Andrea Koppel previews Powell's trip to the Middle East

Andrea Koppel

CNN's Andrea Koppel previews U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's trip to the Middle East.

Q: What is the goal of Colin Powell's trip to the Middle East?

KOPPEL: His immediate goal is to try and shore up the shaky U.S.-brokered cease-fire which is now just about two weeks old, but is in real danger of collapse due to the violence that continues, albeit on a diminished level than before the truce. But Powell knows that Prime Minister Sharon is under a lot of pressure at home to retaliate against Palestinian acts of violence. Powell's mission, therefore, is to try and convince the Palestinians to rein in terrorists and do what they can to calm the mood of the Palestinian people, and to encourage the Israelis to take steps to ease the tension very quickly.

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Q: Where will he be visiting and which leaders will he meet during the trip?

KOPPEL: Powell is going to begin his trip in Alexandria, Egypt, where he will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. On their agenda are the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and Iraq. Then he will travel to Israel where he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian territories where he will meet with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Then Powell is expected to travel to Amman, Jordan, and U.S. officials are trying to arrange a meeting between Secretary Powell and King Abdullah of Jordan. Following his stop there, he is expected to travel to Paris, France, where he will meet with the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah.

Q: What is the reaction from Palestinian and Israeli leaders to the Powell trip?

KOPPEL: Within the Arab world, they are welcoming Powell's trip. Many Arab leaders have been urging the Bush administration to get actively involved at a more senior level. So the Egyptians, Jordanians and Palestinians are encouraged that the Bush administration is stepping up the degree to which it is getting involved in mediating a peace. On the Israeli side, they are also encouraged that Powell is coming, but are also skeptical that this cease-fire, which is already on shaky ground, will last much longer.

Q: Do you have any final thoughts?

KOPPEL: There is something I would like to explain. According to the Mitchell report on the Middle East, which was done under the leadership of former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, the international community has specific goals it wants to accomplish right now. There is this shaky cease-fire presently in effect. Secretary Powell hopes to try to convince the Israelis and Palestinians to move into the next phase that the Mitchell Commission laid out, and that is a "cooling-off" period. Obviously, over the last eight and a half months, there has been a tremendous amount of bloodshed, hundreds of deaths, and renewed hatred and suspicion on the part of both Israelis and the Palestinians for the other side. Ideally, this cooling-off period would give both sides an opportunity to step back from the violence and begin to let off steam, such that, after a period of weeks to be determined, they would then move on to confidence building measures, which are steps that either side would take to rebuild the trust that has been shattered over the last eight and half months.

The Palestinians, for example, are supposed to be arresting suspected terrorists. and the Israelis are supposed to stop building new settlements, and perhaps even what is called "natural growth" in existing settlements. From that point, the idea is to move back in the direction of the peace table. So Secretary Powell is hoping that with his trusted and respected reputation as a former commander in the Gulf War , he will be able to convince both sides to agree on a timetable for moving from a cease-fire into the cooling-off period, and thus into the confidence building measures.