April 11, 2002	Thursday	Muharram 27, 1423

MADRID, April 10: US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday it was important that he see Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during a Middle East peace mission this week but he had not yet arranged a meeting.

He said a suicide bombing in Israel which killed eight people on Wednesday had not endangered his work.

“My mission is not in the least in jeopardy,” said Powell, who expects to meet Israeli leaders on Friday.

“It is important for me to meet with Chairman Arafat,” Powell said at a news conference in Madrid after meeting European Union, UN and Russian officials to discuss the Middle East.

“He is the leader of the Palestinian people and I think the Palestinian people and the Arab leaders with whom I’ve met over the last several days believe he is the partner that Israel will have to deal with at some point — he and the other leaders of the Palestinian Authority.”

“The reality is that no other Palestinian leader, or for that matter, Arab leader is prepared to engage as a partner until Mr Arafat has had a chance to express his views to me and to others,” he said.

SECURITY NIGHTMARE: Edgy US officials admitted on Wednesday that Secretary of State Colin Powell will step into a security “nightmare” when he meets Yasser Arafat during his trip to the Israeli-occupied territories.

One Palestinian correspondent holed up together with Arafat said on Monday that Palestinian fighters were “bracing for a potential confrontation with the superior Israeli forces keeping Arafat cut off from the world.

“Each of us can drink a little water each day, but I have not managed to wash my face for 10 days,” Rashid Hilal said. “We have just one pastime: imagining the various possible scenarios for an Israeli attack.”—AFP