Powell urges security talks between Israel, Palestinians

Colin Powell

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With fighting in the West Bank drawing to a close, the Israelis and Palestinians need to make "slow but steady" progress toward resuming security, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday.

Now that the Israelis have withdrawn from many areas of the West Bank, the two sides are closer to that goal, Powell said.

"In every conversation I've ever had with [Israeli] Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon, we've talked about security, and we've also talked about the peace process," Powell said Sunday in an interview with CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer."

"He acknowledges the need for a Palestinian state" and accepts CIA Director George Tenet's work plan, which urges Israeli and Palestinian security organizations to reaffirm commitment to security, Powell said.

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Powell said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat also has shown a commitment to resume peace negotiations. And he pointed out that 22 Arab League nations have signed off on Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's vision for Middle East peace.

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The plan offers Israel security and "normal relations" in exchange for its withdrawal from occupied Arab territories, creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.

Powell said two obstacles remain to be resolved before security cooperation can resume -- the confinement of Arafat at his Ramallah compound and the standoff in Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity, where about 200 Palestinians are holed up. Israel said about 30 of the people inside the church are terrorists.

In Ramallah, Israel is seeking custody of five Palestinians inside the Arafat compound who are suspected of involvement in the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rachavam Ze'evi.

Powell said several groups are working to resolve the situation in Bethlehem.

"We hope that the two sides will begin talking with each other in a more focused way to find a solution," he said.

The secretary, who just returned from a 10-day mission to the Middle East, said the United States wants the situation there to return to normal as soon as possible.

"We want to see life start to return to normal in these towns and cities," he said. Once that occurs, he said, economic and physical reconstruction also can begin.

Of particular concern, Powell said, is the condition of the Jenin refugee camp, scene of fierce fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. The Israelis have withdrawn from the camp, and a U.N. team of observers plans to visit there to assess Palestinian allegations of a massacre.

Powell said that within the next two days, the United States will send some 800 family-size tents to the camp for people who are homeless, water purification equipment for 10,000 people and about 1,000 disease-prevention kits.

"And we're also working with friends and allies around the world to send in explosive ordnance, demolition experts. That's one of the problems there, booby traps and ordnance that has not gone off and is dangerous to civilians.

"So we're doing what we can to relieve suffering," he said.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, who visited the camp, called the destruction there "a human tragedy."