U.S. President George Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell cautiously welcomed Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Qalqilya on Tuesday.
However, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "it's a start. As the president said last Thursday, all parties in the Middle East have responsibilities and the president expects all parties to step up to them."
Before the pullback took place, Powell said the Israeli move was "encouraging" but not enough." Let us hope that this is not a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but the beginning of a pullback," said Powell, speaking to reporters after meeting Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz.
Powell noted that US President George W. Bush had made increasingly strong public statements urging Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw the troops.
"The president believes strongly that a withdrawal needs to begin," Powell said. "We hope that this is the start of the pullback. We'll just see what happens in the days ahead but this is an encouraging sign. I am pleased that Prime Minister Sharon has made this decision and I hope it is the beginning of a full withdrawal."
Meanwhile, Sharon agreed to U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni's request to allow Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat meet with his advisors in his besieged headquarters in Ramallah.
Israel Radio reported Tuesday that Sharon had agreed to allow four senior Palestinian officials to meet with the Palestinian leader.
Zinni is working to persuade Arafat to accept the cease-fire proposal the ex-general prepared two weeks ago and which Israel accepted. Zinni said that Arafat had told him on Friday that he accepted the proposal in principle, but wanted to examine its details, and for that he needs his senior advisers.
According to Haaretz, while the Israeli prime minister acceded to Zinni's request regarding Arafat's aides, he turned down another request from the Americans - to pull the troops away from Arafat's compound and widen the ring of the siege beyond the rooms where the Palestinian leader and his associates are now held in the Ramallah compound. The Americans said they wanted the move before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrives. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
