Powell: Arafat still has 'legitimate role'

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested Tuesday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat -- who remains bottled up in his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah -- can leave on "a one-way ticket."

The Israeli military intensified its attack Tuesday on Palestinian security headquarters in another part of Ramallah in a campaign to dismantle what it calls the Palestinian "terror infrastructure."

CNN'S Paula Zahn spoke Tuesday to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell about the situation.

ZAHN: Will you be traveling to the region?

MORE STORIES Sharon proposes 'one-way ticket' exile for Arafat

POWELL: The process was producing results up until last week. As a result of the United States' efforts, both at the level of the president, the vice president and myself and my colleagues, we had helped the Arab [leaders] shape a summit last week that endorsed Crown Prince Abdullah's vision of peace and all of the Arab nations recognizing Israel and having normal relations.

We had succeeded in putting together a U.N. resolution two weeks ago that called for the creation of a Palestinian state and a cease-fire. We had succeeded through our efforts with Prime Minister Sharon to encourage him to set aside his requirement for seven days of quiet. We sent the vice president to the region, and he showed a willingness to return to the region to meet with Chairman Arafat if some conditions were met.

And then, because both sides indicated they were ready to get started again, we sent U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni to the region, ready to start the Tenet work plan, which is the work plan that allows both sides to take steps that will lead to a cease-fire, and then rapidly through that cease-fire to the Mitchell process, which rapidly gets us into a political process in negotiations.

All of those things were entrained. ... And then, it all came apart last week, when we had the Passover massacre and 22 Israelis were killed in a suicide bomb [in Netanya]. Suicide bombs that are going off at a rate of one a day, these actions perpetrated by terrorists, who do not want to see Zinni succeed, do not want to see the Mitchell plan or the Tenet work plan succeed, destroying the vision of the Palestinian people and killing innocent Israelis.

I am prepared to go anywhere, anytime when it serves a useful purpose, but I can assure you that I am deeply engaged every day for hours, as are my colleagues in the Bush administration, [including] the president.

ZAHN: Secretary Powell, do you think it was helpful that Sharon offered, once again, Arafat exile? Is that going to move the two sides any closer to the peace table?

POWELL: Oh, I don't think it will have any effect one way or the other. Chairman Arafat is head of the Palestinian Authority, and he is recognized -- whether you approve of it or not -- as the leader of the Palestinian people. And he will be the leader of the Palestinian people whether he is sitting in Ramallah or whether he is sitting in some exile location elsewhere in the Middle East or somewhere in Europe. He will still have that role.

So it seems to me let's deal with him where he is and let's continue to apply pressure to him and other leaders of the Palestinian people to get into the Tenet work plan.

In due course, the Israel Defense Forces will finish the military actions they have under way. They are trying to uproot terrorist infrastructure, seize weapons, things of that nature. That will come to an end. They have no intention of staying in those occupied areas. It's not something over time.

And when they withdraw, we will find that we are going to need a political process to move forward and that process is there waiting. It is the Tenet work plan. It is the Mitchell peace process, which gives us a political solution or a route to a political solution, and the United States will be engaged. Zinni will be engaged. I will be engaged. And when it is useful for people to travel, such as the vice president did two weeks ago, we will travel.

ZAHN: I know the president has been loath to call Yasser Arafat a terrorist because he has said he has signed onto the peace process. But how many more days of these kinds of activities, suicide bombings, can go on before you will declare him a terrorist?

POWELL: Well, these are terrorist activities, and we condemn them. There is no question what they are. They are killing innocent civilians.

But Chairman Arafat still has a legitimate role within the Palestinian movement, and we think at this point, it is best to deal with him in that role and see if we can move the process forward rather than to designate him as such.