Powell
working toward truce with Israel, Palestine
By BARRY SCHWEID
Associated Press
JERUSALEM
Secretary of State Colin Powell is trying to expand Israels
withdrawal on the West Bank and persuade Yasser Arafat to commit
to some version of a cease-fire limited results as he concludes
a mission aimed at halting 18 months of escalating violence.
I
think we are making progress and are looking forward to making more
progress in the next 24 hours, Powell said Tuesday.
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KRT
CAMPUS
Israeli soldiers stand near their armored personnel carriers
for a moment of silence during a short ceremony for fallen
soldiers on Tuesday in the Jerusalem, Israel neighborhood
of Har Homa.
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But
Israeli forces moved into a West Bank town and three villages near
Jerusalem and imposed curfews as part of a high security alert timed
to Israels Independence Day.
Palestinians
condemned the new incursions. But Powell has tempered his public
calls for a total and quick military departure now that Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has announced a pullout from all but
Ramallah and Bethlehem within a week.
In
any event, Israeli officials said the withdrawal would not preclude
efforts to arrest Fuad Shobaki, whom they accused of overseeing
attacks on Israel and the abortive shipment of 50 tons of Iranian
weapons to the Palestinians.
And,
the officials said on condition of anonymity, they remained determined
to arrest the plotters of the assassination last October of Tourism
Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
Powell
will have a second and final session with the Palestinian leader
Arafat on Wednesday at his rocket-battered Ramallah headquarters,
where hes been confined by Israeli troops for nearly three
weeks.
In
his meeting with Arafat, and in a one-hour session Tuesday with
Sharon at the prime ministers home in midtown Jerusalem, Powell
also was taking up the international peace conference that is quickly
taking shape.
He
would like to wind up the trip with fresh assurances from Arafat
to reduce violence. But Powell is falling short of the formal cease-fire
he left Washington in search of 10 days ago.
Still,
the peace conference would implement Powells declared search
for an accelerated political process, one that President Bush and
Powell have said must produce a Palestinian state.
Bush
also had insisted on a quick withdrawal of Israeli forces, echoing
European and Arab demands.
Sharon
said the peace conference probably would be held in June in the
United States. A site has not been selected. A potential problem
is that Sharon wants to screen out Arafat but attend himself, even
though the tentative plan is to hold it at the foreign ministers
level.
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