Powell Leaves Mideast with No Results

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 18, 2002

Powell Leaves Mideast with No Results

US Secretary of State Colin Powell left Cairo for home Wednesday evening, ending his 10-day Mideast mission. During his stay here, Powell met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and visiting Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher.

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US Secretary of State Colin Powell left Cairo for home Wednesday evening, ending his 10-day Mideast mission.

During his stay here, Powell met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and visiting Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher.

Powell visited Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian self-rule areas, Syria and Lebanon.

Arafat Calls for Urgent International Action

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday called for an "urgent international action" to end the worsening Middle East crisis, saying that the mediation launched by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell is to wrap up without results.

"No clarification is on the horizon one and a week after the beginning of the mission of Powell," Arafat deplored during an interview broadcast at TV 7, one of Tunisia's major public televisions.

He reaffirmed the necessity of "an urgent action at Arab and international level" facing the aggravating danger of the situation in the Palestinian occupied territories.

Arafat, besieged in his headquarters in West Bank city Ramallahby Israeli forces since December 3, said his being blocked is "a siege imposed on the Palestinian people."

He also denounced the aggression by Israeli army at Muslim and Catholic sites in Palestinian territories and condemned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a person of "bloodthirsty" character.

Mubarak Cancels Powell Meeting

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday had phone talks with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on the worsening situation in the occupied Palestinianlands after a scheduled face-to-face meeting was cancelled.

The phone talk dealt with the deteriorating conditions in the occupied territories and stressed the importance of an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian towns, the official MENA news agency said.

Powell was scheduled to meet Mubarak during his brief stopover in Cairo after he held talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for a second time in the besieged West Bank city of Ramallah earlier in the day.

But the meeting was cancelled after Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo described the Arafat-Powell meeting as "disastrous."

"The Palestinian demands for a complete and immediate Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank towns and refugee camps werenot met," Rabbo said.

But MENA did not say the reason of the cancellation of the planned meeting.

Death and Devastation

As diplomatic efforts appeared to yield no immediate hopes for peace, Israeli troops swept into a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem and two villages in the West Bank overnight, making arrests before ending the operation early Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the dangerous standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem - where hundreds of Palestinian civilians and gunmen have been holed up with clergymen and women - continued. Gunfire could be heard from the Manger Square area.

"One mistake from one of the both sides, it would be a problem," Father Amjad Sabara, a parish priest, said from inside the church. "It would be a massacre inside the church itself, and for this reason we are hoping that God will give the wisdom to the two leaderships that they will seek more for peace and for a peaceful solution."

Reporters have been barred from the scene

Meanwhile, international rights groups have been especially concerned about the situation in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin, which was the scene of heavy fighting earlier this month.

Red Cross teams and Israeli troops were searching through the rubble of destroyed homes for bodies of Palestinians killed during the offensive. Palestinians say an estimated 500 people, including civilians, were killed in Jenin, and have called for an investigation into what they called a "massacre." But Israeli military officials say the death toll is much lower.

Reporters who visited the camp said there was a stench from rotting bodies below the rubble and Red Cross officials said they were not in a position to come up with a death toll until rescue crews had combed through the rubble. But they warned that it would be slow and hard work.

And in Nablus, one of the most heavily populated West Bank cities, hospital records showed that 71 Palestinians had died since Israeli tanks and troops rumbled into the city on April 3.

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