POWELL CALLS FOR CRACKDOWN ON PALESTINIAN MILITANTS

Secretary of State Wants More Power for New Prime Minister

  Informe de Deb Riechmann en “The Washington Post” del 07.09.2003

The next Palestinian prime minister needs clear control over security forces to crack down on terrorist groups, or progress toward peace in the Middle East will stall, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday.

"That person has to have political authority and the determination to go after terrorism," Powell said. Otherwise, he said, the new Palestinian leader will be unable to restore life to the U.S.-developed peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, known as the road map.

"If that person does not make a solid commitment to follow the road map, go after terrorism and stop these terrorist attacks, then it's not clear that we'll be able to move forward," Powell said on ABC's "This Week."

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas submitted his resignation on Saturday after losing a power struggle with longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Abbas had rejected pressure from the United States and Israel, the Palestinians' putative partners in the peace process, to crack down on Hamas and other violent groups on grounds he lacked the firepower and wanted to avoid civil war.

The road map envisions two states, Israel and independent Palestine, existing as neighbors in peace.

Powell and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, made the rounds of Sunday's talk shows discussing Saturday's surprise developments. Both cautioned that the road map places responsibilities on both the Palestinians and Israelis to accomplish its ends.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Powell denounced Israel's policy of targeted assassination of suspected terror group leaders, such as Saturday's attack on the apartment of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. "We are always saying to our Israeli colleagues, 'You have to consider the long-term consequences of such actions, and are you creating more Hamas killers in the future by actions such as this?" Powell said.

He also said sending Arafat into exile from the Palestinian territories, as suggested Sunday by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, was not a good idea. because it would "put him on the world stage as opposed to the stage he is currently occupying."

He flatly rejected the idea of further dealings with Arafat.

Arafat's insistence that he retain authority over some security forces prevented Abbas from controlling militant members of groups such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Powell said.

"We did everything we could to support" Abbas, Powell said. "The major challenge we had, and he had, was that Hamas, a terrorist organization, would not stop its terrorist activities.

"And the Palestinian Legislative Council and Mr. Arafat and other authorities within the Palestinian community did not give Mr. Abbas the resources he needed in order to go after Hamas. We have to change that or else we will not find progress ahead of us," Powell said.

Powell said it was important for the Palestinian Legislative Council to give the next prime minister the political authority as well as the resources to combat terrorism.

Powell also said he was pleased with the European Union's decision over the weekend to declare all wings of Hamas a terrorist organization and freeze its assets. The EU previously had blacklisted only the group's military arm.

"They made a political decision over the weekend to consider all of Hamas a terrorist organization," Powell said.