on his mission to try to ease the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
While he hopes to bring about a cease-fire, Powell said he did not expect to leave the Middle East with a peace treaty in hand, adding, "I'm not even sure I'll have a cease-fire in hand."
Powell said he had talked with Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, just before the NBC interview and that while Sharon understood Washington's desire for Israel to halt its military raids in the West Bank, he did not offer a "specific time frame" for withdrawal.
Powell said Bush "does expect something to happen soon with respect to bringing this operation to some culminating point where you can start to see a movement in the other direction."
He added Sharon "understands that expectation perfectly," and that Sharon said he was trying "to expedite the operation to get it over as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, Bush's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said there was no mistaking the president's message to Sharon during their Saturday telephone call.
"While he does expect Israel to begin the withdrawal without delay, he understands that it can't be helter-skelter and chaotic. But he does expect this withdrawal to begin," she told CNN's "Late Edition." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
