James
Hider
JERUSALEM, April 11 (AFP) -
US Secretary of State Colin Powell was heading to Israel on Thursday to try to
stop the Middle East bloodshed but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he
was in no mood for pressure from Washington.
The stage was set for a test of wills after Sharon coolly dismissed US calls to
end his offensive on the West Bank, where the army rolled into two more
Palestinian towns overnight and was still occupying most others.
But Powell is coming armed with a strong international mandate, as well as Washington's desire not to see the new allegiances made with the Arab world since September 11 derailed by Israel's all-out offensive.
"It's our right to defend our citizens, and there should be no pressure put on us not to do that," Sharon said after a suicide bomber killed four soldiers and four police officers on an Israeli bus on Wednesday.
"I hope our great friend the United States understands that this is a war of survival for us," he said.
Powell said it was "important" to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, pinned down by Israeli troops in his West Bank offices since the offensive was launched March 29 after another suicide attack killed 27 Israelis.
How to deal with the besieged Arafat will be a central question of Powell's visit. Powell said in Madrid on Wednesday that Arab leaders had told him he must meet with the Palestinian leader.
Sharon said the meeting would be a "tragic mistake." Israeli spokesman Dore Gold told CNN on Wednesday that Arafat was a "flat tire" who no longer had any role to play.
Earlier in Powell's diplomatic tour, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz said US credibility and its interests in the Arab world were at stake over Israel's fierce Palestinian campaign.
Later Thursday, Powell was heading first to Jordan, one of only three Arab nations to have ties with Israel. King Abdullah II said earlier this week those ties were in danger and that a Powell-Arafat meeting was a "red line" issue.
On the ground, the Israeli army said it had pulled out of 24 villages overnight, but the withdrawal seemed no more than a token gesture as forces were still clamped down in and around most of the major Palestinian towns.
Reports of civilian deaths, wanton destruction and a blockade on Palestinian ambulances that has left the wounded dying in the corpse-littered streets of the West Bank have exposed Israel to international condemnation.
Israel also rejected a Vatican call to lift a week-old siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, one of Christianity's holiest sites, where Palestinian fighters are holed up.
Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said 500 Palestinians had been killed in the offensive. The Israelis say they have lost nearly 30 soldiers, including 15 in the biggest one-day army loss in 18 months of violence.
"My mission is not the least in jeopardy," Powell said after a diplomatic "quartet" endorsed the US push to get the two sides to get a ceasefire under way and find their way back to peace negotiations.
A joint statement from Powell, UN head Kofi Annan, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Foreign Minister Josep Pique of Spain, which holds the revolving EU presidency, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov called Wednesday for an "immediate" Israeli withdrawal.
It also called for an end to Palestinian attacks on Israel.
Sharon's popularity ratings were plummeting amid a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, but his stock has soared since launching the campaign, aimed at crushing what Israel says is a "terrorist infrastructure."
His newfound political strength at home brought hardline parties back into his unity government earlier this week, and sidelined dovish Foreign Minister Shimon Peres from a top decision-making mini-cabinet.
"The Americans are our friends, and between friends one does not dictate, one discusses," said Yitzhal Levy, the new minister without portfolio from the National Religious Party, which represents Jewish settlers and who joined the government on Tuesday.
"We are going to tell the American secretary of state that our military offensive must be completed," he told public radio.
Powell is also trying to avoid a descent into region-wide conflict amid growing numbers of cross-border attacks on Israel from Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, who are backed by Syria and Iran.
Powell said the United States had sent messages to Damascus and Tehran urging them to halt the attacks.
The
Washington Post reported that Vice President Dick Cheney had called Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad to voice the concerns, saying the situation on the
Israeli-Lebanese border could spiral out of control.
Sumber :
HarakahDaily
http://www.harakahdaily.net