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Powell Agrees With Arafat on Need to Deploy UN Observers
US Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday agreed with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on the need to deploy UN observers in Palestinian territories to oversee the implementation of Mitchell report recommendations.
"When the confidence-building stage starts, according to the Mitchell report, there will be need to deploy U.N. observers to the flash spots to oversee the situation on the ground," Powell told reporters after his meeting with Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah Thursday afternoon.
However, he said he did not know how the observer mission will be formed.
"The provisions of the Mitchell report can not be separated," Powell said, reaffirming the commitment of the U.S. Administration to work for the implementation of the report.
He called for efforts to resume the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks on the basis of the U.N. Security Council resolutions 242, and 338.
"Both the Palestinian and Israeli sides should commit themselves to the implementation of the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission," Powell said, stressing the necessity of the confidence-building measures and resumption of the political talks.
He urged both sides to stop the incitement campaigns against each other.
Meanwhile, Arafat renewed the Palestinian demand on deploying U. N. observers as a prerequisite for implementing the Mitchell report. He also called for freezing all Jewish settlement activities.
Arafat reaffirmed the Palestinian National Authority's commitment to the Mitchell report and the ceasefire plan which was brokered by U.S. CIA chief George Tenet and went into effect on June 13.
After Arafat-Powell talks, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that Powell affirmed during the talks that no provision of the report can be renegotiated, including the provisions on total freeze of the Jewish settlement activities.
Powell asked the Palestinian side to wait for several days for the declaration of a timetable for the implementation of the Mitchell report, Erekat added.
Arafat, for his part, renewed the commitment of the Palestinian side to Tenet's security plan, including the provisions for the arrest of the Palestinians who plan anti-Israel operations, Erekat underscored.
Arafat is scheduled to meet Powell again after the latter's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he noted.
Sharon returned to Israel Thursday afternoon after his visits to the United States and Britain.
Powell arrived in Egypt Wednesday on the first leg of his Mideast tour in a bid to consolidate the fragile Palestinian- Israeli ceasefire. The tour will also take him to Jordan.
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